Procurement Category Manager – Logistics

DS Smith; Kraków; On-site; PLN 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

DS Smith Krakow is seeking a Category Manager, Logistics (Ocean Freight) for a 6‑month assignment to develop and execute category strategies, lead procurement activities, and optimize the ocean freight spend across Packaging, Paper and Recycling divisions.

You will build strong supplier partnerships, manage risk, and drive ESG and value creation through strategic sourcing, with English fluency and cross‑regional collaboration as core requirements.

Qualifications

• Strong knowledge and experience of procurement roles in Logistics, ideally Ocean Freight.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent by experience.
• Experience in developing and implementing 1-3 year category strategies.
• Experience in complex procurement sourcing and contracting negotiations.
• Experience in optimising logistics spend through levers.
• Ability to define multi-year category strategies and lead change in a matrix environment.
• CIPS or EU equivalent desirable; fluent in English; another European language is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute category strategies for Ocean Freight with a 1-3 year horizon.
• Lead procurement activities, building supplier partnerships across Packaging, Paper and Recycling.
• Drive cost, working capital, and sustainability improvements in logistics spend.
• Coordinate with Legal and Commercial teams to draft and manage contracts.
• Manage supplier performance and governance; run tendering and negotiations end-to-end.

Skills

Ocean Freight procurement

Category strategy development

Sourcing & contracting

Cost optimisation

Multi-year strategy design

Procurement leadership

ESG / sustainability awareness

English fluency

European language advantage

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Porter’s Five Forces

Kraljic matrix

Contract management systems

Job description

Location – Krakow 6 months' assignment

The Category Manager, Logistics (Ocean Freight) will play a key role in developing and executing category strategies and commercial procurement solutions that deliver sustainable value and a competitive supply base across DS Smith's ocean freight spend. As part of the Logistics Category Team, this position is responsible for supporting business growth, driving innovation, advancing ESG objectives, and enabling the successful deployment of the end-to-end supply chain strategy. Reporting to the Head of Logistics Procurement, the successful candidate will lead procurement activities within the Ocean Freight category, partnering closely with stakeholders across the business to ensure logistics services are strategically sourced, cost-effective, and aligned with operational requirements. The role will focus on building strong supplier partnerships, leveraging scale across Packaging, Paper, and Recycling divisions, and identifying opportunities to optimize costs, improve service performance, and drive long-term value across the logistics portfolio. Working collaboratively with Logistics Category Managers, the Logistics Procurement Centre of Excellence, and key suppliers, this role will contribute to the development of innovative, sustainable, and customer-focused supply chain solutions that support business objectives and strengthen DS Smith's market position.

Category Strategy

Provide commercial thought leadership to mature the Logistics [Ocean Freight] category alongside business stakeholders, leveraging internal and external best practices. Develop and implement with stakeholders, 1-3 year category strategies, supported by execution roadmaps to deliver this strategy with short, medium and long term initiatives. Ensure strategies explore all key value levers – supply and demand. Adopt an enterprise mindset to unlock synergies that drive cross-divisional benefits across Packaging, Paper and Recycling. Collaborate with business stakeholders to develop a comprehensive wave plan for procurement activities. Utilise tools like Porters Five Forces and Kraljic to gain a strong understanding of market dynamics and cost drivers specific to the Ocean Freight Category. Develop procurement strategies and a pipeline of projects for Ocean Freight that drive value, and deliver holistic supplier performance. These strategies include value creation across multiple dimensions, including cost, working capital, innovation, top line performance and sustainability (ESG).

Stakeholder Engagement

Communicate with business stakeholders to ensure alignment to key procurement strategies. Ensure business governance is in place to promote strategic alignment. Engage and influence stakeholders at all levels to maximise the impact of the Category Strategy. Lead change management and communications to successfully implement new commercial procurement solutions. Build relationships across the procurement community and with key stakeholders. Support building close ties across Packaging, Paper and Recycling to unlock end-to-end supply chain benefit.

