Manager, Direct Category Management

The Role: 

We are hiring a Manager, Strategic Sourcing, to lead strategy and supplier management for critical chemicals, specialty gases, and advanced materials. The focus is on suppliers in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia (Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China, Malaysia) and on aligning those outcomes with our global sourcing strategy. 

In this role you will: 

This person will strengthen global chemicals strategies and drive execution across APAC sites, acting as the “customer” to global commodity managers, partnering with site execution managers in Asia, leading Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) and Executive Business Reviews (EBRs) with top-tier suppliers, maintaining and delivering a unified APAC Chemicals category register. This register tracks delivery of savings, BCPs, risk topics, NPIs, and stakeholder engagement, each with clear owners and due dates. 

Traits we believe make a strong candidate: 

Key Responsibilities 
 

Strategy and alignment 

• Own the sourcing and supplier strategy for assigned chemicals, gases, and specialty materials in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. 

• Translate global category strategy into executable plans in-region, and bring regional cost, capacity, and risk insight back into the global roadmap. 

• Help direct focus areas for global commodity managers to ensure we are investing effort where it matters most. 

Negotiation and commercial agreements 

• Lead commercial negotiations and long-term agreements, including pricing structures, indexation, volume commitments, capacity access, service levels, payment terms, and liability language. 

• Adjust negotiation style by culture while protecting cost, continuity of supply, and quality. 

Supply continuity, cost, and quality 

• Improve total cost of ownership, including price, logistics cost, working capital impact, service levels, and continuity of supply. 

• Anticipate capacity, quality, or compliance risks and drive mitigation before they affect production. 

• Support qualification of alternate sources where needed. 

Leadership and communication 

• Act as the point of truth on Asia supplier activity for U.S.-based leadership. 

• Keep executives and functional partners informed on supplier status, risk, commercial exposure, and next actions. 

• Coordinate actions across Operations, Planning, Quality, Technology, Legal, and Finance to drive decisions and follow-through. 

Experience:  

Soft Skills and Leadership Behaviors 

• Cultural fluency and credibility with senior supplier contacts in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China, Malaysia, and the United States. 

• Language capability: proficiency in speaking and writing at least one commonly used business language in Southeast or Northeast Asia (for example Korean, Mandarin, Japanese) is highly desired. Strong English business writing and executive briefing skill is required. 

• Clear, structured communication with senior leadership. 

• High personal ownership, urgency, and follow-through. 

• Ability to influence and align teams that do not report directly to you. 

Required Experience 

• 8+ years in strategic sourcing or supply chain leadership, with 5+ years in chemicals or other highly specified raw materials preferred. 

• Direct experience negotiating and managing suppliers in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China, Malaysia, or similar Asia Pacific markets. 

• Demonstrated results in total cost of ownership improvement, payment term and cash benefit, supply assurance, and quality/on-time performance recovery. 

• Strong understanding of commercial terms, supplier financial drivers, and cost models. 

• Proven ability to work in a global, matrixed environment and across multiple time zones.

Tools and Systems 

• SAP, Power BI, and Microsoft Office required. 

• Strong analytics fluency and presentation skills for leadership audiences. 

Education 

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Business, Finance, or a related field. 

• Advanced degree (MBA) is a plus, not required. 

Travel 

• International travel to supplier and site locations in Asia Pacific will be required to support negotiations, qualification activity, and issue resolution. 

Year-Zero KPIs (2025) 

• Savings delivery 

• On-time delivery ≥ 95% 

• Contract coverage 

• Payment term improvements 

• Zero revenue constraints due to supply 

• Dual-source and BCP coverage