Group Lead Buyer Indirects
Ardo supplies its continuously growing markets around the world with high quality frozen vegetables, herbs, and fruit with 3300 employees and 16 production, packing & distribution sites in 7 different countries. The family business sells in more than 100 countries and has a turnover of more than 1.4 billion euros. The close proximity of our factories to our crops is one of our key strengths and ensures that only minutes are lost between harvest and locking in the product’s natural goodness in our freezers.
Ardo's mission is to preserve the gift of nature for future generations by providing fresh frozen, plant-based food while minimising our impact on the planet. Ardo achieves this goal thanks to an integrated network of growing areas, production units, freezing units, packaging equipment, appropriate logistics and thorough quality control. The group's know-how and flexible structure ensure that it can respond quickly to new trends and that innovative product can be brought onto the market quickly.
Your Scope
The Group Lead Buyer Indirects has responsibility for handling the company’s central sourcing of several Indirects categories such as maintenance/spare parts - MRO, technical/operations services, CAPEX, energy, on site IT, logistics etc. To consolidate and improve our sourcing activities, conduct contracting of Indirects materials and services on a group level. By actively collecting and analysing the company’s spend and all relevant data, cost/pricing, market offers and vendor performance. Finding synergies and leverage advantages on group level where this is feasible and effective. Developing and managing (new) vendor partnerships, controlling and managing pricing, costings and sourcing risks and developing sourcing strategies, savings, cost (of ownership) engineering and innovation for the group. The Group Lead Buyer Indirects will lead/execute projects with local (site) or department team(members).
Your profile
1. Bachelor or master degree preferably in engineering or other technical field or economics/BA with multi-year technical field experience
2. Proven work experience as a (Lead) Buyer Indirects or Purchasing Manager Indirects. Technical / Engineering background required as scope contains large spend in MRO-Capex-Logistics and other technical projects.
3. Familiarity with strategic sourcing of Indirects, vendor management and relevant systems
4. Understanding of market dynamics and sound business judgement
5. Strong project management and leadership skills
6. Hands-on mentality and experience
7. Strong skills and ability to negotiate effectively and sustaining networking relationships
8. Comfortable with figures and in collecting, analysing and interpreting complex data
9. Solid judgement with ability to make well founded decisions
10. Strong situational awareness, relationship and conflict management
11. Customer focused and strong team player
12. Excellent communication skills and ability to produce clear and well-organized documents and presentations
13. Flexibility, hands-on mentality and ability to work on multiple tasks and projects simultaneously
14. Passionate self-starter with the highest integrity and ethics
15. 5+ years of relevant Indirects sourcing experience in technical/production areas
16. Experience in procurement practices (category management, benchmarking, cost models, RFX, reverse auction, contracting, category management, risk management etc.)
17. Certified Professional in Supply or Procurement (CPSM, CPP, CIPS or equal) preferred
18. Language skills : Minimum native language + English (L4 – full professional proficiency), preferably French as second foreign language (L2-4)
19. Role requires frequent international travel across Benelux and Europe – approx. 30%
We offer
We offer you the opportunity to be part of an authentic and sustainable international company, with real growth opportunities and the freedom to actively participate in shaping the business and the opportunity to develop professionally. You will receive a full remuneration package in line with the level of this position. We care for our people and create family-friendly surroundings by offering you the flexibility to work 2 days/week from home.