Category Sourcing Manager - Direct Materials

Charlotte Tilbury Beauty; London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative beauty company is seeking a dynamic Category Sourcing Manager to lead procurement efforts in direct materials. This role involves managing supplier relationships, negotiating contracts, and ensuring cost-effective sourcing solutions for new product development. You'll collaborate with cross-functional teams to drive sustainability initiatives and enhance operational efficiency. Join a vibrant team that values creativity and a proactive mindset, where your contributions will directly impact the growth and success of the brand. If you are passionate about the beauty industry and have a proven track record in procurement, this is your opportunity to shine.

Benefits

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Flexible working model

Generous product discount

Employee Assistance Programs

Dog-friendly workplace

Inclusive parental leave policy

Wellness benefits

Qualifications

• Proven experience in global procurement or strategic sourcing.
• Strong analytical skills with expertise in data analysis and Excel.

Responsibilities

• Manage supplier relationships and negotiate contracts for cost efficiency.
• Develop and implement comprehensive sourcing strategies for new products.

Skills

Global Procurement

Strategic Sourcing

Negotiation Skills

Data Analysis

Project Management

Attention to Detail

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Procurement Certification

Tools

Monday.com

PowerBI

Excel

Job description

Category Sourcing Manager – Direct Materials
12 Fixed Term Contract (FTC)

About Charlotte Tilbury Beauty
Founded by British makeup artist and beauty entrepreneur Charlotte Tilbury MBE in 2013, Charlotte Tilbury Beauty has revolutionised the face of the global beauty industry by de-coding makeup applications for everyone, everywhere, with an easy-to-use, easy-to-choose, easy-to-gift range. Today, Charlotte Tilbury Beauty continues to break records across countries, channels, and categories and to scale at pace.

Over the last 10 years, Charlotte Tilbury Beauty has experienced exceptional growth and is one of the most talked about brands in the beauty industry and beyond. It has become a global sensation across 50 markets (and growing), with over 2,300 employees globally who are part of the Dream Team making the magic happen.

Today, Charlotte Tilbury Beauty is a truly global business, delivering market-leading growth, innovative retail and product launches fuelled by industry-leading tech — all with an internal culture of embracing challenges, disruptive thinking, winning together, and sharing the magic. The energy behind the brand is infectious, and as we grow, we are always looking for extraordinary talent who want to be part of this our success and help drive our limitless ambitions.

About the role
We are looking for a dynamic individual who has appropriate procurement experience to meet the needs of the key Category Manager responsibilities, working within a fast-paced environment, ideally from within the Luxury Cosmetic or Personal Care industry.

The individual will own the commercial relationships with suppliers across their category and have a global remit in material sourcing and cost reduction activities. Key categories include primary and secondary packaging materials and support of third-party contract manufacturer cost initiatives. A lead role will be taken in managing NPD activity across either Colour, Skincare or Accessories and ensuring getting overall COGS & margin ‘right first time’ with managing margin benefit of any NPD being number one priority.

Key projects will include defining a sourcing strategy for New Product Development working closely with Product, Packaging and Supply Chain teams to source effectively in line with strategy, achieve best commercials, deliver projects on time and minimise risk.

Project managing a number of ad-hoc support projects will also be a key activity within the role.

As a Category Sourcing Manager – Direct Materials you will

• New Product Development - Ensure a sustainable and competitive sourcing solution for Innovation pipeline as well as Shade Extension and Reformulation projects. Support NPD/Ops teams to execute projects according to category strategy, holding suppliers accountable to best cost in the first instance and project timelines.
• VAVE - Define and manage cost and efficiency focused VAVE pipeline for sampling, accessories, packaging, formula, manufacturing efficiencies or supplier changes in coordination with Ops teams.
• SRM – Act as key commercial relationship holder with suppliers, building and maintaining strong relationships, ensuring company’s supply chain is efficient and profitable. Assess performance, identify areas of improvement, holding suppliers accountable to commitments whilst working with them to enhance their capabilities.
• Onboarding – Own the new supplier qualification and onboarding process for the Category, managing RFI approval across departments via Monday.com platform, negotiating MSA contract in parallel.
• Contract Negotiation - Lead contract negotiations with new and existing suppliers to ensure competitive pricing, favourable terms, and mitigation of risk as part of the onboarding process. Collaborating with Legal and other internal departments.
• Category Strategy - Develop and implement comprehensive sourcing strategy, having full understanding of manufacturing capabilities within existing supplier roster with a plan to fill in gaps / risk areas. This includes market analysis, supplier identification, evaluation, and selection, all to be in line with CT’s Financial, Quality, Regulatory, ESG, Supply Chain and Legal requirements.
• Cost Management – Proactively identify cost-saving opportunities and negotiate competitive pricing and contractual terms with vendors. Monitor market trends and conduct benchmarking to ensure cost efficiency without compromising quality standards. All in accordance with Procurement Director’s expected annual savings targets for the Department.
• Support to Operations - Manage performance, quality and cost related claims/issues as 1st point of escalation after Supply Chain, Quality and NPD.
• Compliance and Sustainability - Stay updated on import and export tariffs, industry regulations and requirements related to commodities, raw materials and manufacturing practices. Drive sustainable sourcing initiatives to minimise environmental impact and support corporate social responsibility goals.
• Index Tracking - Monitor and analyse market indexes and pricing trends for commodities and raw materials across particular regions. Use this data to proactively identify cost-saving opportunities.
• Cross-functional Collaboration - Collaborate with internal stakeholders, including NPD, Pack Development, ESG, Quality, Regulatory, Supply Chain, Legal, Finance and Tax to align sourcing activities with business objectives. Understand and communicate the requirements of internal stakeholders both cross-functionally and to suppliers.
• Sampling and Minis - Manage commercial activity relating to NPD Sampling programme, ensuring all departments are connected and working in line with strategy to drive competitiveness and cost savings.
• PUIG Synergies - Work with PUIG teams to identify and implement sourcing synergies where appropriate, combining MSA’s, holding joint Business Reviews and in-person site visits.

