Global Direct Materials Sourcing Lead

VAT Group; Sennwald; On-site; CHF 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

VAT Group seeks a Strategic Sourcing Manager to act as a business partner to key stakeholders and to sustain the Global Category Management Operating Model. You will provide supply capability and capacity at best cost to support future business needs and protect brand value.

The role focuses on elastomer, rubber, and plastics categories, with accountability for cost optimization, supply base optimization, and geographic sourcing footprint. Strong negotiation and analytics skills are essential.

Qualifications

• A further education in Procurement or equivalent; ideally a Master’s degree or similar
• Preferably 4-8 years of in-depth strategic sourcing experience with a solid working knowledge of global category management direct materials
• Preferably strong experience on the electronic sourcing market dealing with EMS suppliers as well as components
• Demonstrated work experience on category specific production techniques and processes
• Working experience within a global complex organization; an understanding of cross-functional & cross cultural change management is essential
• Strong contract negotiation skills, ideally with practice in global industrial manufacturing companies
• Experience with Power BI or similar data analytics tools preferable
• Solid people and change management skills, stakeholder engagement, cross-functional project leadership skills, strong analytical skills and ability to focus on the essential facts, able to get results through others, able to multi-task, ability to work under pressure
• Fluent in English and good level of German desirable

Responsibilities

• Management of own material categories (capacity, knowledge management, performance). Focus is on Elastomer, Rubber and Plastics
• Accountable for contributing to the global Direct Material & Supply Base Performance (QCD)
• Representing own direct material categories within the VAT organization
• Accountable for the category specific achievement of the objectives of cost optimization, supply base optimization, geographic sourcing footprint and Best Cost Country Sourcing
• Providing forward-looking guidance on trends, threats and opportunities in own categories (eg. raw materials etc.)
• Active contribution to the bottom-up alignment of the Direct Materials Category Team with the defined / set company objectives
• Interface to BU / Engineering for Strategic Sourcing activities along with the PDP process
• Act as a change agent regarding main stakeholders
• Perform the development of category sourcing strategies applying and complying with defined methods and tools
• Active supplier relationship management of the global supply base within its own category perimeter in alignment with the category teams in Switzerland, Malaysia and Romania

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Contract negotiation

Change management

Stakeholder engagement

Analytical skills

Multi-tasking

Pressure handling

Communication

English fluency

German language desirable

Education

Master’s degree in Procurement or related

Tools

Power BI

Job description

VAT Group seeks a Strategic Sourcing Manager to act as a business partner to key stakeholders and to sustain the Global Category Management Operating Model. You will provide supply capability and capacity at best cost to support future business needs and protect brand value.

The role focuses on elastomer, rubber, and plastics categories, with accountability for cost optimization, supply base optimization, and geographic sourcing footprint. Strong negotiation and analytics skills are essential.