Markets and Risk

For Ocean Freight, understand and respond to market intelligence and economic fundamentals to ensure the best time to go to market for optimal supplier pricing and value. Develop deep understanding of the supplier capabilities, industry and roadmaps for Ocean Freight services. Deliver supplier strategies which actively anticipate and reduce supplier risk (e.g., sole supplier risk, financial health, data privacy, information security, modern slavery) and secure competitive, sustainable supply. Partnering with group stakeholders and Procurement Excellence teams to understand and embed agreed risk standards. Build benchmarking and index insights to forecast spend and drive out cost.

Contracting

Ensure appropriate Supplier tendering, sourcing and contracting strategies are in place across the category to mitigate legal and regulatory exposure. Partner with legal and stakeholders to develop framework agreements for supply of Ocean Freight services. Embed and monitor relevant supplier KPIs, engineering and site standards into project contracts in support of business requirements. Work closely with Commercial and Legal teams across the business to deliver commercial and contractual solutions including the creation and management of contracting templates. Ensure an aligned approach and responsibilities for managing relevant contracts with business stakeholders. Partner with Procurement Excellence to ensure that contracts are available and saved in a contract management system.

Initiative Management

Deliver priority procurement initiatives within the Ocean Freight category scope. These initiatives could apply a variety of strategies and levers including; tendering, e-auctions and cost negotiations, price benchmarking, supplier consolidation and rationalisation, demand and policy levers, price negotiations to support changes and growth etc. Management of large scale supplier market tender approaches and negotiations end to end, in accordance with the Category Strategy. Manage commercial negotiations for complex deals, balancing the diverse demands of multiple stakeholders. Project manage procurement initiatives, overseeing all aspects of risk management and contract governance processes. Share and implement procurement best practice across category. Procure to Pay Collaboration: Work with all business stakeholders to communicate preferred supplier arrangements in a way the business can be guided to buy compliantly.

Supplier Relationship and Performance Management

Ensure relevant Supplier Performance and Relationship Management processes and priorities are aligned with business stakeholders under a defined supplier segmentation model. Drive continuous improvement initiatives with suppliers, based on agreed supplier segmentation above. Ensure supplier reviews are conducted at appropriate frequencies – e.g., quarterly, monthly etc, as agreed with stakeholders, based on aligned segmentation and roles and responsibilities. Revisit the segmentation periodically to ensure continued alignment with business needs. Manage and optimise the Ocean Freight supplier base within EMEA. Ensure that Strategic Suppliers have 'top to top' meetings and governance in place and aligned with business stakeholders. Ensure clear roles and responsibilities with operational and supply chain teams for the supplier’s satisfactory delivery of services under the contract.

You have:

• A strong knowledge and demonstrated experience of procurement roles in Logistics, ideally Ocean Freight
• Bachelor’s degree level or equivalent by experience
• Ideally 5 years relevant experience at the same or similar level
• Experience in developing and successfully implementing 1-3 year category strategies
• Experience in implementing and managing a range of complex procurement sourcing and contracting negotiations
• Experience in optimising Logistics spend through a variety of levers
• The ability to define, develop and implement multi-year category strategies
• Experience of leading transformational change in procurement and in a matrix environment
• CIPS or EU equivalent desirable
• Fluency in English
• Fluency in another European language in Europe where DS Smith has Ocean Freight requirements would be an advantage (i.e. Portuguese/Spanish)
• Experience in paper and packaging industry preferred

We are DS Smith, together with International Paper, we are a global leader in sustainable packaging solutions and other fibre-based products. We believe a better, more sustainable tomorrow is possible with the right people, who challenge and support one another to enact positive change. We employ more than 60,000 colleagues in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), who are experts in innovation, manufacturing, design, sales, sustainability, supply chain, and much more. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. Become part of a world-leading organisation and do your best work with us! As the journey continues of bringing together the strengths of both organisations, during your candidate experience you may engage with our colleagues from International Paper! You could visit an International Paper or DS Smith site or office.