Category Strategy Support Lead - Warehousing, Downstream Aviation & Freight Forwarding

BP PLC; Kuala Lumpur; Hybrid; MYR 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Life and health insurance

Learning opportunities

Diversity and inclusion initiatives

Job summary

BP plc is seeking a Category Strategy Support Lead in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for Warehousing, Downstream aviation and Freight Forwarding. The role focuses on developing category strategies, communicating insights, and supporting decision-making across a multi-national procurement team.

You will collaborate with category managers, conduct market research, and standardize processes to improve value delivery and risk management while working in a hybrid office/remote setup.

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in procurement or business or equivalent experience.
• 6–8 years in Indirect Procurement in international environments.
• Ability to influence across levels and manage stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Partner with warehousing, downstream aviation and freight forwarding category managers to develop strategies.
• Prepare presentations, reports and communications for stakeholder alignment.
• Lead category support activities and drive value creation across BP.
• Track KPIs and ensure effective contract and supplier performance management.

Skills

Agility practices

Analytical thinking

Category strategy

Negotiation planning

Supplier relationship management

Education

Undergraduate degree in procurement or business

Tools

Ariba

Salesforce

Compass

Job description

## Category Strategy Support Lead - Warehousing, Downstream Aviation & Freight ForwardingApply: This position is a hybrid of office/remote working: Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur: Full time: Posted Today: End Date: October 31, 2026 (30+ days left to apply): RQ115391**Entity:**Technology**Job Family Group:**Procurement & Supply Chain Management Group**Job Description:****Role Synopsis**The Category Strategy Support Lead plays a key role in developing and communicating category strategies that align with business goals, value creation, risk mitigation, and supply chain optimization. You will leverage your expertise to create category presentations, reports, and other strategic documents that support decision-making and stakeholder engagement in support of the category managers for **Warehousing, Downstream aviation and Freight Forwarding**.**Working Hours:** This role operates on a shift basis and requires flexibility.Candidates must be flexible to work either:* **Shift A (ASPAC/EU): 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM MYT, or*** **Shift B (ASPAC/US): 5:00 PM – 2:00 AM MYT.****Key Accountabilities*** Partner with **Warehousing, Downstream aviation and Freight Forwarding** category managers, stakeholders and suppliers to develop and execute category strategies that deliver value, manage risk and support bp’s commercial and operational objectives.* Lead and coordinate a category support team, assessing incoming requests and prioritizing work based on urgency, complexity and business impact.* Prepare high-quality presentations, reports and communications tailored to stakeholder needs to secure alignment and support for category strategies.* Conduct market analysis and research to generate strategic insights and identify future value delivery opportunities.* Support demand planning, change management and the development of compelling business cases that drive adoption of category initiatives.* Manage Strategic and Core suppliers through stakeholder engagement, value delivery, category enablement and alignment with broader procurement objectives.* Track and report category performance, KPIs and change initiatives to ensure successful execution of strategy and continuous improvement.* Standardize and enhance category sourcing processes, templates, KPIs and scope reviews to improve efficiency and identify value opportunities.* Implement supplier performance management practices, maintain supplier relationships, drive performance reviews and develop improvement plans to address risk, safety and performance gaps.* Optimize procurement channels and SAP Ariba content, ensuring contract compliance, pricing accuracy, efficient buying processes and effective risk controls.**Essential Education and Experience:*** An undergraduate degree (ideally in procurement or business) or equivalent experience.* Minimum 6-8 years’ professional experience in Indirect Procurement is required.* Experience of working cross culturally and in an international environment, can communicate and influence across different levels in the organization, through an engaging and collaborative way of working* Resilient and experienced in working in multi-faceted environment**Required Experience and Job Requirements:*** Business Requirements Analysis- Use understanding of stakeholder strategy and category knowledge to develop a viable, long term view of business requirements.* Product & Market Intelligence- Uses deep knowledge of supply markets to create strong sourcing solutions. Uses supply market insights to determine future sourcing strategies for the business. Networks internally and externally and stay up to date via industry publications, conferences, and events.* Category Strategy- Acknowledged expert with deep knowledge of their category including thought leadership regarding the impact of innovation and technology. Mentors and coach’s category managers / specialists / analysts / lead in the use of analytical tools. Leads governance discussions with executive sponsors regarding progress and business results.* Business Acumen- Utilizes deep understanding of business operations and commercial factors to support decision-making and priorities opportunities to drive commercial value. Has a broad professional grasp of financial and management information and accounting procedures. Identifies new or alternative approaches to performing business activities more efficiently. Additional Competencies* Relationship Management- Takes full ownership of engagement issues with stakeholders, monitors relationships and acts on relevant feedback. Maintains, develops, and leverages long-term strategic relationships with key senior-level representatives of relevant internal and external organizations and professional groups.* Category Spend Profiling- Develops insights on spend profiles that result in elimination of non-value add spend within the category. Identifies key external and environmental drivers and uses this to recommend sourcing initiatives.* Contract Management- Manage contracts to effectively control spend, reduce risk, avoid supplier driven scope creep. Manages BP’s and supplier’s compliance to the contract and proactively resolves issues before they become major problems.* Supplier Relationship Management- Works collaboratively with suppliers. Links value proposition to strategic objectives.* Value Creation & Management- Creates opportunities that provide mutual value and drive competitive advantage. Challenges suppliers to generate value-based solutions that deliver improved business results.* Cost Modelling- Proposes internal and external solutions to reduce costs over the life of the purchase and implements solutions as agreed.* Buying Channel Compliance - Monitor contract compliance via buying channels and provide analytics to identify contract risk trends and opportunities.* Influencing- Proactively manages a wide range of stakeholders to overcome resistance and achieve a successful result from projects. Varies communication to address specific stakeholder needs and to gain commitment and support.* Innovation- Experiments with new ideas. Brings together the creative ideas into a systematic approach or solution, seeking better solutions for new requirements.* Project Management- Manages stakeholder expectations. Lead project execution to maximize value to BP while mitigating project risk.* Analytical Thinking- Applies analytical techniques to solve complex problems. Identifies, evaluates, and makes clear recommendations based on analysis.* Decision Making- Reaches decisions based on abstract, ambiguous, complex information from a broad range of stakeholders. Makes effective decisions based on urgency and risk level. Makes effective decisions on relevant global issues related to own area of expertise.* People Management: Demonstrated ability to lead and support a team within a cross-functional project environment, with a strong attention to detail and timelines.**Desirable criteria*** Working towards or Membership of Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS)* Familiarity with Ariba Source to Pay, Salesforce & Compass & also Digital Fluency thereby using various technologies & platforms to develop new ideas, projects and opportunities.* Experience of working cross culturally and in an international environment.* Demonstrated ability to establish and manage close relationships remotely.* Ability to communicate and influence across different levels in the organization* Engaging and collaborative way of working* Resilient and experienced in working in multi-faceted environmentAt bp, we provide the following environment and benefits to you:* A company culture where we respect our diverse and unified teams, where we are proud of our achievements and where fun and the demeanor of giving back to our environment are highly valued* Possibility to join our social communities and networks* Learning opportunities and other development opportunities to craft your career path* Life and health insurance, medical care package* And many other benefits.We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform crucial job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment**Travel Requirement**No travel is expected with this role**Relocation Assistance:**This role is not eligible for relocation**Remote Type:**This position is a hybrid of office/remote working**Skills:**Agility core practices, Agility tools, Analytical Thinking, Business Requirements Analysis, Category spend profiling, Category Strategy, Digital Fluency, Negotiating, Negotiation planning and preparation, Product and market intelligence, Supplier Relationship Management.