Assistant Procurement Manager - HC SEA Portfolio & Backward Integration

Business Context and Main Purpose of the Job:
Home Care SEA+I Business Unit (HC SEA BU) has a coverage of more than 2bEU TO. With iconic brands such as Breeze, Omo, Surf, Sunlight and more. We are actively transforming our category to be future-fit, and our purpose is “Clean Home. Clean Planet. Clean Future”, and we want to lead in greener, effortless and delightful solutions for future homes in SEA.

In this role, you will be supporting the Procurement Manager to manage a portfolio of locally managed suppliers who provide materials and capabilities for use in our Home Care products, within this scope, examples include Sulfonators / Sulfators and Distributors in the region, with whom you would need to manage portfolio strategy and strategic partnership, including procurement E2E process.

Beyond the management of today’s supply partners, you will be playing a critical role to support the scoping, ideation, definition and study of potential backward integration and value chain intervention opportunities, that could involve working with the broader Global / Regional portfolio teams within procurement, as well as cross-function teams including Marketing, R&D, Supply Chain, Finance, etc.

Your strong business acumen, attention to detail / analytics, organization abilities will be important enablers to be successful in this role.

Main Accountabilitiesซ
This position has deliverables in the following areas:

Business Impact
● Lead end to end procurement process for some materials.
● Study and develop backward integration opportunities for the region
● Ensure availability of material as per forecast for all materials under the portfolio.
● Support the innovation requirements of the categories and business.
● Drive the portfolio saving agenda, including ideation, reporting of savings, and monitoring projects.

Supplier Management
● Assist for and lead key supplier relationships.
● Support supplier selection and supplier approval process with the R&D and Supply Chain colleagues
● Lead compliance agenda, ensure supplier compliance on Responsible Sourcing, Quality, Service.
● Develop and monitor supplier improvement plan, support in negotiations

Market Intelligence
● Contribute in drafting strategies for key materials, including complex global strategies.
● Gather external information from industry and suppliers for developing insights for material strategies.
● Perform cost modelling and benchmarking analysis, to optimize the end-to-end value chain.

Operational Excellence
● Lead resolution of issues related to service, quality and E2E procurement process.
● Run quarterly tenders across key suppliers/materials, including leveraging E-Tender tools.
● Actively manage, create and update suppliers contract in SAP CLM and ensure all Purchasing Agreements and Commercial Terms Contracts are in place by liaising closely with legal team.
● Support forecasting and variance analysis, and communicating clearly external insights to business.

Key Interfaces: Suppliers, BU, Portfolio, S&I Procurement team, SC, R&D Legal and Finance teams

Key Skills:
• Strong analytical skills
• Strong operational and problem solving skills
• Strong business acumen
• Understanding of Supply Chain and Finance
• Good presentation and communication skills
• Strong behaviours – Standard of Leadership
• Global mindset
• Self-learner, work independently.
• Good communication skills – English
• Excellent Excel and Power-Point skills

Essential:
• University Degree
• Minimum 5-6 years working experience
• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience, in a commercial position.

Desirable:
• Experience in Surfactant material procurement (particularly sulfonation / sulfation), experience in value chain intervention, supplier strategy development
• Track record for disruptive thinking, finding unconventional solutions to problems.

Leadership Behaviours:
• Bias For Action
• Growth Mindset
• Consumer and Customer Focus

Unilever is an organisation committed to equity, inclusion and diversity to drive our business results and create a better future, every day, for our diverse employees, global consumers, partners, and communities. We believe a diverse workforce allows us to match our growth ambitions and drive inclusion across the business. At Unilever we are interested in every individual bringing their ‘Whole Self’ to work and this includes you! Thus if you require any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of your application so that we can support you through your recruitment journey.