Director, Strategic Sourcing, Lumber, Americas

Brambles USA Inc; United States; Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Brambles USA Inc, operating as CHEP, is seeking a senior strategic sourcing leader to guide lumber procurement across North and South America. The role demands strategic thinking, stakeholder influence and a focus on cost, quality, resilience and sustainability.

You will lead a dispersed team, build strategic supplier partnerships, and translate market insights into actionable sourcing strategies that align with business priorities and responsible sourcing commitments.

Qualifications

• Significant leadership experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, or direct materials.
• Experience developing and executing sourcing strategies in complex manufacturing or commodity environments.
• Strong commercial judgment and negotiation skills with senior stakeholders.
• Experience leading and developing teams across multiple locations, countries or cultures.

Responsibilities

• Lead the execution of procurement strategies for the Americas region, aligning with global initiatives.
• Design and improve procurement strategies to meet business goals and market conditions.
• Develop and mentor a high-performing procurement team across the Americas.
• Oversee supplier relationships, drive cost savings and total cost of ownership improvements.
• Partner with cross-functional leaders to ensure procurement contributes to value, quality and resilience.

Job description

CHEP helps move more goods to more people, in more places than any other organization on earth via our 347 million pallets, crates and containers. We employ approximately 13,000 people and operate in 60 countries. Through our pioneering and sustainable share-and-reuse business model, the world’s biggest brands trust us to help them transport their goods more efficiently, safely and with less environmental impact. What does that mean for you? You’ll join an international organization big enough to take you anywhere, and small enough to get you there sooner. You’ll help change how goods get to market and contribute to global sustainability. You’ll be empowered to bring your authentic self to work and be surrounded by diverse and driven professionals. And you can maximize your work-life balance and flexibility through our Hybrid Work Model.

Job Description

We are seeking a senior strategic sourcing leader to lead our lumber sourcing strategy across North and South America.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the execution of procurement strategies for the region/function, integrating global initiatives into regional and functional contexts.
• Design, manage, and continuously improve procurement strategies, ensuring they are aligned with the organization's goals and the external market environment.
• Develop, mentor, and lead a high-performing procurement team, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Champion the development of procurement professionals and drive the function towards "best-in-class" standards.
• Oversee the execution of the high value and strategic supplier relationship management .
• Build strong, collaborative relationships with key suppliers to ensure consistent value delivery, compliance, and innovation.
• Identify, unlock, and deliver cost savings opportunities across procurement categories.
• Drive initiatives for hard cost reduction, total cost of ownership (TCO) improvements, and process efficiencies that enhance procurement’s contribution to the business.
• Redesign and refresh category strategies, ensuring alignment with market trends and business needs.
• Develop and implement best-in-class sourcing approaches, including market analysis, supplier selection, negotiation, and contract management across all categories.
• Act as a strategic business partner to senior leadership teams, engaging with functional/regional leaders to understand operational needs, ensuring procurement initiatives meet or exceed business objectives.
• Ensure procurement processes adhere to corporate policies, ethical standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Develop risk mitigation strategies for procurement activities and ensure a robust compliance framework is in place.
• Establish and track procurement performance metrics, ensuring alignment with global procurement objectives.
• Regularly report on key performance indicators (KPIs), such as cost savings, supplier performance, contract compliance, and risk management.

This is an opportunity to shape the direction of a strategically important direct-material category at a time of growth and change. You will lead the development of a resilient, sustainable, and commercially competitive supply network, build strategic supplier partnerships, create capacity for future growth, and connect sourcing decisions to broader business priorities. This is not simply a procurement role focused on price. We are looking for a leader who can understand changing business needs and market conditions, translate them into a clear sourcing strategy, and deliver the right supply at the right cost while balancing quality, resilience, sustainability, and long-term value.

Preferred Location: Atlanta, GA Alternate Location: Orlando, FL Hybrid in office 2-3 days per week

What You’ll Do

• Lead the Americas Sourcing Strategy
• Develop and execute the strategic sourcing roadmap for lumber across North and South America.
• Anticipate future demand and supply requirements and build sourcing strategies that provide the capacity and flexibility needed for growth.
• Analyze market dynamics, supplier capabilities, cost drivers, and emerging risks to inform long-term decisions.
• Balance long-term strategic priorities with the short-term supply challenges inherent in a dynamic operating environment.

Build Resilient Supplier Markets

• Identify, qualify, and develop new sources of lumber supply across the region.
• Build strategic relationships with suppliers and create partnerships that improve capacity, performance, and resilience.
• Lead complex commercial negotiations and supplier strategies that balance cost, quality, service, and continuity.
• Strengthen the organization's ability to respond to shifts in demand and changing market conditions.

Create Value Beyond Purchase Price

• Partner across the business to evaluate sourcing decisions through a total-cost lens.
• Connect material decisions with quality, product performance, durability, and lifecycle value.
• Identify opportunities to improve commercial performance while protecting operational requirements and long-term supply resilience.

Advance Responsible Sourcing

• Embed sustainability and responsible forestry considerations into sourcing strategies and supplier relationships.
• Partner with suppliers and internal stakeholders to advance long‑term sustainability commitments.
• Balance responsible sourcing requirements with commercial objectives, supply availability, and market realities.

Lead and Influence Across Boundaries

• Lead and develop a geographically dispersed team across the Americas.
• Partner with procurement, supply chain, operations, finance, innovation, sustainability, quality, and other business leaders.
• Bring together technical expertise and commercial insight to make sound enterprise decisions.
• Influence effectively across countries, cultures, and functions, often without direct authority.

What You’ll Bring

We're looking for a strategic sourcing leader first. Experience in lumber, timber, forestry, or sawmilling would be highly valuable, but we are also interested in accomplished direct‑material sourcing leaders from adjacent industries such as paper, pulp, packaging, fiber, or other complex manufacturing environments. You will ideally bring:

• Significant leadership experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, direct materials, or supply management.
• Experience developing and executing sourcing strategies in complex manufacturing or commodity-based environments.
• A track record of identifying, qualifying, and developing new suppliers and sources of capacity.
• Strong commercial judgment and experience leading complex negotiations and strategic supplier relationships.
• Experience managing supply risk, market volatility, and changing demand.
• The ability to translate market insight and business requirements into actionable sourcing strategies.
• Experience leading and developing teams across multiple locations, countries, or cultures.
• Strong cross-functional influencing and executive stakeholder‑management capabilities.
• An understanding of total‑cost economics and the relationship between material decisions, operational performance, and business value.
• Experience incorporating sustainability