Top management vacancy

Africa Regional Lead - Category Management

Xchanging - Lagos

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Job description

As the lead for Africa you will be expected to lead the African region by formalising the regional strategy, supporting the global strategy whilst developing and implementing the initiatives that will deliver the financial savings targets that have been agreed with our multinational FMCG client. You will also be expected to work with the management team to develop systems and processes that will enable Xchanging to deliver a world class approach to MRO procurement in two years. 

As Regional Lead for Africa you will

have leadership responsibility for two category managers – one in East Africa and one in West Africa and are likely to be based in clients office in Nigeria. You will be working closely with the client's operational and procurement teams on a day to day basis and will travel between the African countries on a regular basis as well as to the UK and other parts of Europe when required.

Key Accountabilities:

The category encompasses different business requirements:

Supply chain management: working across service providers, manufacturers and outsource consolidators to ensure the most cost effective commercial solutions

Process and Policy management: to provide enhanced strategies for standardisation of services, products and operations

Procurement Category Management: to develop and implement the client's MRO category strategy having regard to global solutions where possible and supporting the sales function to enhance revenue streams within the wider Xchanging portfolio.

Additionally you will be responsible for :-

·        Stakeholder mapping / management and influencing people at all levels

·        Working closely with other members of the combined client and Xchanging team to ensure a professional service is delivered to customers.

·        Preparation and implementation of commercial negotiations.

·        Design, lead and implementing the appropriate category strategies on a regional and global basis

·        Ensuring that selected suppliers meet the performance objectives set

·        Responsibility and accountability for achieving savings targets

·        To lead effective and efficient engagements with key sponsors and stakeholders to ensure our performance meets their expectations or agreed standards

·        To identify and implement process improvements within the category

·        To develop and publish related market conditions, trends and intelligence to underpin sourcing strategies

·        To lead the team in the application and development of the Xchanging sourcing methodologies.

Desired Skills and Experience

The role requires an individual who is comfortable and credible in dealing with people at all levels across the client operation including executive board directors. The candidate should have:

Essential:

·        In depth knowledge of MRO at an operational and procurement level

·        Experience of leading and implementing a broad range of category projects,  managing supplier contracts and ensuring service performance

·        Proven ability to define and implement the right strategy depending on the circumstances and requirements

·        Successful track record of leading complex negotiations

·        Range of demonstrable negotiation styles that reflect our category portfolio

·        High level of analytical and numerical skills

·        Proven track record of delivery in a fast-paced procurement function.

·        Detailed Knowledge of the supply market

·        Good communicator – verbal and written with local language skills alongside strong business English

·        Excellent customer facing skills

·        Able to work autonomously

·        Experience in leading teams to deliver

·        Flexible to meet the demands of the role

·        Results focussed

·        Mental and intellectual toughness to confront and solve problems, often through others as well as by themselves

·        Politically astute to know when to flag issues and escalate situations

·        Self-confident enough to stand their ground when appropriate

·        Commitment to see tasks through

·        Accountability to accept when progress is not going as expected and to make personal changes to ensure corrective action

·        Professional honesty and integrity in dealing with colleagues, suppliers and customers

·        Languages: English and local language

 Desirable

·        Educated to degree level or equivalent

·        CIPS professional qualifications

·        Excellent Excel and PowerPoint skills.

About this company

Xchanging is a business process and technology services provider and integrator. Listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:XCH), we have over 7,500 employees in ten countries, providing services to customers in 48 countries.

We specialize in Insurance, Financial Services, Technology and Procurement, with processing skills and capabilities applicable to other vertical industry and market sectors. Xchanging Procurement Services offers a full service end-to-end sourcing; spend management and procurement transaction processing services.  Xchanging has the expertise in the form of best-of-class category experts who utilize advanced strategies and methodologies to drive sustainable cost improvement. One of our key success factors and value, perceived by our customers, is that we implement a transparent and proven gain-share commercial approach to return high value to them.

  

For additional information, please visit our website, www.xchanging.com