Director, Sourcing and Supply Chain

Job Description

The Director, Sourcing and Supply Chain leads the sourcing strategy and execution for the Freight Car Products business. The role leads a team of approximately 12 people and ensures competitive cost, supplier quality and delivery, material availability, capacity alignment, and supply continuity across internal Wabtec plants and a global external supplier network.

This is a broad, hands-on leadership position connecting Commercial demand, Operations, Engineering, Quality, Planning, Fulfillment, and liaison with global commodity teams. The leader will strengthen existing processes and create new governance, tools, and operating rhythms where needed, with strong reliance on Oracle and disciplined data management.

How will you make a difference, what is your typically day look like?

Sourcing Strategy and Supply Network

• Develop and execute the Freight Car Products sourcing strategy in alignment with business priorities, customer commitments, financial objectives, and global commodity direction.
• Coordinate sourcing requirements across product lines and plants, balancing internal manufacturing and external suppliers based on total cost, capacity, lead time, logistics, risk, and customer needs.
• Create regional and global sourcing plans, including make-or-buy, localization, dual-source, supplier-capacity, and business-continuity strategies.
• Lead annual sourcing plans, budgets, forecasts, cost-out pipelines, and risk-and-opportunity reviews.
• Provide decisive leadership during shortages, supplier disruptions, quality issues, and capacity constraints.

Supplier Leadership and Commercial Execution

• Lead supplier selection, RFQs, negotiations, contracts, long-term agreements, and strategic supplier relationships.
• Drive supplier performance in availability, cost, delivery, capacity, responsiveness, technology, and risk; establish scorecards and corrective-action reviews.
• Partner with Supplier Quality and Engineering on qualification, PPAP, industrialization, resourcing, and production readiness.
• Deliver material-cost improvement through negotiation, volume leverage, should-cost, design-to-cost, localization, specification alignment, and resourcing.
• Monitor, raw-material volatility, geopolitical exposure, logistics risk, and sole-source dependencies.

SIOP, Capacity and Material Availability

• Act as a key leader in the Freight Car SIOP process, translating commercial forecasts, backlog, customer orders, product mix, and new-product plans into executable supply and capacity actions.
• Validate internal and supplier capacity against demand; identify constrained parts, long-lead materials, demand gaps, and customer-delivery risks.
• Develop supply scenarios and mitigation plans for changes in demand, car-build outlook, product mix, and program launches.
• Create a disciplined cadence for SIOP actions, escalation, accountability, and closure, improving forecast visibility and supply-plan adherence.
• Partner with Planning and Fulfillment to align supplier commitments, MRP requirements, inventory parameters, production priorities, and customer obligations.

Oracle, Data and Process Governance

• Own sourcing discipline in Oracle, ensuring approved suppliers, sourcing rules, allocation percentages, prices, price breaks, lead times, MOQs, payment terms, and other purchasing attributes are accurate and current.
• Align supplier quotations and contracts with purchase orders, standard costs, material requirements, and financial reporting.
• Partner with Operations, Commercial and Finance to resolve master-data, transaction, workflow, and process issues that cause shortages, excess inventory, price errors, or poor planning signals.
• Establish standard work for supplier and part creation, pricing updates, sourcing changes, new-product introduction, resourcing, and production handoff.
• Use Oracle, Purchasing Datamart, dashboards, and analytics to provide clear visibility to cost performance, supply risks, supplier commitments, and execution gaps.
• Coach the team and cross-functional stakeholders on Oracle processes, controls, and required data discipline.

Commercial, Product and Plant Partnership

• Work closely with Commercial to support bids, quotations, order entry, and customer commitments with reliable pricing, lead times, capacity, logistics, and sourcing-risk inputs.
• Establish and maintain costs for parts, assemblies, kits, projects, and new-product opportunities; challenge bid BOMs and sourcing assumptions to improve competitiveness and protect margin.
• Engage suppliers early in quotations and product development to improve technical solutions, cost, delivery, and capacity commitments.
• Align internal plants on sourcing priorities, capacity allocation, transfer prices, lead times, cost, quality, and escalation requirements.
• Participate in operating, backlog, order-entry, Engineering, Quality, OPEX, and new-project reviews as needed.

