Category Manager

At Rogers, we connect Canadians to a world of possibilities and the memorable moments that matter most in their lives. Every day we wake up with one purpose in mind. To bring loved ones together from across the globe. To connect people to each other and the world around them. To help an entrepreneur realize their dream. A sports fan celebrate a special moment.

Because we believe connections unite us, possibilities fuel us, and moments define us.

As we grow our team, the well-being of our team members remains our top priority. To ensure the health and safety of our team members, including those in the recruitment process, our team members are temporarily working from home.

The Procurement IT team is seeking a Category Manager eager to join our team.  Reporting to the Director, Procurement IT, the Category Manager will be proficient within the spend category and work with business partners to manage the strategic direction, total cost of ownership and risk. Your task will be to establish optimal commercial arrangements for next generation IT software and hardware aligned with Rogers strategic business objectives. Your procurement and business acumen will advance Procurement's trusted advisor status, optimize spend and value for money, drive best practices and provide future-focused strategies to achieve Rogers' goals.

You are a business partner oriented candidate who has a strong understanding of Procurement policies and practices, competitive bid and contract negotiation experience, financial and cost modeling skills, and proven relationship management experience.  You are a creative, critical thinker with business and financial acumen who champions innovation, change and process improvement.  You are a professional communicator, influencer and negotiator able to build and maintain strong partnerships with internal and external stakeholders. You are able to seek, analyze and translate facts and data into key insights, concepts and recommendations to enable effective decision making.  You are a strong collaborator and experienced at presenting technical topics with confidence to senior business partners/leaders. You excel in a fast paced, changing environment and have the ability to effectively resolve multi-party conflicts.  You excel in a culture of continuous improvement leveraging innovation and system based tools to increase efficiency and value while delivering an intuitive user-friendly experience for internal and external stakeholders.
 

What you’ll do:

• Take end-to-end ownership of assigned spend category strategy to drive towards procurement and company objectives and business partner goals. 
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to influence, develop, and gain buy-in on aligned category strategies and advance key supplier partnership aligned with such strategy with a focus on strategic opportunities.
• Provide leadership and guidance to business partners on best-in-class procurement practices, on-going advancements and opportunities associated with assigned categories, and strategic category insights to support delivery of company objectives.
• Lead and own relationships with assigned key suppliers within your categories ensuring fulfilment of contractual obligations and business partner requirements.
• Act as a first level escalation point for issues related to suppliers for which you are identified as the procurement prime.
• Manage assigned supplier issue and dispute escalations to settlement, including negotiations and settlement agreement execution.
• Responsible for building, maintaining, and enhancing solid relationships with key internal stakeholders across the organization to ensure suppliers within the category and the category strategy are meeting business needs.
• Challenging the status quo by actively participating in and taking an active role in the continuous improvement, implementation of innovations and automations to create best-in-class procurement practices that are intuitive and user-friendly for internal stakeholders and suppliers.
• Implement and champion ethical procurement practices, procurement policies, supplier social responsibility objectives, and supplier diversity and sustainability programs.
• Act as internal consultant to business owners on sourcing practices, supplier performance, compliance, and risk management policies, processes, and procurement standard practices.

What you'll have:

• University degree in business, engineering, computer science, math, or related field with a general understanding of business operations, financial modeling, and subject matter expertise to influence business decisions.  An MBA is desirable but not required.
• 5 years+ procurement, telecommunications, IT or equivalent experience
• Experience managing complex projects in telecommunications industry or IT is a strong asset
• Procurement designation/certification desirable but not required - Supply Chain Management Professional (SCMP), Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), Purchasing Management Association of Canada (PMAC)
• Excellent communications, listening and influencing skills, able to communicate complex information to decision makers and key stakeholders in a clear and concise manner
• Critical thinking mindset and analytic skills.  Creativity to seek, encourage and find non-traditional approaches
• Professional executive presence with a demonstrated ability to navigate difficult situations through relationship building and influencing others
• Results-driven both short and long term
• Ability to execute against multiple projects and excel in a fast-paced, results-oriented work environment
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills; a demonstrated collaborator

1. Our people are at the heart of our success
2. Our customers come first. They inspire everything we do
3. We do what’s right, each and every day
4. We believe in the power of new ideas
5. We work as one team, with one vision
6. We give back to our communities and protect our environment