Supply Chain Category Owner
HAVI is a privately held global company that innovates, optimizes and drives the supply chains and marketing promotions of many of the best known brands in the world. When you work at HAVI, you have a chance to make your mark – to be a part of work that drives value, brings a smile and keeps everyday life moving forward. Which means it’s not the size of our global footprint, but rather your personal fingerprint, that has the power to make a real difference for our customers… and to touch the lives of people both at home and around the world.
Responsibilities
The Category Owner role is multi-faceted—requiring proficiency in supply chain management, customer & supplier relationship management, project management and process improvement. This role will be the face to the customer and will oversee the planning and execution of promotions and core items, in collaboration with the offshore operations teams.
The Category Owner will be accountable for the overall planning (supply and demand) and the delivery of end to end supply chain demand and supply plans and the execution of those plans for their assigned category and/or promotions. The Category Owner must be able to fully analyze and speak to both the forecasted demand plan and the supply/distribution plans and have a working knowledge of their assigned categories.
Represent HAVI’s service delivery (Event forecasting, Demand and Supply planning) to clients and suppliers. Provide execution direction to Poland Operating center on creation of forecasts, supply plans, and distribution strategies.
Job Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with external customers.
- Develop and maintain collaborative business relationships with cross-functional HAVI departments, offshore teams, and external supply chain partners.
- Reviews and approves the production and distribution of forecasts and inventory management plans in support of promotional items and demonstrates mastery of the same.
- Review and finalize with the supplier: promotional capacity analyses and financial risk assessments to identify potential constraints and/or exposure and create recommended contingency plans to mitigate or minimize risk.
- Accountability for ensuring inventory optimization across the supply chain network in accordance with target service levels for the assigned category/promotion while minimizing costs.
- Understand & interpret customer challenges to identify opportunities & work with internal customer success team to synthesize and champion business solutions that lead to new business & services.
- As a category or program lead, responsible to manage assigned projects, timelines, & team deliverables to meet customer objectives and milestones.
- Conduct collaborative discussions with the event forecasters and event supply planning teams in the Poland operating center to drive forecast and/or supply plan improvements and incorporate client feedback.
- Represent working knowledge of ROP and EAS.
- Develop & communicate project news, issues, status, & reports. Make recommendations & raise escalations as necessary to appropriate stakeholders, including management.
- Conducts regular customer, supplier, DC level communication meetings. Distribute and discuss program supply status with collaborative reporting to drive system alignment and achievement of program objectives.
- Conducts account & relationship management activities with suppliers, DCs and potentially customers, ensuring effective communication and development of business relationships that promote superior project execution.
- Understand & interpret customer challenges to identify opportunities & work with internal customer success team to synthesize and champion business solutions that lead to new business & services.
- Acts as the subject matter expert for supplier and distribution companies capabilities and promotional execution, with the ability to represent the supplier base in internal and external meetings and coaches the supplier base through the entire promotional life cycle.
- Serve as a coach and/or mentor to fellow category owner and leads HAVI cross functional groups as needed to ensure process alignment/execution of assigned programs.
- Communicates US/CN national and regional food promotion forecasts and supply plans, along with accompanying materials
- Provide ‘orientations’ on Forecast processes and supply planning processes to internal / external partner
- Create, develop, & drive new ideas & processes that advance continuous improvement, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
- Performs other duties as required.
Desired Skills & Experience
• 5+ years related Supply Chain Management experience
• University Degree in Business, Supply Chain Management, Economics, Operations or a relevant discipline.
• Experience with Inventory/Demand/ERP Applications & Reporting Tools (JDA, JDE, OBIEE, Tableau, PowerBI) with proficiency in SQL a plus
• Demonstrated proficiency in analytics
• Experience in a direct client interfacing role
• Proficient with Microsoft Applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Sharepoint).
• Strong interpersonal skills to effectively interact with both internal and external customers.
• Ability to manage and prioritize different tasks, effectively balance priorities, and be accepting of ambiguity.
• Ability to manage and prioritize different tasks, effectively balance priorities, and be accepting of ambiguity.
• Command skills
• Ability to collaborate with others in a cross-functional, cross-geography environment and to prioritize work in a fast-paced environment
• Strong communication skills appropriate across all levels of the organization, including external customers
• Demonstrated ability to solve problems and come up with alternative solutions
Benefits
Our total rewards philosophy integrates programs for compensation, benefits, recognition, learning and development, corporate culture, corporate citizenship and work-life balance. While individual program components may differ by country, some things remain constant:
…our commitment to rewarding results
…the opportunity to work with talented and driven individuals at every level of our company who respect each other, treat each other fairly and hold one another accountable for our customers’—and our company’s success