Sr Manager - Directs And CO-Man

McCain Foods; Gurgaon; Hybrid; INR 3,500,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

McCain Foods seeks a Sr. Manager- Directs & Co-Man for India to lead direct materials and co-man procurement, shaping category strategy across oils, dairy, packaging, and more. You will drive supplier partnerships and cost initiatives within a global procurement framework.

The role reports to the Director - Procurement India, collaborating with senior stakeholders to ensure sustainable, compliant sourcing aligned with growth targets and the global vision.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business or related discipline required.
• Master's degree in Business (Supply Chain/ Operations) or equivalent preferred.
• 8-12 years of relevant procurement, sourcing, supply chain, or category management experience.
• Strong strategic sourcing and category management expertise.
• Demonstrated commercial and financial acumen with a Total Cost of Ownership mindset.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing capabilities.
• Strong negotiation, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Effective communication and presentation skills, both written and verbal.

Responsibilities

• Overall Spend/Function Strategy: Tools, capability, resources, fit for future. Constantly seeking best practices and leveraging opportunities within the McCain Global network.
• Strategic Sourcing and Category Planning: Owns sourcing and contracting strategy for all categories including market analysis, supplier segmentation, negotiations and contracting.
• Sustainable Cost Advantage Delivery: Drives cost optimization initiatives and builds a pipeline of opportunities.
• Business and Stakeholder Alignment: Maintains ongoing stakeholder engagement and cross-functional linkages with sourcing strategy and supplier management.
• Spend Governance: Leads improvements in sourcing processes to ensure quality, service, and compliance.
• Supplier Relationship Management: Manages supplier relationships, drives innovation, and reviews long-term objectives with critical suppliers.
• AOC Budgeting: Works with finance to establish and manage budgets and productivity goals.

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Category management

Negotiation

Stakeholder management

Financial acumen

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business or related discipline

Master's degree in Business (Supply Chain/ Operations) or equivalent preferred

8-12 years of procurement, sourcing, supply chain, or category management experience

Job description

Position Title

Head of Directs & CO-Man

Position Type

Regular - Full-Time

About the Role

In every role, McCainers are ambitious, curious, and passionate about creating exceptional work experiences - together. With a customer-first mindset, we make doing business with McCain easy.

The Sr. Manager- Directs and Co-Man is a critical enabler of the continuity and cost structure of India business. It is responsible for how we buy all direct materials and co-man today, with co-man being a newer addition.

The Procurement of Directs covers Oil, Dairy, Packaging, Batters, and other critical ingredients. The category contributes a significant share to the “TPC” (Total Product Cost). With India business growing tremendously, category is targeted to create massive value for the business in alignment with Global Procurement vision & pillars. As the category scale, some big bets (beyond value delivery) include risk management assessment & making strong supplier partner relations, while keeping sustainability at the core in all decisions we make.

With the addition of CoMan as well, this brings the need for more senior stakeholder interaction at an ILT (Leadership) level. The CoMan work supports the 2030 ambition. CoMan will play a pivotal role in shaping business strategy focusing on avenues for dominating new markets, unleashing innovation and being a key part of the make (CAPEX/Line time) vs. buy (CoMan) decisions. The total annual spend under influence is expected to be CAD 60M.

The McCain procurement team (150 total globally) is led by a Chief Procurement Officer through a team of Regional VP’s aligned by: APACSA, GB&I, EMENA, North America, Latin America, Global Capital & MRO, Global Categories, and COE. The role will report into the Director - Procurement India, which is part of the APACSA region.

Not only is it a pivotal time in the India business, but it’s an exciting time of change and opportunity within the procurement function at McCain. The role is part of a broader team looking to help to shape the function and establish best practices regionally but also McCain’s worldwide.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Overall Spend/Function Strategy: Tools, capability, resources, fit for future Constantly seeking out and reviewing industry and category specific best practices, processes and systems to leverage opportunities within the McCain Global network and also externally in the market. Researches and stays updated on industry trends that may impact existing and/or future category strategies. Shares best practices within the team and functional stakeholders.
• Strategic Sourcing and Category Planning: Owns the sourcing and contracting strategy for all categories including market and industry analysis, category and supplier segmentation, sourcing activities, analysis, negotiations, contracting and implementation. Provides deep category insight and expertise through understanding of costs, cost drivers, market, industry and supplier variables.
• Sustainable Cost Advantage Delivery: Drives initiatives focusing on overall cost optimisation for categories being managed. Collaborates with cross-functional team to execute initiatives and build solid pipeline of opportunities.
• Business and Stakeholder Alignment. : Establishes ongoing communication and process to ensure high levels of stakeholder engagement, participation and satisfaction. Participates in stakeholder leadership teams for respective functional areas to build and maintain ongoing linkages with sourcing strategy, category management, supply base design and ongoing supplier relationship management. Collaborates with sourcing points for ANZ business within McCain global footprint.
• Spend Governance: Leads, controls and drives improvement in the sourcing processes for respective category areas in order to capitalize on opportunities, drive productivity, and deliver quality and service requirements for all business stakeholders and driving the same through structured contracts with suppliers in line with the policy guidelines. Ensure compliance in line with procurement policy and procedures.
• Supplier Relationship Management: Manages supplier relationships to encourage supplier innovation and maximize value contributions to McCain through effective sourcing and contracting processes. Responsible for leading discussions with critical suppliers around long-term objectives and strategies, performance management ongoing market trends, innovation and technology advances. Ensures that suppliers fully understand the overall McCain value stream and the end customer, and that McCain commitments to suppliers are being fulfilled. Meets with preferred suppliers on a regular basis to ensure contractual obligations are being met or exceeded.
• AOC Budgeting: Works closely with finance and stakeholders to establish and manage budgets for respective category areas. Incorporates contractual commitments. Has ownership and accountability for goals and objectives tied to productivity, innovation, and cash flow

What You’ll Need To Be Successful

• Bachelor's degree in Business or related discipline required.
• Master's degree in Business (Supply Chain/ Operations) or equivalent preferred.
• 8-12 years of relevant procurement, sourcing, supply chain, or category management experience.
• Strong strategic sourcing and category management expertise.
• Demonstrated commercial and financial acumen with a Total Cost of Ownership mindset.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing capabilities.
• Strong negotiation, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Effective communication and presentation skills, both written and verbal.
• High standards of ethics, integrity, and relationship management.

About The Team

The role reports directly into Director - Procurement

About McCain

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