Senior Specialist, Category Management (Operations)

First Tek, Inc.

$105K — $110K *
Energy & Utilities
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree preferred; equivalent experience may be considered.
  • 5+ years of progressive Supply Chain Management experience, ideally in energy or asset-intensive industries.
  • Strong understanding of sourcing, commercial terms, and contract negotiation.
  • Familiarity with source-to-contract and purchase to pay systems, particularly Oracle and GEP.
  • Proven ability to work collaboratively across functional teams.

Responsibilities

  • Support sourcing and contracting for designated contract portfolios.
  • Collaborate with business partners to ensure compliance and effective contractor management.
  • Drive compliance, continuous improvement, and value delivery in category management.
  • Manage and negotiate contract agreements in coordination with Legal and Risk Management.
  • Lead development and execution of comprehensive Category Strategies.

Benefits

  • Ongoing training in various relevant fields (e.g., RSO, OSHA, systems).
  • Continuous employment development and learning opportunities.
  • Support from internal teams (HSE, Legal, HR) for career advancement.
  • 401K retirement plan.
  • Comprehensive healthcare coverage options, including group medical, dental, and vision insurance.
Full Job Description
Job#: 26-01126

Location: Houston, TX. 77002
Job Type: Contract to Hire Perm
Industry: Client / Energy / Asset-Intensive Operations
Schedule: M-F (8HR Days) Onsite
Salary Range: $105k - $110k, with Incentives (STI/LTI)

The Senior Specialist, Category Management (Operations) is an essential Supply Chain Management role designed to manage a portfolio of contracts. The role is responsible for the end-to-end contract life cycle from Sourcing, Contracting, contract implementation, and ongoing management of the contract within the business. This position is also accountable to maintain and continuously improving the SCM Team's sourcing and contracting processes, procedures, tools, and systems.

Our team is looking for a team member with experience engaging business partners and suppliers in the processes associated with Sourcing, Contracting, and Contract Management. The Senior Specialist is responsible for:
  • Supporting the Sourcing and Contracting of a portfolio of contracts.
  • Integrates and works collaboratively with business partners in the delegated categories.
  • Driving compliance, continuous improvement, and value delivery.
  • Engages with Supplier Assurance, Purchasing Delivery team, and business partners to deliver strategies to meet business needs and supply market capability.
  • Manages direct Contract Agreement Negotiations working with Legal, Insurance, Treasury and Risk Management functions.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND ESSENTIAL DUTIES
Stakeholder Management
  • Collaborates with business partners to assure their way-of-working is compliant with company compliance, ethics, and delegated authorities.
  • Leverages company's scale to coordinate business needs with suppliers.
  • Acts as the single point of accountability for all spend against their delegated contracts.
  • Supports the Contract Owners in the gathering of performance feedback for effective contractor management.
  • Supports the delivery of Category Strategies as appropriate to the delegated contracts. Leverages company's scale to coordinate business needs with suppliers.

Category Strategy and Implementation
  • In collaboration with Category Manager, lead the development and implementation of comprehensive Category Strategies for defined categories.

Sourcing, Contracting, and Contract Management
  • Performs pre-qualification and qualification of new suppliers.
  • Ensures all Sourcing and Contracting is compliant, timely and delivered with quality.
  • Builds and designs requests for proposal to consider total cost models to understand value, operating costs, and supplier price impacts on existing budgets.
  • Performs negotiations to establish contracts with qualified suppliers to secure quality services, materials, and equipment on time at optimum cost.
  • Prepares bid evaluation and supplier award documentation for business partner approvals.
  • Drafts, evaluates, negotiates, and executes various contract commercial structures.
  • Ensures timely delivery of quality contracts in support of safe, reliable, and competitive operations.
  • Ensures contractual records and documentation and contract correspondence maintained and logged into the appropriate systems.
  • Supports the Delivery Purchasing team in the creation of Contract Purchase Agreements (CPA's) and Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA's) as appropriate.
  • Manage Post Award Contract Management process inclusive of contract handover, supplier performance management while ensuring adherence to commercial assurance.

Process Efficiency and Data Analytics:
  • Develops expertise in the teams GEP sourcing and contracting solution to become team's lead Power User.
  • Integrate data from various sources to perform in-depth analytics on procurement processes, identifying trends and insights.
  • Works with the SCM COE to define areas for improvement within category management practices.
  • Leads change management efforts to implement new ways of working, ensuring smooth transitions and user adoption.
  • Utilize data analysis and reporting tools to track and evaluate contract and category management performance metrics.
  • Create clear and concise visual representations of data findings from collaborating with COE, Commercial and Delivery team to facilitate decision-making and communication.
  • Facilitate knowledge sharing within Commercial team by documenting best practices and lessons learned.
  • The duties and responsibilities described are not a comprehensive list, and additional tasks may be assigned to the employee from time to time; or the scope of the job may change as necessitated by business demands.


KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
Candidate should have a strong understanding of sourcing, commercial terms, and negotiation of general material and service contract provisions. In addition to understanding source-to-contract and purchase to pay systems (Oracle and GEP system experience preferred).

Skills:
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
  • Self-motivated and ability to handle multiple responsibilities.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Must work well cross-functionally with all internal stakeholders.
  • Strong interpersonal skills; ability to thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced environment.
  • Effective time management skills.
  • Ability to think strategically and demonstrate strong attention to detail.


EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
  • Bachelor's degree preferred; equivalent experience may be considered.
  • Minimum of five (5) years of relevant, progressive Supply Chain Management experience, preferably within Client, energy, or asset-intensive industries.


Benefits:

The benefits available with this position include:
  • Ongoing Training (RSO, Systems, Software Programs, OSHA Safety, JJ Keller, etc.)
  • Continuous Employment Development and Learning
  • Ongoing Advocacy, internal assets with HSE, Legal and HR teams and experts to aid in Employee Career Path and Advancement
  • 401K
  • Healthcare Group Medical Coverage & Healthcare for California only
  • Dental Insurance Coverage
  • Vision Insurance Coverage
  • Basic Life Insurance & AD&D
  • Long Term Disability
  • Voluntary Short-Term Disability
  • Direct Deposit
  • Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts

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