Senior Category Buyer

**Tenneco is one of the world’s leading designer, manufacturers and marketers of automotive products for original equipment and aftermarket customers, with approximately 78.000 team members working at more than 300 sites worldwide. Through our four business groups, Motorparts, Ride Performance, Clean Air and Powertrain, Tenneco is driving advancements in global mobility by delivering technology solutions for diversified global markets, including light vehicle, commercial truck, off-highway, industrial, motorsport and the aftermarket.**

**Essential Duties and Responsibilities**
- Help to drive corporate indirect procurement and profit improvement, while delivering the following to the business:

- Category Planning:

- Work with corporate team, business units, and regional stakeholders to prioritize an evolving portfolio of high-value process improvement and sourcing initiatives.
- Serve as a full partner to the business in evaluating and challenging the status quo to surface value opportunities.
- Lead the aggregation, normalization, and analysis of spend data to identify potential value opportunities.
- Ensure proper sequencing and business support for value capture initiatives.
- Researches and provides information on Industry category trends and best practices
- Sourcing and Contracting:

- Drive sourcing projects emerging from category planning.
- Define goals, including roles and responsibilities of stakeholders.
- Incorporate business requirements into sourcing plans and RFP strategies.
- Manage the planning and launch of RFx events, leveraging eSourcing tools as appropriate.
- Enhance competition by leveraging spend and qualified new suppliers.
- Deep dive current spend information/data to identify sourcing projects for individual subcategories, and develop an overall cost reduction plan, scorecards and continuous improvements plans
- Coordinate and lead negotiations; help stakeholders understand trade‐offs and benefits of negotiation strategies/outcomes.
- Develop global/regional contracts that are commercially sound and provide optimum protection of company assets. Develop comprehensive implementation with stakeholders and end users.
- Quantify and report both identified and implemented sourcing project results.
- Execute strategic sourcing best practices, and initiatives that support improvements in supplier quality, total cost effectiveness, enhanced services levels, improved coordination, delivery, pricing, lead times, payment, risk compliance and other areas as identified
- Process Improvement:

- Identify and capture profit improvement opportunities beyond leveraged sourcing, e.g., demand management opportunities, insource versus outsource decisions, efficiencies in the company’s comprehensive supply chain, and/or other strategic and operational process improvements.
- Ensure appropriate cross-functional partnering on process improvement projects.
- Track and work with corporate finance to report results for identified projects and when applicable, work with other functions across company to replicate projects with positive results.
- Actively seeks ways to streamline business processes
- Supplier Relationship Management:

- Foster performance-based supplier relationships to create short-term and long-term value for the company.
- Lead global business reviews with strategic suppliers to ensure performance against contracted obligations and business unit expectations.
- Anticipate and minimize performance issues via use of key performance indicators (KPIs).
- When performance issues emerge, identify root causes and drive for efficient resolution of issues at hand by working across both internal and external stakeholders.
- Lead vendor risk assessments (information Security, Business continuity, Physical coordinating efforts across all stakeholders
- Negotiates and develops contract terms & Conditions including SLA & pricing

**Requirements**:

- Bachelor’s Degree in business, engineering, or related field.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience in Supply Chain Management, Procurement, or similar roles.
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills (strong background in data collection & analysis is a must have) to drive fact-based decision making.
- In-depth experience with world-class strategic sourcing and category management practices, including e-Sourcing.
- Self-confidence and clarity of expression to lead discussions with internal executive audiences, and challenge current practices.
- Hands-on experience leading multi-regional or global initiatives.
- Proficient in relevant supply chain and business software, such as SAP and ERP programs.
- Experience managing indirect spend categories using multi-step strategic sourcing processes, especially professional services, MRO, equipment, benefits, HR and information technology.
- Track record of managing change through influence; capable of driving major commercial decisions across a diverse set of internal stakeholders.
- Expert-level