Procurement Assistant Manager - Strategic Projects

Job description

There has never been a more exciting time to be working in Procurement when you consider the sheer scale of what we are seeking to do in growing our business, whilst decoupling our environmental footprint from our growth and increasing our Positive social impact.

As Unilever Procurement adapts to the ever-dynamic business environment, we will need to be agile in order to continue our track record of delivery in contributing to the top and bottom line. Inevitably, given the consistent and high quality of our delivery over the past few years, we will be asked to continue this rate of performance and indeed go over and above this standard to ensure the value provided is further enhanced across the scope of our remit.

As well as ensuring that we are best in class in delivering the basics, we also have to look to the future and continuously evolve to meet the needs of our changing environment - reinventing ourselves for sustained competitive advantage. And of course, we are only half of the picture. Our suppliers are at the heart of everything we do. We need to partner more closely than ever with suppliers to co-create sustainable practices and bigger and better innovations.

We have 2 openings as follows:
· Procurement Assistant Manager - Strategic Projects
· Procurement Assistant Manager - Finance
MAIN JOB PURPOSE: Lead and land VIP program across Africa. Support the Cluster Procurement Manager and Cluster Procurement teams. Integrating global / regional sourcing strategies with business and plant demands, balancing timing and conflicting interests. Working across the respective regions with multiple strategic Procurement teams each with a different culture and processes. 25% innovations, 25% VIP, 25% Category specific support and 25% procurement strategy support

JOB SUMMARY
• Support Sustainability, Resilience agenda for Africa (BEE for SNA)
• Supports early (as early as possible) “Inside-Out” Procurement involvement in category innovation and supply chain projects (facing & integrating with the Category/Geography, acting as the point of contact in brand / category / SC teams
• Supports the Product Group Supply Chain team in Procurement issues related to the category/ geography
• Acts as Custodian of the category/ geography relationship with Supply Managers, innovation project management and customer service
• Ensures alignment between Category/ Geography needs and Supply Markets capabilities
• Enable communication (Project review - Information flow - Target/goals & strategies)
• Supplier Collaboration and Innovation
• Represents Procurement in the category innovation projects (material cost, speed to market, complexity and coherence with strategy)
• Support Suppliers selection to be involved in projects
• Influence Suppliers strategy to fulfil Category business goals
• Support material procurement in leveraging effectively external relationships to support the innovation process
• Competitor Analysis and Benchmarking
• Provide input to SC analysis on materials and suppliers drawing on expertise of the Procurement teams facing various supply markets
• Directly leads or coordinates some Innovation projects as needed
• Supports implementation and operational execution of PI Portfolio Procurement sourcing strategies and selected supply base into the category / brand / R&D teams and prevents use of non-selected suppliers
• Supports supplier capacity planning and run strategy development, communication of UL requirements to suppliers and expediting of orders [placed by material managers] as needed
• Participation in the category / brand / R&D innovation projects, cost savings teams as supply project manager and is the communication conduit for e.g. ideas, new technology, material cost, availability, risk, opportunity, supplier capital requirements etc. between the internal procurement groups, business operating teams and supply base
• Communicates output of Supplier Evaluation Program and develops and follows up corrective action and review process with internal customers, supplier relationship managers and suppliers
• To ensure the satisfaction of Unilever's internal customers with the services provided by the procurement organization (same as procurement assistant)
• Support the periodic Executive Summary for the Team by consolidating and reporting various KPIs (e.g. VIP)
• To handle diverse customer, supplier or operational issues when they arise. (same as procurement assistant)
• Support in preparing and executing of team/ project meetings/ telcons and visits (same as procurement assistant)

KEY REQUIREMENTS:
• Degree in Supply Chain/ Finance/ Engineering or equivalent
• 3-5 years Procurement and Sourcing experience within the FMCG/ Manufacturing industry
• Proficient Project Management experience will be an advantage
• Solid understanding of Supply Chain and FMCG ways of workings
• Good economics understanding and numerical
• Travel will be once or twice a year, within the Africa cluster