Title of role : Assistant Procurement Manager – Commodities, South Asia

Mumbai HO, India

Background & Purpose of the Job

Be a part of Unilever’s journey to become a leader in foods & refreshment category and landing a future-fit business model that drives superior performance in terms of 4G growth. The Unilever procurement team is an integral part of achieving these goals. The C&I buying portfolio with commodities across the Nutrition and IC business groups will require an agile, strategic thinker who can create value to the business across the procurement Lighthouse Strategy pillars..

However, we are only half of the picture. Our suppliers are at the heart of everything we do. We need to work more closely than ever with suppliers to co-create value, sustainable practices, resilience and bigger & better innovations.

As Unilever Procurement adapts to the ever-dynamic business environment, we will need to be agile in order to continue our track record of delivery in contributing to the top and bottom line. Inevitably, given the consistent and high quality of our delivery over the past few years, we will be asked to continue this rate of performance and indeed go over and above this standard to ensure the value provided is further enhanced across the scope of our remit, considering the consistent 4G business growth being witnessed in South Asia and robust growth plans in medium to long term with Unilever’s focus on Emerging Markets with India being called out as key market.

Job size and complexity

The total spends of C&I South Asia is about € 200 M with a split of Soft Commodities (€ 140 M), Starches & Derivatives (€ 15 M) & Ingredients (€ 45 M).

India has 80% of the spends share (€ 160 M), followed by Pakistan (18% - € 36 M) and Bangladesh (2% - € 4 M). 85% of the spends are in Nutrition BG and 155 in Ice Cream BG.

With 200+ key suppliers, 320+ key material codes, 15 factories and most spend driven by commodities and markets, this portfolio is complex and strategic for the business groups. One of the few portfolios that has impact and can fuel every pillar of the procurement Light House with focus on driving business agility, innovation, resilience, sustainability and partnerships. This role will manage multiple materials within the soft commodities portfolio for India, a key growth market and the largest market in South Asia.

The job will need strong collaboration within the BU procurement team, leadership, business / brand stakeholder on one side and working with global portfolio team in driving / implementing strategies across projects and pillars. It also involves driving E2E projects, building market intel on the commodities, building category / commodity strategies and implementing them on the ground including driving change management and transformations.

Who You Are & What You’ll Do

A successful Unilever procurement professional is expected to :

Understand the business requirement, devise and implement procurement strategies in the South Asia market, stakeholder relationship and managing day to day services and materials cost closures in areas of commodities & ingredients portfolio in India

Understanding various cost drivers / elements and develop cost models

Savings / e-Tenders - Negotiating contracts and driving e-tenders with service providers and optimize costs, and contract finalization, and Implementing cost saving initiatives

Strong external / market orientation and vendor evaluation process management

Bring in supply-market understanding that is important for business

Build forecasts for the materials through understanding the external factors and internal needs

Vendor relationship - manage relationships with service providers in the areas of commodities, ingredients, starches and derivatives portfolio

Vendor selection and development : Create a Knowledge Management Centre as a repository of information on potential vendors, service providers, etc. for future projects.

Compliance - ensure that the Buying process / documentations are followed for the spends covered under procurement.

To continuously improve ways of working and optimize procurement activities

To support Innovation programs, partnering with Global and Cluster divisional teams

Outstanding in idea generation, ideas that are forward thinking including Smart Product ideas, and that contribute to creating sustained competitive advantage in Procurement Performance Framework

A strategic Influencer - Strong at selling ideas to his / her business partners, internally and externally, translating these into effective proposals conveying the total value and communicating it accordingly

Being a self-starter and outstanding in execution – has an eagle-eye for detail

What You’ll Need To Succeed

MBA / CA / Engineer– Need to hold masters degree + minimum 4-6 years in procurement experience

Buying experience especially understanding commodity market (preferably Dairy), industry, supplier trade

Experience in managing strategic buying projects and suppliers

A proven track record in successful negotiations, tenders and RFPs

Long-term strategy planning & execution

Very Strong Analytical, Interpretation and Communication skills : data / information analysis and presentation

Ability to read markets and convey findings along with recommendations to the business

Proficiency in English

Financial savviness and basis data analytics

Comfort or basic knowledge with systems & Digital tools : SAP CLM, Ariba, MS Office, Buyers’ Console, Power BI, Anaplan etc.

Physical Requirements

Willingness for business travels (20% of time) within India

Location : Mumbai HO

Reporting to Global Procurement Manager, Commodities & Ingredients, Sou