Head: Regional Category, Indirect

Yum! Brands; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 2,400,000 - 3,600,000; Full time

Job summary

Yum Africa seeks a seasoned Senior Procurement leader to develop and execute indirect category strategies across the region, building strategic supplier partnerships and optimizing total cost of ownership. You will drive regional scale, enable growth, and develop a high-performing procurement organization delivering sustainable commercial advantage.

The role covers BU Africa and relevant Yum brands, requiring collaboration with regional leaders, global teams, and external partners to shape

Qualifications

• 10+ years in senior supply chain roles, ideally within food industry or related field.
• Strong strategic leadership with ability to lead long-term strategic projects.
• Proven track record of optimizing total cost of ownership and supplier partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute Africa Indirect Procurement Strategy aligned to Yum's priorities.
• Lead regional Indirect category management and partner with regional leadership teams.
• Be part of Global Category Management leadership to define Yum procurement direction.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Procurement strategy

Category management

Cost of ownership

Supplier partnerships

Negotiations

Cross-functional collaboration

Analytics

Multinational teams

Change management

Job description

Lead the Regional Indirect Categories for Yum Africa, developing and executing category strategies that unlock enterprise value across all relevant Yum brands. The role is accountable for building strategic supplier partnerships, optimizing total cost of ownership, accelerating regional scale, enabling business growth, and developing a high-performing procurement organization that delivers sustainable commercial advantage.

The scope of this role includes the whole of BU Africa along with all applicable Yum! brands.

• Develop and execute the Africa Indirect Procurement Strategy aligned to Yum's long-term business priorities.
• Lead the regional Indirect category management team and partner with business stakeholders from regional leadership teams on regional strategic & business requirements & business priorities
• Part of the Global Category Management leadership team, which will define and develop overall Yum procurement strategy & direction
• Build a high performing regional indirect category management team to drive value to Yum franchisees
• Develop strategic partnerships with relevant external partners, i.e., develop business case for long-term investments
• Drive supplier-led innovation that improves restaurant economics, operational performance and speed to market.
• Oversee key negotiations with strategic category suppliers (involvement upon request/requirement only)
• Drive specification harmonization & optimization in collaboration with regional brand teams
• Work with regional franchisees to gain buy in to regional sourcing of Indirect goods & services
• Partner with regional functional leaders to identify areas of opportunity to improve leverage of volume & procurement expertise which delivers increased value to Yum (Finance / Marketing / Development / D&T)
• Drive digital procurement capability including analytics, automation and AI-enabled sourcing.

Communication Required

• Regional functional leaders (Finance / Marketing / Development / D&T / Engineering)
• Regional Leadership teams
• Yum Global category management leadership team
• Yum Global Supply Chain team
• 3rd Party partners / consultant
• 10+ years’ experience in Senior supply chain roles, ideally within food industry or related field
• Strong strategic leader with demonstrated ability to lead long term strategic projects
• Strong leadership skills; prepared to challenge status quo and drive change
• Track record of business model optimisation at a global scale, through advanced commercial acumen
• Understanding and leveraging drivers for optimisation total cost of ownership
• Demonstrated ability to manage teams on a multi country scale
• Excellent communication and partnership skills with the ability to work effectively with internal and external partners across the global business
• Ability to gain buy-in & influence key stakeholders at all levels in a global organization
• Ability to attract, engage and retain talent to enable high performing teams
• Min 10 years’ experience in the Supply Chain, Procurement and Logistics Management.