Competency must haves

• Learning Curve - Capability to quickly take on board and disseminate new data/info quickly and communicate to team effectively.
• Attention to Detail – Able to work at an extremely fast pace, without making unchecked errors across a wide range of projects at the same time.
• Conflicting Priorities - Ability to commit to and deliver against deadlines agreed, where there will be multiple priorities to consider and manage.
• Project Management Skills – Must be conversant with both sourcing tenders/RFQ processes and VAVE project management with suppliers.
• Commercial Acumen - Role holder must possess strong and proven influencing, negotiation and communication skills, with the ability to build and maintain strong supplier relationships.
• Autonomy – Self-motivated and proactive. Must be able to take responsibility for own resource time, prioritising work according to demands of the Head of Sourcing taking ownership of delivery, with minimal direct support.
• Adaptable & Creative – Ability to create new ways of working. Creative mindset that is excited and driven towards finding new opportunities.
• Tenacity - Must be able to ‘hold their own’ when discussing with peers and exec stakeholders, with consistent and constant challenge to ensure process efficiencies, supplier base robust and able to deliver.

About you

• Proven experience in global procurement/strategic sourcing, preferably within the luxury cosmetics or personal care industry.
• Experience in using Monday.com / PowerBI to optimise workflows and project tracking and drive data-driven decision-making.
• Some knowledge of competitor activity, global market dynamics and pricing trends, including index tracking methodologies.
• Strong experience of buying colour cosmetics as well as knowledge of industry landscape, supplier capabilities, and manufacturing processes for cosmetic products. Candidate must be able to demonstrate significant cost savings within this category.
• Must have an analytical mindset and strong data analysis skills including excel analytical expertise, including VLOOKUP’s, nest IF statements, pivot table filters etc.
• Familiarity with quality assurance and compliance standards in the cosmetics industry.
• Familiarity with risk management, contract negotiation, and legal aspects related to sourcing.
• Some Low-Cost Country Sourcing background would be a distinct advantage.
• Must be comfortable working with ambiguous and/or incomplete information.
• Use and implementation of ‘source to contract’ e-sourcing tools a distinct advantage.

Charlotte Tilbury is a fast-paced and dynamic environment where nimble mindsets, striving to deliver the best and wanting to be part of a global #dreaamteam are key. Even though we have requirements, our experience and background are just a guide, we still love to welcome applicants with more or less experience stated, provided necessary skills can be demonstrated.

Why join us?

• Be a part of this values driven, high growth, magical journey with an ultimate vision to empower everyone, everywhere to be the best version of themselves
• We’re a hybrid model with flexibility, allowing you to work how best suits you
• 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) with an additional day to celebrate your birthday
• Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents and carers throughout their parenting and caring journey
• Financial security and planning with our pension and life assurance for all
• Wellness and social benefits including Medicash, Employee Assist Programs and regular social connects with colleagues
• Bring your furry friend to work with you on our allocated dog friendly days and spaces
• And not to forget our generous product discount and gifting!

At Charlotte Tilbury Beauty, our mission is to empower everybody in the world to be the most beautiful version of themselves. We celebrate and support this by encouraging and hiring people with diverse backgrounds, cultures, voices, beliefs, and perspectives into our growing global workforce. By doing so, we better serve our communities, customers, employees - and the candidates that take part in our recruitment process.

If you want to learn more about life at Charlotte Tilbury Beauty please follow our LinkedIn page!