Indirect Procurement Team Lead

Kerry Group; Santiago de Querétaro; Hybrid; MXN 1,477,000 - 1,846,000; Full time

Job summary

Kerry is seeking a hands-on leader to manage the centralized Indirect Purchase Order team for the North America service. You will oversee end-to-end PO lifecycle, ensure timely processing, drive continuous improvement, and collaborate with cross-functional partners.

Ideal candidates have 3+ years in a similar leadership role within Finance, strong analytical skills, and experience with procurement operations. Hybrid work setup and global collaboration are offered.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Supply Chain or similar (preferred).
• Minimum 3 years in a leadership role within Finance or related area.
• Experience in procure-to-pay, procurement ops, accounts payable, indirect purchasing or PO management in a shared service environment.
• Proficient with Microsoft 365; Coupa and SAP experience desirable.
• Professional English communication for North America stakeholders and suppliers.

Responsibilities

• Lead daily Indirect PO operations, allocate workload and ensure requests meet service levels.
• Act as hands-on working lead, covering transactional and exception-management tasks when needed.
• Own service performance across PO lifecycle, supplier queries and invoice exceptions; monitor queues and backlogs.
• Monitor OpenText invoices tied to POs and GRNs; identify recurring failures and resolve promptly.
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective actions to achieve the 90% FTF rate target.
• Ensure compliance with procurement policies and audit controls.
• Mentor and develop team members through onboarding and training.
• Maintain team capacity and backup coverage for critical activities.

Skills

Leadership

Procurement operations

Analytical problem solving

Stakeholder management

Team development

Education

Bachelor's degree (preferred) in Finance, Accounting, Business Admin., Supply Chain

Tools

Microsoft 365

Coupa

SAP

Job description

Requisition ID: 67549
Position Type: FT Permanent
Workplace Arrangement: #LI-Hybrid

About Kerry

Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment.

About the role

Lead the centralized Indirect Purchase Order team and ensure accurate, timely and compliant delivery across the end-to-end PO lifecycle, from request validation and PO creation through changes, goods receipt or service confirmation, invoice exception resolution and supplier query support. This is a hands-on people leadership role that combines operational execution, workload and performance management, controls, stakeholder partnership, team development and continuous improvement for the North America service.

What will you do?

• Lead daily Indirect PO operations, allocate workload and ensure requests are completed accurately and within agreed service levels.
• Operate as a hands-on working lead, stepping into transactional and exception-management activities when volume, complexity, absence coverage or business risk requires it.
• Own service performance across request validation, PO creation and maintenance, approval follow-up, goods receipt or service confirmation, supplier queries, and invoice or match exceptions. Monitor queues, backlog, aging, turnaround time, rework, rejected requests and recurring issues; take corrective action and escal material risks promptly.
• Monitor failed invoices in OpenText that result from incorrectly raised Purchase Orders (POs) or Goods Receipt Notes (GRNs), identify recurring failure patterns and ensure timely resolution.
• Lead root cause analysis and implement corrective and preventive actions when the 90% First Time Pass Rate target for centralized Indirect Purchasing activities is not achieved.
• Ensure compliance with procurement policies, approved-vendor requirements, delegation of authority, segregation of duties, tax requirements, documentation standards and audit controls.
• Lead, coach and develop team members through onboarding, cross-training, knowledge transfer, feedback, objective setting and development planning.
• Maintain team capacity, business continuity and backup coverage across critical activities and restricted-access processes.
• Own operational SOPs, work instructions, knowledge materials, control evidence and service-performance reporting.
• Lead root-cause analysis and drive standardization, simplification and automation to improve quality, productivity and stakeholder experience.
• Act as the primary operational escalation point for requesters, approvers, suppliers and GBS (Global Business Services) partner teams.
• Support transition readiness, knowledge transfer, shadowing, reverse shadowing, cutover, hypercare and handover into business as usual.

What will you need to be successful?

• Bachelor's degree (preferred, not mandatory) in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Supply Chain, or similar.
• Experience: Minimum 3 years in a similar leadership role within Finance.
• Demonstrated knowledge in procure-to-pay, procurement operations, accounts payable, indirect purchasing or purchase-order management in a comparable shared service environment.
• Skilled with Microsoft 365 tools. Experience with Coupa and SAP is desirable.
• Professional English communication for North American stakeholders and suppliers.
• Strong analytical problem-solving, proactive follow-up and escalation judgment.
• Stakeholder, supplier and service-escalation management.
• Workload, capacity and priority management in an SLA-driven environment.
• Financial-control, documentation and audit-readiness mindset.
• Continuous improvement, process standardization and change capability.
• People-oriented and committed to capability development.
• Collaborative and effective in a matrix environment.

We may use artificial intelligence tools to support the review and assessment of applications and assist with scheduling interviews. We do not use AI to make decisions during the interview process. All candidate assessments and hiring decisions are made by our recruitment and leadership teams.