Global Category Leader – Creative & Advertising / Responsable Catégorie Achats Création & Publicité

Ipsen; Paris; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Ipsen is seeking a Global Category Leader for Creative & Advertising to define and deploy global and regional procurement strategies across markets. You will design a scalable agency ecosystem, balance global consistency with local relevance, and act as a strategic partner to Global Marketing and its brands, including North America.

You will lead major engagements, drive value delivery, and ensure affiliate adoption through strong collaboration with regional procurement and the affiliate

Qualifications

• Experience leading category management for creative and advertising services.
• Ability to design scalable procurement ecosystems across regions.
• Strong collaboration with marketing, brands, and affiliate networks.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end category strategy for Creative & Advertising services across global and regional levels.
• Lead global negotiations, supplier governance, and performance-based contracts.
• Partner with brand leaders and affiliates to balance global consistency with local relevance.
• Develop and deploy supplier models, rate cards, and frameworks for scalable delivery across markets.
• Ensure governance, compliance, and ESG commitments are embedded in category plans.

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Stakeholder management

Negotiation

Global category management

Job description

The Global Category Leader – Creative & Advertising is responsible for defining and deploying global and regional procurement strategies for creative, advertising, and digital agency services, enabling marketing effectiveness, commercial value delivery, and consistent execution across markets.

The role is responsible for designing and deploying a high-performing, scalable, and innovative agency ecosystem, ensuring strong affiliate-level adoption while balancing global consistency with local relevance.

Reporting to the Senior Director – Global Marketing Procurement, the role acts as a strategic partner to Global Marketing stakeholders (GPPS and Neurosciences brand teams) while ensuring strong collaboration with regional procurement and the brands' affiliate network (including North America).

WHAT - Main Responsibilities & Technical Competencies

Global & Regional Category Strategy with Affiliate Impact

• Be accountable for end-to-end Category Management for Creative & Advertising services, including strategy, sourcing, supplier performance, governance, and value delivery at global and regional levels.
• Define and lead global and regional sourcing strategies supporting creative, advertising, and digital/content production services, in close partnership with Global and Affiliate Marketing / Brands leadership (incl. North America)
• Determine the most relevant level of strategy (global vs. regional) to best support brand ambition, agency models, and market needs.
• Ensure strategies deliver tangible value at the affiliate level (including North America), are scalable across markets, and balance global consistency with local relevance.
• Align strategies with brand lifecycle stages (pre‑launch, launch, maturity) and therapeutic priorities, including Neurosciences.
• Maintain a strong understanding of the external landscape, key market trends, and emerging innovations, and translate these into recommendations to continuously evolve the category strategy.
• Lead strategic sourcing and negotiations for major engagements (>€300k), including global framework agreements, rate cards/pricing models, and performance-based contracts.

Value Delivery & Deployment Across Affiliates

• Design and continuously improve the agency ecosystem (rosters, hubs, modular models), including scope of work structures and commercial frameworks that enable innovation, speed, and consistency across markets
• Ensure effective deployment and adoption of global and regional frameworks across affiliates
• Monitor value realization and performance across regions (North America, EMEA, JAPAC & LATAM)
• Leverage spend analytics, supplier benchmarking, and market intelligence to identify value creation, innovation, and risk mitigation opportunities across the Creative & Advertising category.

Business Partnering & Affiliate Network Leadership

• Animate and enable the International and NA Procurement Business Partner community through regular category updates, best‑practice sharing, and structured communication to support consistent execution and continuous improvement.
• Act as a strategic partner to Global Brands Leaders, influencing investment strategies, agency ecosystems, and omnichannel execution
• Build and lead a global Creative & Advertising Procurement Affiliate Network, anchored at affiliate level across North America, EMEA, JAPAC & LATAM to influence agency selection and ways of working, and to ensure adoption of strategies and models.
• Drive affiliate impact and network engagement by capturing feedback, sharing best practices, and supporting resolution of key affiliate challenges related to agency services.

Supplier Ecosystem, SRM & Industrialization

• Define and lead a high performing global Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) and ecosystem strategy across Creative & Advertising.
• Establish strategic supplier partnerships supported by clear performance management, innovation roadmaps, and continuous improvement in service quality, cost efficiency, and innovation.
• Design and deploy industrialized, scalable supplier models, including standard service packages, rate cards, benchmarking tools, and volume based commercial frameworks, ensuring consistent, high quality delivery across regions and sustainable value creation

Execution Model Alignment (SSC Integration)

• Ensure global category strategies are fully aligned with Shared Service Center (SSC) execution models.
• Enable efficient and consistent execution through the deployment of standard playbooks, RFP templates, and clear sourcing frameworks.
• Continuously improve execution efficiency and end‑user experience to support scalable and reliable delivery across markets.

Governance, Compliance & Performance

• Ensure strong governance and compliance through enforcement of supplier panel usage, standardized processes (sourcing Threshold), and contract adherence.
• Ensure compliance with Procurement policies, sourcing thresholds, governance frameworks, and ESG commitments, embedding responsible sourcing and sustainability principles into category strategies and execution.
• Define and negotiate Global framework agreements, Rate cards & Performance-based contracts
• Monitor performance and value delivery, including savings realization, SLA compliance, and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Act as the escalation point for supplier issues, adoption challenges, and service delivery risks, ensuring timely resolution and continuity of service.