Strategic Category Manager – Chemicals, Gases & Energy

Coherent Corp.; Pennsylvania; On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Coherent Corp. is seeking a senior procurement leader to develop and execute multi-year category strategies across chemicals, gases, energy, and utilities.

The role leads supplier negotiations, bid processes, cost savings tracking, and long-term agreements while aligning with finance and data analytics to drive performance. Responsibilities include managing supplier relationships, governance, and escalation, forecasting savings, and driving working capital improvements.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, engineering, finance, Procurement or a related field required
• 5+ years Procurement experience

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute multi-year category strategies for Chemicals & Gases and Energy & Utilities.
• Lead strategic sourcing, supplier negotiations, competitive bidding, pricing initiatives, and contract renewals.
• Develop and maintain preferred supplier and long-term agreement strategies.
• Manage strategic supplier relationships and lead supplier performance, governance, and escalation activities.
• Identify, negotiate, validate, and track savings, cost avoidance, and working capital opportunities.
• Ensure negotiated savings are translated into executed PO pricing and reflected in procurement & finance reporting.
• Partner with Finance and Data Analytics to maintain savings methodologies, forecasts, dashboards, and reporting.
• Develop annual savings opportunity pipelines and category forecasts.
• Support tax exemption, tariff optimization, utility, and other energy cost-reduction initiatives.
• Support renewable energy programs and sustainability initiatives, including supplier engagement and emissions requirements.
• Coordinate with site managers, GMs, Operations, Finance, Sustainability, and stakeholders on sourcing activities.
• Provide commercial leadership for strategic and higher-risk programs during supplier negotiations.
• Maintain contract visibility, renewal planning, compliance, and lifecycle governance.
• Identify opportunities to consolidate supplier relationships into LTAs and enterprise-level relationships.
• Monitor supplier KPIs and drive corrective actions.
• Standardize commercial terms and improve working capital.
• Provide category forecasts, total-cost guidance, market intelligence, and recommendations to stakeholders.
• Support Power BI, ASL, and procurement reporting and governance processes.

Skills

Sourcing strategy

Supplier negotiations

Contract management

Data analysis

Power BI

Stakeholder management

Project management

Cost savings

Working capital

Education

Bachelor's degree in business/engineering/finance or procurement

Tools

Power BI

ASL

Job description

Coherent Corp. is seeking a senior procurement leader to develop and execute multi-year category strategies across chemicals, gases, energy, and utilities.

The role leads supplier negotiations, bid processes, cost savings tracking, and long-term agreements while aligning with finance and data analytics to drive performance. Responsibilities include managing supplier relationships, governance, and escalation, forecasting savings, and driving working capital improvements.