Category Sourcing Manager

Zoetis Spain SL; Kalamazoo (MI); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Zoetis seeks a Category Sourcing Manager to support scientific services spend for VM RD, partnering with Finance, Legal, and procurement to ensure budget adherence and compliance. You will build category and vendor strategies, assess risks, and drive supplier performance and continuous improvement across the supplier base.

The role requires collaboration with stakeholders, end-to-end RFx experience, and strong contract knowledge.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of strategic sourcing/procurement experience within an R&D organization or supporting scientific services spend.
• Demonstrated experience running end-to-end sourcing events (RFx), negotiating terms, and documenting savings/value.
• Working knowledge of contracts and common scientific-services commercial structures (rate cards, milestone-based SOWs, T&M, change controls).

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary point of contact for internal customers: identify potential vendors, analyze competitive bids, negotiate costs and terms, document competitive/negotiated savings, and recommend the appropriate purchasing method.
• Drive vendor strategies and cost-savings initiatives across assigned scientific-services categories (e.g., CRO/contract research services and regulatory outsourced services such as translations).
• Issue RFQs/RFPs to approved suppliers; coordinate stakeholder -supplier Q&A; and compile side-by-side bid comparisons (pricing structure, timelines, assumptions/exclusions, and risk/capacity signals).
• Manage supplier relationships by coordinating regular business reviews, vendor presentations, performance discussions, and acting as the main communications point of contact.
• Interface with external partners to troubleshoot business, service, and relationship issues to ensure contractual obligations and service levels are met.
• Support development of a competitive vendor base to create and sustain advantage for VMRD and better leverage external spend.
• Partner with Procurement Associates to resolve complex invoicing issues, respond to internal customer inquiries, support purchasing and financial systems, and review purchase order requests.
• Work with Legal to ensure appropriate agreements are in place (e.g., MSAs, SOWs, confidentiality, data/privacy, IP/ownership, and publication terms as applicable) to enable continuity of internal customers' work.
• Analyze VMRD spend and trends; maintain and refresh category plans/strategies, preferred supplier lists, and sourcing pipelines as needed.

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Vendor negotiation

Stakeholder partnership

Analytical mindset

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in business, Finance, Supply Chain, or a scientific discipline

Tools

Oracle

SAP

Ariba

Spend Control Tower

BI/reporting tools

Job description

Role Description

States considered: MI Role Description Position Summary: The Category Sourcing Manager is responsible for supporting several categories of scientific services spend for Zoetis Veterinary Medicine Research & Development (VMRD) to meet the business needs of the organization. This role partners closely with Finance, Legal, and other Procurement teams (Corporate and Manufacturing) to ensure purchases are within budget and compliant with Zoetis Finance, Legal, and Procurement policies. In partnership with key stakeholders, the role builds category and vendor strategies, identifies supply and commercial risks, and develops mitigation plans to protect continuity, quality, and cost. The role also leads supplier relationship management activities to drive performance, collaboration, and continuous improvement across the supplier base.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary point of contact for internal customers: identify potential vendors, analyze competitive bids, negotiate costs and terms, document competitive/negotiated savings, and recommend the appropriate purchasing method.
• Drive vendor strategies and cost-savings initiatives across assigned scientific-services categories (e.g., CRO/contract research services and regulatory outsourced services such as translations).
• Issue RFQs/RFPs to approved suppliers; coordinate stakeholder -supplier Q&A; and compile side-by-side bid comparisons (pricing structure, timelines, assumptions/exclusions, and risk/capacity signals).
• Manage supplier relationships by coordinating regular business reviews, vendor presentations, performance discussions, and acting as the main communications point of contact.
• Interface with external partners to troubleshoot business, service, and relationship issues to ensure contractual obligations and service levels are met.
• Support development of a competitive vendor base to create and sustain advantage for VMRD and better leverage external spend.
• Partner with Procurement Associates to resolve complex invoicing issues, respond to internal customer inquiries, support purchasing and financial systems, and review purchase order requests.
• Work with Legal to ensure appropriate agreements are in place (e.g., MSAs, SOWs, confidentiality, data/privacy, IP/ownership, and publication terms as applicable) to enable continuity of internal customers\' work.
• Analyze VMRD spend and trends; maintain and refresh category plans/strategies, preferred supplier lists, and sourcing pipelines as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor\'s degree in business, Finance, Supply Chain, or a scientific discipline.
• 3+ years of strategic sourcing/procurement experience within an R&D organization or supporting scientific services spend.
• Demonstrated experience running end-to-end sourcing events (RFx), negotiating terms, and documenting savings/value.
• Working knowledge of contracts and common scientific-services commercial structures (rate cards, milestone-based SOWs, T&M, change controls).
• Proficiency with MS Office Suite; experience with procurement/ERP tools such as Oracle and/or SAP, Ariba (CatMan), Spend Control Tower, and BI/reporting tools.

