Category Specialist

About the Role

The Category Specialist is an integral role in the sourcing department, collaborating with the Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) to achieve Operational Excellence and Sustainability goals. This role blends tactical and strategic capabilities with a heavy focus on the strategic, significantly impacting day-to-day operations and long-term strategic goals. The role demonstrates the ability to lead key responsibilities and is considered an expert.

Key Responsibilities

• Enhance and grow supplier relationships through excellent communication to ensure supplier alignment with ISC’s goals.
• Support development and implementation of supply agreements, Long Term Agreements (LTA), and collaborative partnerships.
• Execute category team’s cost reduction strategy through supplier negotiations and partnership with cross-functional teams.
• Complete and review total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis and provide guidance to the category team and leadership.
• Lead, understand, and execute category-specific strategy using past experiences and historical data to draw conclusions and pivot strategy within the category to align with ISC strategy.
• Collaborate and partner with Category Manager(s) in cost negotiations and contract implementation with strategic suppliers.
• Lead negotiations, develop and implement cost reduction initiatives of non-strategic spend suppliers.
• Research, identify, and determine new suppliers that align with Toro values and select the best possible supplier for a part based on supplier classification criteria set by the category team’s strategy.
• Lead and support supplier transitions.
• Participate and advise in supplier exit process standardization and continuous improvement projects.
• Analyze quote packages from suppliers using the TCO model with the support of the category team to select the appropriate supplier.
• Collaborate with engineering on strategic initiatives and ensure engineering change notices (ECN’s/ECO’s) are completed timely.
• Support the category manager to reconcile monthly purchase price variance (PPV). Identify root cause for variances and improve controls to minimize them.
• Lead monthly reconciliation of PPV for 10-15% of category spend.
• Ability to troubleshoot unique issues that arise of moderate to advanced complexity.
• Drive continuous supplier lead time reduction.
• Assist Sourcing Specialist I, II, and manufacturing plants on supplier deliveries and escalations as required.
• Resolve invoice discrepancies and authorize payment on invoice holds as appropriate.
• Support sourcing finance by negotiating payment terms and promoting the supply chain finance program.
• Champion various intradepartmental process improvement projects including lean activities, productivity improvements, lead time maintenance, and others as assigned; present to leadership.
• Support training and onboarding of new Sourcing Specialists, acting as an ongoing point of contact for continued learning and troubleshooting.
• All other tasks and projects as assigned.

Dimensions

• Able to travel both domestically and internationally, approximately 15%.
• Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard and mouse, and to handle other computer components.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Bachelor’s degree required, preferred in Supply Chain Management, Operations, or Engineering.
• Experience in Steel Components & Flexible Manufacturing category preferred.
• Ability to obtain a Supply Chain Management certification required.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Highly self-motivated, ability to work under pressure, manage and prioritize multiple objectives concurrently, attend to details, and meet deadlines in a dynamic environment.
• Proven ability to analyze situations and drive to standardize process improvements.
• Excellent computer skills including Microsoft Suite, MRP/ERP experience required, SAP® experience preferred.
• Ability to import data into Excel and analyze using pivot tables, graphs, sorting, filtering, find and replace, and formulas including lookups, sum, average.
• Ability to maintain composure and support peers during rapidly changing situations, remaining focused on the relevant objective.
• Capacity to work independently as well as within a team-oriented, collaborative environment.
• Understanding of manufacturing processes, cost drivers, and market dynamics for assigned commodities.

Qualifications

• Specialist I: 0-2 years sourcing experience
• Specialist II: 2-4 years sourcing experience
• Specialist III: 4+ years sourcing experience