Category Manager

St. Louis, MO, United States

About Us

Ameren is a leader in the energy industry, and our transformation toward more clean, renewable energy is also transforming other industries and infrastructure in our communities. As a regional company serving local customers, we not only serve our communities, we're a part of them. This isn't just a job. At Ameren, we invest in you, so you can power the quality of life you want.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is one of the core values that guides us in everything we do. We are committed to building a skilled and diverse workforce that brings diverse perspectives to every area of our business.

Our benefits include:

Medical coverage on date of hire

100% employer paid cash balance pension plan

401(k) with company match fully vested on date of hire

Minimum of 15 days paid vacation and 12 paid holidays

Paid parentalleave and family caregiver leave

About Ameren Services (B&CS)

Ameren Services provides administrative support and services to Ameren Corporation and its operating companies, subsidiaries and affiliates. Ameren Services includes a wide range of skill sets and roles, from finance and legal experts to digital and cyber specialists, plus those charged with ensuring environmental compliance and operational safety. Together, we help execute a strategy that enables Ameren to deliver superior long-term value to customers, shareholders and the environment.

Category Manager (Construction/Engineering Services)

About The Position

The Category Manager is responsible for the development and implementation of Ameren-wide sourcing strategies for assigned categories of approximate $2.5 Billion of annual sourceable spend to leverage the supply base, ensure continuity of supply, maximize cost savings/value realization, and support the achievement of Ameren's business strategy in a proactive manner by truly partnering with the business stakeholders as well as the vendors.

Key responsibilities include :

* Represent the Procurement organization to the broader Ameren businesses and implement strategies to strategically source related spend

* Utilize the sourcing process to develop, implement and manage proposal activities; lead negotiation and completion of contracts with suppliers to maximize benefits across Ameren.

* Analyze and leverage spend across all Ameren business segments. Segment spend based on category and work with stakeholders to define current and future business needs.

* Ensure assigned category(ies) are procured in a manner which mitigates risk and provides the highest overall total value to Ameren through:

o Supplier assessments and rationalization

o Diverse spend

o Negotiation strategy and execution to drive lowest Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

o Make vs. buy analyses

o Should cost models

o Cycle time improvements

o Security and continuity of reliable supply

o Continuous improvement

* Internal Stakeholder Management:

o Build and maintain strong relationships with team members in Ameren's sourcing organization

o Develop and maintain a strong network and foster collaboration with key internal stakeholders and suppliers to gain input into demand planning and forecasting, assist in strategy development, advocate the use of the negotiated contracts and influence strategy implementation.

o Balance commercial and contractual complexities with stakeholders, through influencing change (without authority), driving enterprise consistency and delivering value with internal clients and external stakeholders, e.g. manage stakeholder expectations, operational cultures and individual business requirement, establish and adjust priorities, manage supplier dispute resolution process

o Leads cross-functional teams consisting of technical SMEs, operations SCM personnel, Legal and other stakeholders, as required, in the development and implementation of sourcing strategies

* Market Intelligence (MI) & Cost Modelling:

o maintain company-wide demand profiles and external supply and demand MI information;

o interpret MI to drive category strategies and provide direction to stakeholders (i.e. raising changes in market conditions which could have an impact to cost or schedule);

o understand the marketplace for assigned category(ies), including industry structure and new and non-traditional suppliers;

o build cost models, identifying value and cost drivers, to drive for better understanding of costs and results during supplier negotiations.

* Development and implementation of category strategies:

o for optimizing and leveraging category management processes, policies and tools with the potential for significant corporate financial impact.

o for long-term strategy development and implementation of a complex categories within the materials and/or equipment portfolio, to achieve lower total cost of ownership and higher value for Ameren.

o for the development and implementation of complex category strategies that mitigate risk and deliver competitive advantage for Ameren

o understand, monitor, and be proactive to current category market conditions/trends, developing technologies, supply chain capacity/capability, product knowledge and supply/demand challenges

o apply a broad and deep subject matter expertise in category management, market dynamics, and economic and industry trends impacting Ameren to support the development of appropriate category strategies;

o lead cross-functional teams to build comprehensive category strategies utilizing market intelligence, demand management, sustainability, supplier diversity and total cost of ownership, with follow through metrics as required to assure performance, supply continuity and manage risk;

o execute sourcing strategies, from proposal development and solicitation, to contract negotiation, to recommending solutions and contract execution;

o partner with suppliers to conduct cost assessments with the goal of reducing costs and identifying improvements drive contract utilization with effective implementation plans, metrics and reporting.

Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or University required, preferably in Finance, Business, Economics, Engineering or related field. MBA, other related graduate degree, or Doctorate preferred. Seven or more years of progressively responsible and related experience in the SCM field, (i.e., category management, strategic sourcing, purchasing), consulting, cost accounting, or finance required. Candidates with an advanced degree or Doctorate will be considered with five or more years of experience. Supply Chain Management Professional (SCMP) / Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM) designation or equivalent preferred.

In addition to the above qualifications, the successful candidate will demonstrate:

Superior communication (oral and written), interpersonal, and presentation skills, with strong influencing and persuasive talents. Demonstrated ability to be innovative, take initiative, lead and manage change. Experience negotiating substantially large and complex commercial agreements. Ability to monitor and manage supplier relationships and performance without supervision. Must be a proven expert in category planning, development & execution, as well as ability to achieve tangible results in competitive and non-competitive supplier negotiations both directly and as a coach to others. Demonstrated ability to navigate through the strategic sourcing process required. Strong negotiation and project management skills required. Must have thorough understanding of purchasing, accounts payable, work management and financial systems applications. Thorough understanding of Ameren's systems applications (e.g., Oracle Purchasing, accounts payable, etc.) preferred. Proven ability to achieve results while effectively managing the associated change and to measure, analyze, (e.g., TCO, NPV, cost price analysis) and understand complex business issues required. Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite required.

Additional Information

Ameren's selection process includes a series of interviews and may include candidate testing and/or an individual aptitude or skill-based assessment. Specific details will be provided to qualified candidates.

If end date is listed, the posting will come down at 12:00 am on that date:

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, genetic information, military service or status, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other class, trait, or status protected by law.

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