Process Improvement and Operational Excellence

• Assess and improve sourcing, supplier-management, SIOP, quotation, new-product, resourcing, escalation, and handoff processes.
• Create missing processes and governance, including clear roles, decision rights, approvals, ownership, standard work, templates, dashboards, and review cadences.
• Build a culture of proactive risk identification and sustainable root-cause correction rather than reactive expediting.

People Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop approximately 12 sourcing professionals, with clear goals, accountability, development plans, and resource allocation.
• Build team capability in strategic sourcing, negotiation, contracts, supplier management, rail products, Oracle, SIOP, cost analysis, and problem solving.
• Promote safety, integrity, transparency, urgency, teamwork, continuous improvement, and effective collaboration across plants, functions, and regions.
• Drive talent development, performance management, recruitment, organizational capability, and succession planning.

Key Performance Indicators

• Material availability, supply continuity, and sourcing impact on customer delivery.
• Material cost reduction and validated sourcing savings
• Oracle sourcing-data accuracy and purchasing-parameter discipline
• Purchase-price performance and direct-material variance
• SIOP action closure and supply-plan adherence
• Supplier on-time delivery and supplier quality
• Inventory, excess and obsolete material, payment terms, and working capital
• Supplier capacity, risk mitigation, and alternative-source coverage
• Team capability, engagement, and succession readiness
• Contract, long-term-agreement, and preferred-supplier compliance

What do we want to know about you?

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, Operations, Finance, or a related field.
• Minimum 15 years of progressive sourcing, procurement, materials, supply-chain, or manufacturing experience in a complex industrial environment.
• Proven experience leading and developing a sourcing or supply-chain team across multiple sites and a matrix organization.
• Deep expertise in strategic sourcing, negotiation, contracting, supplier performance, cost reduction, supplier development, and risk management.
• Strong knowledge of SIOP, demand and capacity planning, materials planning, production planning, inventory, and supply assurance.
• Strong Oracle ERP/MRP experience, including sourcing rules, supplier and item data, pricing, lead times, purchasing parameters, and procurement processes.
• Demonstrated ability to improve existing processes and create effective new processes, governance, and standard work.
• Strong commercial, financial, analytical, communication, negotiation, and executive-presentation skills.
• Ability to work across countries, cultures, and time zones and to travel domestically and internationally. English fluency required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Meaningful prior experience in freight rail or the broader rail industry.
• Knowledge of freight-car products and processes, including castings, forgings, fabrication, machining, brakes, truck components, couplers, or draft systems.
• Experience managing suppliers across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
• Experience with APQP, PPAP, FAI, engineering changes, new-product introduction, Lean, value engineering, design-to-cost, or should-cost methodologies.
• MBA, relevant master's degree, or a recognized sourcing/supply-chain certification.

Leadership Competencies

Strategic sourcing • Rail and product understanding • Customer and commercial focus • SIOP expertise • Oracle and data discipline • Global supplier leadership • Financial acumen • Operational execution • Process improvement • Cross-functional influence • Change leadership • Talent development • Integrity and accountability

This role is also eligible for a performance bonus. More information on offered benefits, which include health, welfare, and retirement, is available at mywabtecbenefits.com.

Locations: Pittsburgh, PA, Chicago, or other Wabtec US locations

Relocation assistance may be provided if eligibility requirements are met.

Qualifications

Additional Information

Our job titles may span more than one career level. The salary rate for this role is currently $[redacted]00 The actual salary offered to a candidate may be influenced by a variety of factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, education, business needs, market demands and work location. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. More information on offered benefits, which include health, welfare, and retirement, are available at mywabtecbenefits.com. Other benefit offerings for this role may include annual bonus, if eligible.