Sourcing Specialist - Indirect Materials White Plains, NY

Step out of your comfort zone, excel and redefine the limits of what is possible. That's just what our employees are doing every single day - in order to set the pace through our innovations and enable outstanding achievements. After all, behind every successful company are many great fascinating people.

Provide purchasing leadership for effective sourcing and procurement of Indirect Material (NPM) for ZEISS U.S. entities located throughout the United States and work in alignment with strategies developed with Carl Zeiss AG Oberkochen Germany.

These responsibilities require strong peer and supplier leadership skills to assure optimum quality, cost, and service are provided by an aligned supply base to meet our stakeholder requirements. Effectively works across and aligns multiple business groups to monitor the performance of suppliers against contractual standards and works with them to achieve improvements in costs and performance.

We are looking for people who are keen to try something new:

• Collaborate and develop strong relationships and an active network with other procurement leaders and colleagues from the corresponding departments at each U.S. entity.
• Develop category strategies for Zeiss U.S. to provide the best service and cost savings opportunity benefiting multiple entities.
• Collaborate with NPM buyers in Carl Zeiss AG Oberkochen/ Germany to develop global strategies.
• Facilitate cross-organizational discussion to understand business needs and achieve consensus and support for initiatives
• Effectively lead negotiations and manage supplier selection to meet quality, service, and cost requirements.
• Initiates and monitors contract negotiations with suppliers for NPM projects.
• Manages and optimizes the supply network for assigned commodities.
• Implements ACS supplier management programs.
• Strives to optimally leverage suppliers' capabilities and cost position.
• Develop and manage strategic partner alliances if applicable.
• Reports monthly procurement KPI's.
• Collaborate in defining and implementing best in class for NPM and service programs.
• Actively identify and seek out new opportunities to reduce cost and increase optimization of existing processes (e.g. online catalog)
• Coordinate planning and optimization of cost contribution to EBIT for assigned commodity categories according to corporate guidelines.
• Initiates, coordinates, and monitors pooling opportunities and NPM programs.
• Initiate exchange for categories with BGs (e.g. Marketingsummit)
• Supports optimization of global procurement process efficiency, methods, and tools used.
• Implements procurement policies and procedures, and sets guidelines as necessary.
• Initiate and achieve targeted cost reduction programs.
• Perform data analysis of NPM spend to determine best cost saving opportunities.
• Manage national programs and conduct RFPs as necessary for categories:
• Travel (US Airlines, US Hotels, supporting rentals, reporting to drive compliance to programmes)
• Office Supplies
• Packaging / packaging supplies
• MRO / Shop Supplies / Janitorial & Cleaning / lab supplies - reduce costs by standardizing categories purchases in volumes across the BGs, in collaboration with the BGs.
• Marketing (consolidation, optimization) including Print, Trade Shows and Online Services
• Staffing
• Centralize / Standardize expense categories for spend categories (e.g. marketing) and gain alignment/agreement from all US BGs.
• Create user-friendly Training for BGs to drive compliance to programs and support realization of savings by using tools properly

You are:

• Bachelor's degree in business, supply chain, or related discipline.
• Minimum of 5 years' experience purchasing, indirect buying, negotiations and finance.
• Demonstrated ability to lead peer and supplier relationships and to build an aligned strategy.
• Knowledgeable in or experienced in working with Marketing (Trade Shows, Services, Print), Office Supplies, Travel, HR and/or other supplies/services
• Ability to analyze opportunities for cost improvement as well as assess supplier performance (such as quality, cost, reliability, ability to innovate, and financial stability).
• Financial skills to assess the total cost of procurement.
• Interpersonal skills necessary to build effective working relationships with stakeholders and supply partners and facilitate cross-organizational discussions and drive consensus on category strategies
• Strong negotiation skills with knowledge of law and contracts.
• Expertise in project management, procurement methods, and data analysis.
• Strong oral and written communication skills in business English, additional languages beneficial
• Ability to work with a wide range of technical, sales, manufacturing, management personnel and business process owners.
• Be comfortable acting as an agent of change and be able to keep the "big picture" in focus, in order to create win-win outcomes
• Able to provide reporting on progress in multiple formats to multiple leadership levels within the company
• Able and willing to travel within the US and Internationally

In a spacious modern setting full of opportunities for further development, ZEISS employees work in a place where expert knowledge and team spirit reign supreme. All of this is supported by a special ownership structure and the long-term goal of the Carl Zeiss Foundation: to bring science and society into the future together.

Join us today. Inspire people tomorrow.

Diversity is a part of ZEISS. We look forward to receiving your application regardless of gender, nationality, ethnic and social origin, religion, philosophy of life, disability, age, sexual orientation or identity.

Apply now! It takes less than 10 minutes.