Skills & Attributes

• Strong stakeholder partnership skills: ability to influence and drive alignment across scientific, finance, and legal partners.
• Analytical mindset with comfort working in ambiguous, fast-moving R&D environments.
• Clear written and verbal communication; able to summarize options, tradeoffs, and recommendations for decision makers.
• High integrity and attention to detail; consistent adherence to policies and documentation requirements.

Work Model: Hybrid 50% in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Travel: as business needs dictate.

Full time Regular Colleague

Any unsolicited resumes sent to Zoetis from a third party, such as an Agency recruiter, including unsolicited resumes sent to a Zoetis mailing address, fax machine or email address, directly to Zoetis employees, or to Zoetis resume database will be considered Zoetis property. Zoetis will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. Zoetis will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. This includes any Agency that is an approved/engaged vendor but does not have the appropriate approvals to be engaged on a search.

Zoetis Recruiters will contact candidates via email from an address ending in @zoetis.com and may also initially connect with candidates through LinkedIn, including LinkedIn InMail. Zoetis does not use Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, or other web-based/generic email domains to communicate about job opportunities, interviews, or offers of employment. If you receive a recruitment-related email message claiming to be from Zoetis that does not come from @zoetis.com, please treat it as suspicious. For your security, do not reply, click links, open attachments, share personal or financial information, or send money in response to unexpected or questionable recruitment communications.

Zoetis is committed to equal opportunity in the terms and conditions of employment for all employees and job applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, gender identity or gender expression, national origin, disability or veteran status or any other protected classification. Disabled individuals are given an equal opportunity to use our online application system. We offer reasonable accommodations as an alternative if requested by an individual with a disability. Please contact Zoetis Colleague Services at [e-mail] to request an accommodation.

Zoetis also complies with all applicable national, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment as well as employment eligibility verification requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act. All applicants must possess or obtain authorization to work in the US for Zoetis. Zoetis retains sole and exclusive discretion to pursue sponsorship for the acquisition or maintenance of nonimmigrant status and employment eligibility, considering factors such as availability of qualified US workers. Individuals requiring sponsorship must disclose this fact. Please note that Zoetis seeks information related to job applications from candidates for jobs in the U.S. solely via the following: (1) our company website at www.Zoetis.com/careers site, or (2) via email to/from addresses using only the Zoetis domain of “@zoetis.com”. In addition, Zoetis does not use Google Hangout for any recruitment related activities. Any solicitation or request for information related to job applications with Zoetis via any other means and/or utilizing email addresses with any other domain should be disregarded. In addition, Zoetis will never ask candidates to make any type of personal financial investment related to gaining employment with Zoetis.

Join Zoetis – and build your career with a global animal health company dedicated to supporting its customers and their businesses. Why Zoetis Zoetis has more than 60 years of experience in delivering innovative, high-quality products and services that benefit our customers. Zoetis work environment At Zoetis, we take pride in a collaborative spirit and high-performing environment where every colleague is given room to learn and grow. Your opportunities at Zoetis We invest in our people and offer diverse and exciting opportunities to make a difference in a growing global industry while shaping the future of animal health. Results that matter Our colleagues make an impact by working hand-in-hand with those who raise and care for animals to better understand and address the unique real-world challenges they face.