Sr. Category Manager - Freight

Overview

Responsible for coordinating all activities of suppliers including vendor selection, contract negotiations management, supplier service level agreement (SLA) performance, cost reduction process improvement in targeted logistics activities and PLSI activities/programs.  Tasks include understanding contract terms, managing rebates, and driving collaborative relationship with assigned transportation vendors.

The successful candidate will be responsible for selection expansion including identifying potential vendors and enhanced SLA opportunities, building direct relationships with key vendors, negotiating contracts, and terms & conditions. Managing vendor setup and integration within Patterson Companies, Inc. Working with internal PLSI, Patterson Business Unit (PBU), corporate human resource, risk, regulatory, and IT Services teams to build comprehensive selection process, setting rates, and developing collaborative SLA alignment. The candidate should have experience developing and analyzing current performance trends and in costs and SLA’s. While building strong internal business unit relationships, that support driving significant top and bottom line results, risk management and regulatory compliance.

Individual must be comfortable managing multiple responsibilities within a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

·       Possess strong analytical acumen and be comfortable drawing metric-based conclusions by managing an extensive amount of data.

·       Ownership for multiple transportation vendor relationships: contract negotiations, setting metrics, conducting regular reviews, and ensuring vendors continue to provide value.

·       Develop additional transportation vendor resources in assigned category to obtain appropriate assets necessary to meet internal SLA PBU needs. This includes management of internal workflow process to ensure seamless and timely implementation of projects and adherence to all deadlines.

·       Serve as transportation vendor liaison; establishing and maintaining contact with key internal functional PLSI/PBU team members and external transportation vendor team members to those contacts for questions and processes outside of the scope of transportation.

·       Lead new transportation vendor onboarding process by engaging legal, compliance, finance, business and technology teams to ensure MNDAs, MSAs, and SOW are completed on time to support requirements.

·       Regularly and proactively review interactions with transportation vendors to ensure adherence to contractual obligations.

·       Collaborate with the strategic Patterson Business Unit team to identify new SLA objectives and new transportation services available.  Assist with process improvement projects to streamline existing approaches to meeting and exceeding customer experience expectations.

·       Work with the Customer Experience teams to identify sources of new metrics and best practices to manage data; driving increased organizational/vendor knowledge of our impact to meeting and exceeding our customers’ expectations.

·       Communicate successes and failures and develop recommendations for future process improvement opportunities.

·       Effective leader and communicator in working with Patterson PLSI/PBU team internal groups such as field and corporate sales team, category management, marketing, finance, operations, and supply chain.

·       Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications

• B.A. or B.S. degree in business, supply chain, procurement, finance or equivalent experience; MBA preferred
• 7+ years of experience in Strategic Supplier Relationship Management, Supplier Performance Management or Third-Party Risk Management with a minimum of 3-5 years of freight experience required, and parcel industry experience preferred.
• Interpersonal: ability to lead and influence execute level stakeholders
• Thought Leadership: determination to drive breakthrough thinking and continuous improvement; sets a personal example

Preferred qualifications

• Data Base development and management
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
• Experience in evaluating, developing and implementing vendor performance management solution utilizing data driven analytics
• Experience working within cross-functional teams
• Ability to think strategically and operationally/tactically
• Ability to flourish and influence others in an environment of fast growth and ambiguity