Indirect Category Manager (New England-USA area)

About the role/team:

Ideally located in Maine, New Hampshire or Massachusetts with ability to come into the Portland, Maine Global Headquarters 1x per month.

WEX Inc. is building and globalizing its Sourcing, Vendor Management, and Procurement functions. We desire candidates with a proven track record to help us build a global and impactful organization.

As an Indirect Category Manager (Non-IT) you are responsible for executing sourcing strategies to support initiatives and projects for a potential broad spectrum of indirect categories, with a primary focus on Human Resources, Finance, and Temp Labor / Staff Augmentation. Additional indirect categories may also require your support on an as needed basis.

Primary responsibilities include: the execution of competitive market analysis the development of category management plans; supplier consolidation, stakeholder/vendor relationship management; cost optimization through contract and price negotiations, facilitating RFx initiatives, leadership engagement and briefings, procurement system and process enhancements, and the day to day management of assigned contracts to drive savings, bring spend under management, improve business processes and comply with all corporate and legal policies.

In order to succeed this candidate will need to be able to develop long-standing internal business partnerships in a fast-paced cross-functional environment. This position interacts with multiple stakeholders, serving as the lead or secondary support resource for all sourcing initiatives for each spend category being managed. The position will have the opportunity to collaborate with Senior leaders for the responsible Categories to align on both short and long term objectives and lead cross functional teams utilizing standard procurement and category management principles to achieve their goals. Candidates will need to be familiar with contract negotiation and management best practices, as well as have experience facilitating/collaborating with internal Legal Counsel. A combination of project management experience, critical thinking, an ability to communicate effectively, and strong negotiation skills will be required.

This role will report directly to the Procurement Manager.

What you'll do:

• Integrate with Key Stakeholders and their teams for the responsible categories to determine the opportunities to be gained with a global sourcing and category management strategy.

  • During the first 30-60 Days:

    • Build relationships and align with Key Stakeholders on current and future strategic initiatives that will require procurement support. Develop a regular meeting cadence as needed to support.

    • Align with WEX Legal resources to gain understanding of the contract review process and collaborative responsibilities.

• Maximize the global spend under management, drive cost savings, consolidate vendor pool:

  • During the first 90 days:

    • Quantify the global spend pool for the respective categories and develop a roadmap to improve spend under management.

    • Identify all key vendors driving the majority of spend within these respective categories and gain better understanding of important contract attributes.

    • Start to identify opportunities to consolidate vendors and products and drive synergies where there is overlap across WEX entities (domestically and internationally).

    • Begin to populate the department contract pipeline with savings and vendor/product consolidation opportunities.

    • Become knowledgeable on WEX PO terms and the appropriate use those terms in order to limit the unnecessary exercising of WEX resources when formal contracts are not required.

  • During the first 3-6 months

    • Begin executing on new contracts/projects and support contract renewal efforts to help department meet goals of increasing spend under management and driving total cost savings.

    • Identify at least one area of opportunity and develop a strategic category management plan that will help stakeholders maximize value and reduce risk, while also aligning to their business objectives.

• Improve Process Automation and assist with Procurement System enhancements:

  • During the first 30-60 Days

    • Complete training and become knowledgeable on current procurement systems and policies. Coupa is WEX's Procure to Pay tool.

    • Support any system implementations and enhancement activities and drive user adoption and training

  • During the first 3-6 Months

    • Become a power user that can train stakeholders on how to properly utilize these new tools to improve efficiency and contract visibility.

What you'll bring:

• Required:

  • Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Supply Chain, or related field.

  • Minimum 5 years indirect Procurement experience, preferably in either a Category Management and/or Strategic Sourcing role for categories listed above.

  • Experience with Coupa or other P2P/CLM/Vendor Risk Management tools.

• Optional/Desirables:

  • 10+ years Procurement experience, preferably in either a Category Management and/or Strategic Sourcing role for HR, Finance, Temp Labor / Staff Aug support.

  • Relevant certifications (e.g. CPSM, APICS)

  • Training or experience with LEAN, PMP, and/or Six Sigma practices.

  • Experience working in the Payments and/or Financial Technology Sector.