Assistant Procurement Manager-Homecare Innovations

Job Title: Assistant Procurement Manager-Homecare Innovations

Department: Procurement

Profession: Supply Chain

Work Location: Mumbai, India

Reporting Manager: Procurement Lead Home care, South Asia

Job Description:

ABOUT UNILEVER

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. Our strategy begins with a purpose that places consumers at the heart of everything we do: Brighten everyday life for all. Our goal is to deliver best-in-class performance with market-making, unmissably superior brands. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world. At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our collaborative, and flexible working environment. Our organizational aspiration centers around creating workplaces that foster equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging across all aspects of our business. We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

ABOUT PROCUREMENT

Part of the Supply Chain family, Procurement is responsible for over 30B Euro of material and services spend globally with more than 60,000 suppliers. Getting the right services and materials, sustainably sourced and ensuring responsible procurement is critical to ensuring our brands with purpose grow. Our teams work closely with the business to understand stakeholders needs, bring innovation to meet changing consumer, employees and customers’ needs, and drive financial value for Unilever through competitive buying. We’re at the forefront of digital procurement, bringing new tools and analytics to drive data-based outcomes. Our strategy is ‘Procurement with Purpose’ and focuses on buying responsibly, buying better, and growing together with partners around the world. Our aspiration is based on three key drivers: being Purpose-Led, Value-Driven, and Future-Fit.

A successful procurement professional is expected to be:

• Strong in running the innovation networks from procurement side for various innovations across the HC (Laundry and HHC) category.
• Act as an entrepreneur, treats business as his/her own, sets trends and is willing to guide, follow or get out of the way while working on innovation networks.
• Strong communication skills with internal as well as external stakeholders
• Exceptional execution is key to ensure aspiring ideas are progressed fast towards implementation.
• Outstanding in pushing ideas that are forward thinking and that contribute to creating sustained competitive advantage and incremental turn over generation.
• Able to understand the business urgency and able to push the agenda with different stakeholders to gather the inputs: R&D, Supply Chain, Suppliers etc.
• Behave as a Partner to Win ambassador and demonstrate the value Procurement adds to the business.

Main Job Purpose:

The role will manage the Home care Innovations from the procurement side and partner cross functional stakeholders (brand teams, functional teams e.g. R&D, Supply Chain, Quality). The role will drive value and work with suppliers to land innovations on time and in full. Manage relationship with the India based suppliers, deliver savings and in turn support South Asia cost savings delivery.  

Leverage previous knowledge and expertise to run the innovation networks and work with different stakeholders to gather their inputs for innovation launches.

Key Responsibilities:

Manage the HC Innovation for India, represent procurement in various Innovation network meetings. Work with internal and external stakeholders to gather the inputs for innovation/relaunched product costing and ensure material connectivity for trials and launches. Work closely with Suppliers, R&D, Global Buyers and other stakeholders to drive the innovation agenda for India. This may require travel to supplier sites and UL factories during clean future initiatives implementation. Material price forecasting to support business case preparations and solutions on new product launches. Work with different stakeholders like Brand, R&D, SUIT, Planning, Central Quality, Finance and Procurement for innovation new product (re)launches and smart product changes (as part of renovation agenda). Present update on HC Innovations to internal stakeholders and flag concerns wherever needed. Interact with suppliers for the purpose of strategic and ongoing development of innovative solutions as part of Innovation, savings and clean future agenda. Should be able to manage the agenda and hold people accountable for their actions during the projects.

Challenges:

• Establishing effective relationships with the internal customers Brand, Procurement Managers, R&D, SUIT, Finance, Quality, and other stakeholders) as well as external partners (Suppliers) is key to the delivery.
• This role would require coordination with different raw and pack material buyers and other stakeholders: Working across organizational and cultural boundaries independently without direct hierarchical control of resources.

Professional Skills:

• Candidate should be at minimum a science graduate with 5+ years of experience in Product/ Process or Technology development/ deployment, Innovation Network management/ Procurement preferably within FMCG.
• University degree and Supply Chain exposure is preferred.
• Project management skills

Skills/Competencies

• Ability to work in a hugely diverse, cross-cultural business environment.
• Strong network and stakeholders’ management skills
• Self-driven with the ability to work unassisted.
• Problem solving skills to analyse the situation & create outcomes to support the business needs.
• Excellent Excel and power point skills
• Influencing skills

Experience Required:

• 5+ years of relevant work experience Product/ Process or Technology development/ deployment, Supply Chain/Network management role within FMCG domain
• Exposure to Home care formulations/ raw materials preferred.

Travel: Low levels (~25%)

Contacts:

Internal:

• Procurement teams – Global & Local
• Brand, Global/local R&D, SUIT, Planning, Finance, Quality, SEAC

External:

• Suppliers – New & Existing
• Procurement/Market Intelligence Agencies etc.

Reporting Channel:

Procurement Director S.Asia <-- Sr Procurement Manager- Chemicals HC <-- Asst Procurement Manager- HC Innovations

D&I statement:

Equal Opportunity Employer: Unilever is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, or any other basis protected by applicable law, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. 

Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applicants from all walks of life. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.