The Affiliate Sourcing - Senior Operations Specialist is responsible for driving profitable business results and operational excellence by creating and developing relationships with SMS’s Affiliate subcontractor base.  Monitor and measure overall Affiliate performance utilizing ranking and rating techniques. 

Key areas of focus include:

Responsibilities

• Proactively qualify leads for new/additional business to insure pipeline stays full
• Support identification and development of current and new Affiliates
• Leveraging scorecard results to manage and negotiate with Senior Management on SMS Affiliate base to ensure proper pricing and Affiliate performance parameters are met
• Develop negotiation strategies and participate in negotiations with Affiliates on price, delivery, terms, etc.
• Analyze Affiliate qualifications, performance, scorecard, quality metrics, cost, profit and industry trends to drive selection decisions
• Provide supporting data and analytics to insure informed decisions are made when choosing Affiliates
• Conduct data analysis to support management of Affiliate base; Provide in- depth Affiliate performance analysis
• Conduct Affiliate performance reviews with top SMS Affiliates
• Collaborate with Operations and Procurement Team Affiliate on catalog pricing and implementation
• Leveraging internal resources to enhance SMS’ relationship with its’ Affiliate base
• Establishing/growing senior relationships with assigned Affiliates
• Preventing and/or resolving escalated Affiliate issues
• Proactive and reactive relationship management
• Consistent focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences
• Modeling and promoting exemplary Affiliate engagement practices
• Understanding business concepts and using strategic processes to make good business decisions
• Meet with Operations and Affiliate relation and sourcing teams on a regular basis to ensure Affiliate strategies are on track and achieving customer goals and expectations
• Collaborate with Operations and Affiliate relation and sourcing teams to insure organizational goals are being addressed and met
• Ensure that sourcing processes and policies are in line with business processes
• Minimize cost and maximize value in the sourcing process via leveraging strategic sourcing, negotiations, etc.
• Maintain an awareness of latest buying techniques, theories, best practices, trends, legislative issues and market competitiveness information and leverage these to drive bottom-line improvements
• Deliver processes, tools and expertise to support line management in achieving continuous improvement through all processes
• Identify process improvements and facilitate implementation
• Ensure compliance with policies and programs in alignment with sourcing strategy
• Ensure the effective delivery of initiatives, programs and directives in accordance with sourcing strategy and financial business plans
• Develop and deliver presentations to executives and others, as required on strategies, programs, practices and issues
• Interact cross-functionally with all other departments and serve as an effective and value-added service for the entire organization
• Additional special projects, as needed

 Experience, Qualifications & Educational Requirements

• Bachelor Degree from four year accredited University, MBA preferred; or equivalent work experience
• Experience with procurement and supplier management
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, especially proficiency with Excel
• Prior experience leveraging buying power and negotiating pricing with Affiliates
• Selecting Affiliates using risk, cost and performance factors
• Experience in facilities industry is a plus
• Proactive Affiliate/supplier performance management
• P.M., C.P.P or C.P.P.C. Certification a plus

 Preferred Skills

• Strong negotiation skills
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, particularly via phone and e-mail
• Ability to analyze and see patterns in data and information in order to create proactive solutions
• Ability to present and communicate with multiple levels within the company and with the customer
• Team oriented
• Driven by numbers/measures and comfortable in environment with heavy emphasis on customer service and satisfaction metrics
• Must be self-motivated and have excellent communications skills
• Ability to work across multiple cross functional teams with a variety of stakeholders to achieve your objectives
• High integrity
• Flexibility, adaptability and able to juggle multiple projects and priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to thrive in a demanding environment, requiring high degree of deadline-driven productivity, commitment, adaptability, communication, initiative and follow-through
• Solutions oriented
• Exceptional problem-solving skills
• Team oriented
• Travel Expected: Frequent/High  

Key Relationships and Partners

SMS Leadership/Operations Directors, SMS Affiliate base, Procurement, Compliance Department, Sales Director

Keywords: Vendor management, supplier management, strategic sourcing, metrics, KPI

SMS Assist is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE)