Procurement Manager – Nutrition Philippines & Unilever Food Solutions (UFS) Lead

ABOUT PROCUREMENT:

Part of the Business Operations’ family, Procurement is responsible for over €30B of material and services spend globally with more than 50,000 suppliers. Getting the right materials, sustainably sourced and ensuring responsible procurement is critical to ensuring our brands with purpose grow. Our teams work closely with the business to understand brand needs, bring supplier innovation to meet changing consumer needs and drive financial value for Unilever through competitive buying. Procurement is at the forefront of sustainability and will pave the way forward for Unilever to achieve its latest ambitious commitment on People and Planet.

With over 1400 employees globally, we support a network of thousands of suppliers, more than 1.5 million smallholder farmers who in turn support communities of over 7 million people. Our strategy is ‘Procurement Lighthouse’, aim to build the best procurement ever with competitive buying at the core of what we do.

MAIN JOB PURPOSE & KEY GOALS:

Do you want to be part of a team that works to be a World-class Force for good in Food? Come and join the Nutrition SEA & Indonesia procurement team! 

Unilever Nutrition SEA & Indonesia Business Unit (BU) is a 1.5 billion Euro business spanning Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, with iconic brands like Knorr / Royco, Bango, Lady’s Choice, Best Foods, Buavita, and Sariwangi.

The main scope of the job will be to manage the Philippines market, also overall Unilever Food Solutions (UFS). You will be the first point of contact for all procurement related matters, supporting BU (retail and food solution) strategy & agenda, help deliver growth & profitability through landing our competitive buying agenda, resilience and simplification ambitions, partnerships, and regenerative agriculture. You’re also expected to shape up digital embedded workflow using Buyers Console in procurement operation to increase efficiency and smart output. You will report to the Procurement Director – Nutrition SEA & Indonesia.

Overall, this role will sharpen your core procurement skills, collaboration, problem solving and communication, deepen your business acumen and give you insights in the strategies, challenges, and solutions of stakeholders in the BU.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Service & Resilience

• Coordinating with Global Buyers (RM/PM), relevant BU stakeholders (e.g., Planning team), and Suppliers to ensure material availability and smooth material delivery.
• Managing E2E locally sourced materials and Collaborative Manufacturing (CM) from negotiation, contract, operations, and services.
• Ensuring timely placement of material contracts and delivery through effective negotiations & competitive benchmarking.
• Work with Supply Chain, R&D, Quality, and Global Buyers to ensure resilience action plan and execution in place to support business growth.
• Track RM/CM aspects of Innovation networks to support OTIF innovation delivery.

Cost & Cash

• Ensure Net Material Inflation and Gross Margin Target delivery for the BU, through net buying productivity agenda.
• Responsible for timely accurate forecast input on Quarterly Forecasting process with Global Buyers & Procurement Finance, and Monthly Forecasting process with Country Procurement Finance, to reflect accurate material costs.
• Coordinate with R&D teams and support smart product/spec initiatives (3S agenda).
• Conduct cost benchmarking exercises locally/globally and derive best-in-class value.
• Ensure cash delivery through Creditor Management (net payment terms extension).

Quality & Compliance

• Drive Quality and Compliance standards across local and global suppliers for Raw Materials & CM partners.
• Ensure Responsible Sourcing (RS) compliance of suppliers and supply partners.
• Conduct Technical Risk Assessment and follow up on actions basis business needs.

Sustainability & Strategic Partnerships

• Drive E2E regenerative agriculture program with BU from program design, business case creation, until implementation with selected global/local implementation partner.
• Coordinate and execute partnerships program for local sourcing align to Unilever sustainability and regenerative agriculture standard.
• Implementation of supplier strategy, sourcing network strategy and E2E management of CM partners.
• Manage cost and service of CM portfolio by effectively assess CM partners through commercial and contract negotiations.
• Work with Strategy & Insights steam on value chain mapping to find opportunities in backward integration.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 4-6 years of experience in a procurement/supply chain role either in Unilever/FMCG industry or in a large complex organization with strong portfolio and market expertise.
• Strong negotiation skills, and business & commercial acumen.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and peers effectively.
• Excellent critical thinking, analytical and story-telling skills to respond to multiple stakeholders’ specific characteristics and influence change remotely.
• Change and crisis management experience for global/large programs is a plus.
• Background/experience in data analytics is a plus.

We highly encourage applicants to exclude information on age, gender, and school/s in view of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Unilever assesses candidates based on skills, performance, experience and leadership.

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.