Global Category Manager - Japan and APAC Category Sourcing Manager , GCP JP / APAC - Corporate Procurement
DESCRIPTION
At Amazon, our vision is to be Earth's most customer-centric company. Our passion for invention leads us to pioneer and globalize new businesses and customer offerings daily. As we rapidly become the world’s largest consumer of corporate services in many categories, the Corporate Procurement team is fueling our explosive growth by identifying innovative sourcing strategies and negotiating sustainable, long-term partnerships.
Amazon is seeking a Global Category Manager (GCM) to join the Corporate Procurement team. The role is based in Tokyo, Japan. GCMs serve in a pivotal role, leading strategic sourcing engagements across a wide range of business units to enable new business initiatives to launch and scale rapidly. Spend categories under management include Marketing, Professional Services, HR, Travel, Perm & Temp Labor, Architecture, Construction, and Property/Facilities. Key leadership traits required include the ability to influence and form strong partnerships with business leaders, and operational excellence in managing multiple complex and competing priorities simultaneously.
Global Category Managers are expert practitioners in the tools for creating competitive environments, and have a strong bias for decision-making rooted in data and analytics. They routinely influence C-level vendor relationships by advising senior Amazon leaders across multiple stakeholder groups on the direction of sourcing projects in support of business unit and corporate goals. If you are looking for a new challenge in a fast-paced, innovative company, come make history with Amazon’s Corporate Procurement department.
Successful candidates must work well in a fast-paced and often ambiguous arena, and will be rewarded by working alongside highly collaborative and entrepreneurial colleagues in an environment that feels much more “startup” than “big company”.
Primary responsibilities of this role:
• Establishing strong relationships with internal business stakeholders; building a strong understanding of strategic business direction, requirements and priorities across assigned suppliers and/or spend categories.
• Developing global sourcing strategies to deliver against business objectives for internal clients.
• Evaluating supplier core competencies and competitive positioning using industry cost models and bench-marking analysis.
• Managing the fundamentals of sourcing and supplier engagement activities including RFx, spend pattern analysis, contract analysis, bid evaluation, negotiations, and supplier consolidation.
• Identifying sourcing opportunities by leveraging spend analysis tools and engage with stakeholders to consolidate requirements over categories, suppliers and geographies.
• Work with business and finance leaders to identify and drive savings and controllership improvements, focusing on total cost of ownership.
• Providing guidance to internal stakeholders on procurement strategies; maintaining procurement ethics in accordance with Amazon’s global policies.
• Prepare and hold business reviews with stakeholders to review vendor performance, future opportunities, and/or challenges.
Key job responsibilities
-Identify Sourcing opportunities
-Skilled negotiator
-Able to work (read and write) in both EN and JP fluently
-Work independently and make decisions autonomously
-Strong sense of ownership, able to handle end-to-end sourcing projects
-Multi-tasking skills as job requires to handle multiple projects and activities at the same time
-Able to act quickly and focus on highest priorities
A day in the life
-execute sourcing projects
-engage with internal and external stakeholders
-identify best sourcing strategy balancing effort vs efficiencies
-able to explore options and suggest recommendation, even if they are 'bold'
-work independently and willing to take risks and 'dare'
-be passionate about managing and executing sourcing project
-able to communicate efficiently and effectively with stakeholders from many different business units
-be a self-starter in anything you do
-focus on result vs working hours
-have a strong sense of ownership
-able to move at very fast pace while juggling multiple projects
-comfortable in working on tactical as well as high strategic (VP level) initiatives
About the team
Key coverage areas: Marketing (media, creative, production), Property & Facility, Security, PR, Market Research, Events, HR, Insurance, etc.
Other smaller categories: Logistics, software (not enterprise), etc.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
Basic Qualifications
• Significant relevant strategic sourcing experience, to include experience in an indirect procurement function at a multinational corporation with global contracts.
• In-depth experience in best-in-class procurement practices (category management, bench-marking, should-cost models, RFX, reverse auction, contracting, etc.).
• BS/BA Degree.
• Candidate has to be fluent in both Japanese and English
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
Preferred Qualifications
• Master’s Degree (MBA/MS)
• Strong negotiator with proven experience in setting negotiation strategies and conducting negotiations.
• Extensive knowledge of the basic types of commercial agreement structures and the function and purpose of key legal terms.
• Strong experience assessing risk and concisely explaining complex issues to principal business owners.
• Extremely customer-focused and takes the time to understand the needs of the business.
• Experience working in a large, global, highly matrixed organization.
• Strong analytical skills including the ability to quickly synthesize, distill and draw conclusions on large amounts of disparate data.
• Ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects requiring frequent communication, organization, time management, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Passionate self-starter with the highest integrity and ethics.
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