The Procurement Category Support Specialist acts as a strategic and operational link between the Procurement Center of Excellence (COE) and Category Teams. This role supports procurement projects and ongoing category management activities, ensuring alignment with business goals and continuous improvement. The specialist will contribute to supplier performance, market intelligence, and sourcing initiatives, while fostering collaboration and innovation within the team.
Key Responsibilities:
- Conduct category analysis and provide actionable insights to support strategic decisions.
- Monitor and report on contract balances and category strategy execution.
- Evaluate supplier performance and identify opportunities for improvement or new partnerships.
- Deliver supply market intelligence using internal data and external sources (e.g., price indexes, trends, supply/demand dynamics).
- Support sourcing events (RFx), catalog management, and supplier onboarding through company systems.
- Review and validate demand forecasts in collaboration with stakeholders.
- Contribute to supplier certification and development programs
- Ensure compliance with procurement SOPs and promote process standardization.
- Collaborate with technical teams to translate procurement needs into automation opportunities.
- Act as a procurement ambassador, building strong relationships across functions (R&D, Quality, Regulatory, Commercial, etc.).
Key Attributes:
- Collaborative mindset and positive team spirit.
- Strong communication skills, able to clearly convey ideas and influence stakeholders.
- Proactive and improvement-oriented, with a passion for innovation.
- Comfortable working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.
- Minimum 2 years of experience in procurement, ideally in raw materials.
- Proficiency in English (written and spoken).
- Strong skills in:
- - Data analytics and AI tools
- - Project management
- - Communication and stakeholder engagement
- - Planning and prioritization
- - Working under pressure and adapting to change
Preferred Qualifications:
- Graduate degree (MBA, Supply Chain, or Materials Science).
- Experience with ERP systems (SAP, Oracle) and MS Office.
- Familiarity with public indexes, subscription-based market data, and supplier benchmarking.
- Experience in cross-functional collaboration and supplier development.
- Ability to translate business needs into IT requirements for automation.
We are a global leader in taste, scent, and nutrition, offering our customers a broader range of natural solutions and accelerating our growth strategy. At IFF, we believe that your uniqueness unleashes our potential. We value the diverse mosaic of the ethnicity, national origin, race, age, sex, or veteran status. We strive for an inclusive workplace that allows each of our colleagues to bring their authentic self to work regardless of their religion, gender identity & expression, sexual orientation, or disability.
Visit IFF.com/careers/workplace-diversity-and-inclusion to learn more
