Category Manager – Piping

For one of our clients in the Offshore Energy Industry we are looking for a Catergory Manager – Piping.

Our clients designs, builds, installs and operates offshore floating facilities for the offshore energy industry. They are a leading technology provider and they put their marine expertise and the service of a responsible energy transition by reducing emissions from fossil fuel production, while developing cleaner solutions for renewable energy sources.

JOB PROFILE
The Category Manager is responsible for the development of the Category strategy in view of increasing the company's competitiveness and actively participating to business development. The category strategy is a consolidation of:

• Your technical expertise of the products in your category in liaison with technical stakeholders
• Your knowledge of the energy market pertaining to your category
• Your assessment of the capabilities of the key vendors and their sub-vendors in your category including the manufacturing processes, execution and subcontracting model
• Suitability of the vendors capabilities and their execution model to SBM’s Product Lines

You are in charge of the effective management of strategically important vendors and the efficient global sourcing of key equipment.

You help to ensure that projects and operations receive the full benefits of these arrangements by supporting the correct implementation of the procurement strategy on proposals/projects/operations.

You develop a long-term relationship with the strategic vendors and seek to continually and jointly improve vendor performance

ROLE CONTRIBUTION
In order that the Category Strategy meets both company strategic objectives, and future project and operations requirements, you are to:

• Define the roadmap of future technological requirements for the category based on continuous collaboration with Group Engineering, Group Technology and strategic vendors.
• Conduct market analysis in collaboration with other discipline stakeholders to finalize the strategy to meet future project requirements.
• Understand the requirements of the Product Lines and engage in/facilitate technical & execution related discussions with the vendors to ensure that category strategy is aligned with the Product Line requirements.
• Lead the preparation and finalization of deliverables associated to your category (Approved Vendor List (AVL), Framework Agreements (FA), Spend analysis and other deliverables that may be required by the Product Line)
• Define Category performance objectives and translate them into vendor management and strategic sourcing objectives
• Lead the vendor qualification activities for the vendors identified as strategic in your category.

 In order that projects and operations receive the benefits identified in the Category Strategy, you are to:

• Support the definition and implementation of the Project Procurement Strategy (PPS):
• Leverage the vendor network to build competitive advantages (eg strategic relationship) and assist in initiating pre-agreements during the win phase
• Provide direct support to the negotiation with vendors for key packages / services, as required.
• Ensure that best practices / lessons learned are captured, formalized, shared and implemented for continuous improvement – acting as memory keeper.
• Lead the drafting of generic Quality Control Plans (QCP) for the equipment related to your category based on multi-disciplinary approach
• Serve as SC Group expert for your category and be recognized as focal point by the key stakeholders (Proposal, Engineering, Construction, Operations, Project Management) to provide assistance for any project/operations issues related to your category.

In order that category performance achieves the Group SC objectives, you are to:

• Ensure compliance with category sourcing strategy during Win, Execute and Operate phases
• Measure and monitor the contracted savings from the implementation of the category strategy
• Monitor and report the SC KPIs for the category (e.g. savings, % of spend under group framework agreements)

In order to develop and nurture a sustainable collaboration with strategic vendors and achieve agreed improvement objectives in terms of quality, price, reliability and/or capability you are to:

• Act as the single point of contact for communication with the vendor
• Increase the company's attractiveness in order to achieve greater value (e.g. innovation, specific investments)
• Monitor vendor’s load level, capacity and investment plans
• Identify risks & opportunities related to the vendor (e.g. merging & acquisition) and anticipate any changes impacting the vendor relationship strategy
• Define the Vendor Relationship Strategy, engage and mobilize the vendor to get the most out of the relationship
• Provide support to Project & Operations teams when the relationship with the vendor is at risk (e.g. dispute & claims resolution, manufacturing performance, slot allocation)

Requirements

• Piping expert
• Commercial Profile – Negotiator – Contractual Negotiation
• Full understanding of the O&G Technical Standards for critical steel grades
• Strong knowledge of European and Chinese market
• 15 years experience in Piping Procurement role in EPCI company or Sales engineer/Project Manager at Vendors
• Construction Site or Manufacturing plant experience would be a +