Local Category Buyer

Local Category Buyer
- Procurement
- Ipoh
- Full-time
- Malaysia

This role is being recruited right now to build a world class strategic sourcing function in the APAC region. This is a unique opportunity for an open minded, creative and entrepreneurial professional that is energised by building the job from scratch. The pace of change is high, the expectation for results is high and the autonomy to make things happen is high.

The Procurement function has a key role to play in this plan: to deliver the most competitive cost & cash base and to create top line value by building and managing a strong supplier base.

The Category Buyer is a key role in the local Procurement team. Reporting to the Senior Category Buyer, it has overall accountability to execute duties related to the purchasing of services, supplies and equipment in accordance with the established policies and guidelines.

The core goals will be to lead the way to expected margin targets, manage a variety of different stakeholders who will be working with you very directly and closely, and to mature the category overall and prepare for future growth. Your main challenges will be to:

- Understand business requirements;
- Manage various sub-categories with the support of Regional Buyers in Malaysia;
- Develop sourcing strategies for local country, put them in place for all portfolios and align with internal stakeholders;
- Use of sophisticated pricing models (roll-out to regions);
- Be ready to integrate new business in recently acquired companies;
- Conduct negotiations with suppliers;
- Lead innovation projects.
- Identify and prioritise opportunities to deliver total cost of ownership savings in your categories and drive the implementation of the plans to capture those opportunities.
- Proactively manage supplier relationships to deliver cost & cash results, to drive continuous improvement and position JDE as a customer of choice.
- Measure and benchmark performance to ensure that JDE has the most competitive cost base in your category.
- Drive innovation programmes in your category to continually search for cost saving opportunities, new technologies, new products and new suppliers that contribute to the overall strategy of the business.
- Contribute on sourcing strategies development for Regional categories, working closely with APAC Regional Procurement Team and execute strategies in local country.
- Define category strategies for Local categories, lead execution and track benefits realization.
- Establish and maintain portfolio of strategic agreements and key supplier relationships to manage risk in procuring Raw Materials (i.e. pricing, supply, quality, etc.).
- Manage supplier selection for Local categories, negotiate & contract key suppliers and administer contracts; PO creation (for NCOGs categories)
- Manage supplier risk assessment (scanning via official tools and databases, financial assessment, etc.) - Establish and analyse performance metrics in order to evaluate supplier performance.
- Keep oversight over set of contracts within category and ensure contract compliance considering payments terms, prices, discounts & rebates and performance in close collaboration with business.
- Understand the physical manufacturing process, including visiting plants to ensure guidelines are being followed, to deliver optimal goods & services to production plants.
- Ensure compliance to internal policies & procedures, have a deep understanding of and manage compliance to the Combined Business Model. - Maintain purchasing records/data and pricing in the system.
- Identify and capitalize on opportunities to improve the organization’s buying patterns and supply channels.
- Monitor changing trends in price and availability of coffee, understand the complexity of the market (fundamentals and technical) and ensure proper reporting on financial performance and risks to internal stakeholders. - Maintain and develop good working relationship with worldwide customers and suppliers.
- Appointed as Internal Halal Committee Team Member

**Qualifications**:

- At least 3 years of relevant experience.
- An excellent track record of delivering “best in class cost and cash results”.
- Successful experience of leading cross functional teams that focus on the lowest total cost of ownership as a key target
- International experience in global companies (ideally FMCG)
- Excellent communication and influencing skills.
- The ability to thrive with ambiguity, change and minimum processes and systems.

Additional Information
- Frequent travelling abroad requires 10-20% travel for meetings and visits to other sites.
- Flexible attitude in working outside office hours if necessary.
- English is the working language

We, at JACOBS DOUWE EGBERTS (JDE - Peet’s) are inspired by believes that anything can happen over a cup of coffee or tea. Fuelled by our purpose to create a better future, we are taking the world of coffee and tea by storm. Making it our mission to keep i