Procurement Specialist - Belgium, Netherlands

About The Role

Reporting to the Procurement Manager – Benelux, you will be responsible for delivering Procurement value and services across DS Smith’s businesses. The Benelux is part of the Central EMEA Procurement organisation, which reports to the Central EMEA Procurement Leader.

You will also ensure the purchase to pay transactional support processes happen in a timely manner in order to support our stakeholders to buy compliantly in close collaboration with shared services.

The Group Procurement Function is accountable for:

• Shaping and aligning the Procurement strategy to support the achievement of business goals including growth, innovation, ESG (inc Scope 3) and manufacturing excellence
• Supporting simplification, driving effectiveness and supporting the delivery of business 80/20 plans
• Partnering with stakeholders to ensuring the function competitively sources quality products and supplier services whilst maintaining and building strong relationships with strategic suppliers in line with group Innovation, ESG and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion goals
• Partnering differently across the value chain to create innovative business offerings that delight our customers and support business growth

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy And Vision

• Responsible for supporting creation and implementation of Group Procurement strategies and projects
• Support the delivery of best for business strategies that represent best value for the Benelux businesses
• Feed local business requirements into category strategies and support / champion the implementation of solutions
• Communicate ideas for improvement to internal customers and Category Managers

Sourcing And Negotiations

• Manage sourcing and tender commercial activity for assigned subcategories in Benelux
• Negotiate contracts within assigned category segments in Benelux
• Conduct CapEx sourcing activities alongside Engineering and Property functions including RFIs, Tenders and Contracting

Markets And Risk

• Manage supplier procurement risk with business for key sites across the Benelux
• Operate according to procurement policies, contracts, procedures, processes, guidelines and regulations
• Conduct local market research (suppliers and products) and assist with defining stakeholders' needs
• Support the business to imbed dashboards and management control oversight over key risk standards and procure to pay policies

Contracting

• Ensure alignment with stakeholders on how local contracts will be managed operationally and commercially
• Manage Post Production Materials category across the Benelux including MRO spare parts, OEM equipment maintenance and Pallets
• Embed relevant supplier KPIs into contracts in support of business requirements
• Aligns the approach and responsibilities for managing relevant contracts with business stakeholders and category teams to drive value and minimise risk exposure over the lifecycle of the contract

Portfolio Initiative Management

• Support the delivery of a portfolio of priority procurement initiatives in line with the agreed category strategies. These initiatives could apply a variety of strategies and levers including; tendering, e-auctions and cost negotiations, price benchmarking, supplier consolidation and rationalisation, make vs buy or lease, demand and policy levers, price negotiations to support changes and growth etc.
• Input to the management of supplier market tender approaches and high-profile negotiations end to end, where the Category teams are leading the project/programme
• Share and implement procurement best practice across the Benelux
• Project manages local initiatives in sites, end-to-end to deliver the value-add initiatives from procurement
• Calculate and track the benefits achieved (OpEx & CapEx) via the internal procurement reporting tool (Provalido)

Procure to Pay Collaboration

• Working with Shared Services and business stakeholders to communicate preferred supplier arrangements in a way the business can be guided to buy compliantly e.g., through procurement and purchase to pay systems
• Work with our suppliers and accounts payable to help resolve invoice discrepancies where needed
• Ensure progress is being made toward meeting purchasing key performance indicators
• Manage specific purchase to pay activity to support business requisitions within defined business KPIs/service levels

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) and Supplier Performance Management (SPM)

• Support local SRM/SPM activities with key suppliers to drive innovation, quality and supply improvements
• Assess and evaluate suppliers and undertake performance reviews to ensure contract compliance
• Address and resolve cluster/site queries and conduct supplier relationship/performance management as well as directing the P2P process
• Support quality management audits for the business to retain its ISO / accreditation status on topics such as supplier management

Stakeholder Engagement / Business Partnering

• Build strong relationships with the key business stakeholders and attend business meetings on site
• Communicate with business stakeholders to ensure alignment to key procurement strategies
• Ensure clear alignment with procurement and sites on ability for sites and business representatives to manage buying and purchasing decisions in a streamlined and effective way
• Own business relationships at a local level, acting as the dedicated link between the business and the category teams
• Leads local change management and communications to successfully implement new commercial procurement solutions
• Represent the function on Procurement topics across the Benelux together with the team
• Partner with stakeholders to promote adherence to procurement and category policies
• Health & Safety – Safety First
• Leads local change management and communications to successfully implement new commercial procurement solutions
• Represent the function on Procurement topics across the Benelux together with the team
• Partner with stakeholders to promote adherence to procurement and category policies
• Health & Safety – Safety First
• To support Health & Safety (H&S), operating in line with company procedures to enable a safe working environment
• Ensure H&S clauses are in supplier contracts and to manage supplier non compliance issues or breaches

About You

• Experience in developing and successfully implementing 1-3 year regional procurement strategies
• Extensive experience in implementing and managing a range of complex procurement sourcing and contracting negotiations
• Demonstrable track record in influencing in a matrix environment.
• Strong analytical and conceptual skills
• Leadership skills with proven track record to convince others through written and spoken communications. Able to deal with resistance
• Exceptional knowledge of Best-in-Class Procurement practices and ways of working.
• An individual with the broad business acumen and an ability to interact with general management at a senior level is critical.
• An approach that puts diversity and inclusion at the heart of all interactions.
• Master negotiator, capable of delivering great outcomes when leading high value and complex deals.

About Us

DS Smith are a leading provider of sustainable packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services in more than 30 different countries.  It’s a very exciting time to join, as we have committed to investing in our future across our strategic growth enablers within Innovation (R&D), Sustainability and Digital & Data.

To fulfil our purpose of redefining packaging for a changing world, we aim to build a diverse, motivated, and engaged workforce. Our goal is to create a culture of inclusion where everyone is treated fairly, differences are valued, and everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.

Our people come from diverse backgrounds, bring different perspectives, ideas and experiences to generate unique solutions focused on present and future sustainability challenges. We welcome all candidates to apply, even those not meeting all criteria.

#Li-Ds