Assistant Procurement Manager

Unilever; Rotterdam; Hybrid; EUR 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

Professional training & development

Life insurance

Private medical care

Pension fund

Diversity of sports benefits

Extra days off

Unilever product discounts

Job summary

Unilever is seeking an action-driven procurement professional with strong operations experience to manage end-to-end sourcing across Europe. The role emphasizes strategic portfolio management, supplier negotiations, and risk mitigation for a resilient supply chain.

The candidate will collaborate with cross-functional teams, analyze markets, and deliver savings while ensuring responsible sourcing and compliance in a complex environment. Hybrid work is offered.

Qualifications

• Minimum 2–3 years of procurement or operations experience in an international environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management or procurement.
• Proficiency with SAP, Pega NPP, Anaplan, HICX and Velocity.

Responsibilities

• Enter contracts and manage daily end-to-end operations for Unilever supply across 20+ sites in Europe with the Europe planning team.
• Address quality deviations with the factory quality team.
• Manage supply challenges and implement risk management strategies to mitigate disruptions.
• Support flawless portfolio transfers based on Unilever's business strategy.
• Build relationships with market teams to reflect local needs in the portfolio strategy.
• Deliver accurate price forecasting and enable budgeting and forecasting.

Skills

Analytical skills

Excel

Financial acumen

Negotiation

Project management

English fluency

French fluency

Education

Bachelor's degree in supply chain management or procurement

Tools

SAP

Pega NPP

Anaplan

HICX

Velocity

Job description

Job Details

Part of the Supply Chain family, Procurement is responsible for over 30B Euro of material and services spend globally with more than 60,000 suppliers. Getting the right services and materials, sustainably sourced and ensuring responsible procurement is critical to ensuring our brands with purpose grow. Our teams work closely with the business to understand stakeholders needs, bring innovation to meet changing consumer, employees and customers needs, and drive financial value through competitive buying. We’re at the forefront of digital procurement, bringing new tools and analytics to drive data-based decisions.

Unilever is looking for an action-driven professional who excels in operations, has strategic thinking, strong negotiation skills, and is eager to deep dive into agricultural supply chains.

What will your main responsibilities be:

Operations

• Enter contracts and manage daily end-to-end operations for Unilever supply across 20+ sites (both in-house and contract manufacturing) in Europe with the Europe planning team.
• Address quality deviations with the factory quality team.
• Manage supply challenges and implement risk management strategies to mitigate potential disruptions.
• Support flawless portfolio transfers based on Unilever's business strategy.
• Build strong working relationships with market teams to reflect local business requirements, including service and quality, in your portfolio strategy.
• Excel in various reporting (savings, resilience etc.).
• Manage compliance (e.g.: responsible sourcing, sustainable sourcing etc.).
• Handle payment issues and supplier on-boarding changes.

Portfolio Strategy & Negotiations

• Conduct negotiations with competitive outcome.
• Analyze and develop a deep understanding of supply markets, including external economic factors, and optimize the end-to-end value chain.
• Develop resilience plans and alternatives to ensure supply security.
• Deliver bottom-line savings and cash by identifying and landing key opportunities.
• Collaborate with suppliers and internal cross-functional teams to land improvement programs.
• Provide accurate price forecasting, including market conditions, price trends, and future market trends to enable proper budgeting and forecasting.

What you need to succeed

• Strong negotiation skills and business acumen.
• Strong track record of cross-functional teamwork.
• Result- and solution-oriented with an outstanding level of agility.
• Outstanding learning and analytical skills, digitally savvy, and great in execution in a complex environment.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence others internally and externally.
• Initiative-taker with strong accountability, responsibility, and leadership skills.
• An eagle eye for details.
• Proactive and able to work independently and virtually.

Experience & Qualifications

• Minimum 2 - 3 years of procurement or operations experience, ideally in an international environment.
• Bachelor`s degree in supply chain management or procurement.
• Proficiency in supply chain systems such as SAP, Pega NPP, Anaplan, HICX, and Velocity.

Skills

• Great analytical and Excel skills.
• Strong financial acumen.
• Negotiation skills; experience in agricultural materials is a plus.
• Project management.
• Fluent English and French.

Leadership

• You are energized by delivering fantastic results. You are an example to others through both your results and your resilience. You are constantly on the lookout for better ways to do things, engaging and collaborating with others along the way.
• As an individual you are responsible for your own wellbeing and delivering high standards of work. You must also focus on the consumer and what they need. You are humble and have your head up, looking around to interpret evidence and data smartly, and spot issues and opportunities to make things better.

SOL (Standards of Leadership) Behaviours

• PASSION FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE: Takes personal responsibility and accountability for execution and results. Generates intensity and focus to motivate people to deliver results at speed.
• PERSONAL MASTERY: Sets high standards for themselves. Actively builds own wellbeing and resilience.
• CONSUMER & CUSTOMER LOVE: Brings the voice of the consumer into everything we do, always.
• PURPOSEFUL IMPACT: Has humility, understanding that leadership is service to others, inside and outside Unilever.
• AGILITY: Explores the world around them, continually learning and developing their skills.
• TALENT CATALYST: Inspire people to grow, with support and honesty.

What we offer

• Hybrid work and flexibility.
• Opportunities for the development and improvement of qualifications.
• Sharing the cost of professional training and courses.
• Benefits: life insurance, private medical care, pension fund, sharing the cost of sports activities, Benefits System – Cafeteria and many others.
• Extra days off to take care of yourself and others.
• Unilever store - our products at attractive prices.