Category Manager (Utility Supply Chain)

Our purpose is sustaining energy and water for life, and it is demonstrated in everything we do as a business, and as an employee team.

At Liberty, we hire passionate people who care about doing the right thing for our customers. We are entrepreneurial, creative, and outcome-focused. Here, your natural talent and achievements will flourish in an inclusive environment of teamwork, trust and continuous learning. We are always pursuing excellence to exceed our ambitions goals, rewarding both the goal outcome and how we achieve it.

Purpose

The Category Manager works within the Supply Management organization to maximize the value that is delivered using a category management framework. The role collaborates with senior internal stakeholders, supply chain teams, and suppliers to use continuous improvement techniques to improve internal Business Unit and supply chain outcomes. The role ensures Supply Management is perceived as a positive, significant, value-adding partner to the business by providing solutions to business and operational supply chain challenges, improving processes to reduce total costs of ownership, and maintaining a strategic approach to procurement and supply management.

Accountabilities

• Determining the impact of joint efforts on supplier KPI’s
• Works with clients to develop and manage tools necessary to track supplier performance (ex: scorecards), communicates supplier performance metrics to relevant stakeholders on a regular basis, interfaces with all levels of Supply Management and Business Unit clients, including senior management, leads and participates in cross-functional teams, including representatives from Business Unit clients, DBE & Supplier Excellence, Information Technology, Metrics, procurement operations, and/or Legal.
• Conducting market research to identify new suppliers, to predict stresses on the supply base, and to manage pricing (e.g., index pricing and volume discounts)
• Calculating total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Creating supplier profiles
• Performs thorough analysis to support the development of category plans, including but not limited to:
• Supervises, plans, manages, and assumes complete responsibility for all activities and processes associated with the categories assigned.
• Develops and maintains category plans that identify opportunities for operational efficiencies, drive cost savings, manage risk, improve safety, drive innovation, and ensure the continuous development of categories managed.
• Building cost models
• Typically manages between $1M - $50M in annual spend. Leads negotiations, oversees all stages of strategic procurement, helps facilitate supplier performance measurement, and collaborates with key suppliers to identify potential areas for improvement. Manages and identifies supplier alliance opportunities. Supports internal utility Business Unit’s supplier management efforts.
• Analyzing historical spend
• Forecasting future spend based on demand planning
• Meeting with internal customers to understand their needs, requirements, and plans

Education and Experience

• Bachelor degree in Business Administration, or other advanced academic training
• A working understanding of utility and/or energy environments, operating procedures, and economics or regulation
• Project management expertise in the utility or related industry
• 7+ years of experience in procurement
• Professional Certification, such as CPM or CPSM beneficial
• Deep commodity or domain expertise with materials, construction services, EPC contracting, professional services procurement, sourcing, and/or project management
• A demonstrated ability to attain skill development in addition to work duties
• Demonstrated analytical ability (using data to solve operational problems)

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. is a growing renewable energy and utility company with over $15 billion of assets across North America and internationally.

For more than 30 years, Algonquin has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to delivering clean energy and water solutions. Our rapid growth has led both our regulated utility services and renewable energy business groups into different geographies and commodities, but our purpose remains unchanged – Sustaining Energy and Water for Life.

Through our operating business (Liberty), we provide regulated electricity, water, and natural gas utility services to over 1 million customer connections, primarily in North America. And, our growing portfolio of clean, renewable wind, solar, hydro and thermal power generation facilities represent over 3 GW of renewable generation capacity in operation and under construction.

With our robust, diversified, and growing presence in communities across North America and internationally, we are continually demonstrating our “Think Global, Act Local” business model.

What We Offer

Company funded Pension program

401k with Company match

Full insurance benefits (health/dental/vision/life)

Collaborative environment with a genuine flexible working policy

Share purchase/match plan

Defined Contribution savings plan

Top Talent Program

Volunteer paid days off

Employee Assistance Program

Achievement fund

We are focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you are excited about this role and are not certain you meet the all the qualification requirements, we encourage you to apply to further investigate the opportunity.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value each person’s unique background, diversity, experiences, perspectives and talents. Full participation of all employees in a safe, healthy and respectful environment is key to individual and company success. We are committed to fully utilizing the abilities of all of our employees and expect each of our employees to honor this commitment in their daily responsibilities.