Sr. Director, Packaging, Corporate Procurement

Lactalis USA is currently seeking candidates to join our North American Procurement Team. This position is hybrid and would be located out of one of our corporate HQs: Bedford, NH, Buffalo, NY, Chicago, IL, or Toronto, Canada.

Lactalis, the world leader in dairy, is a family-owned business with more than 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals worldwide, committed to nurturing the future by providing healthy and delicious dairy products that bring people together every day. We produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together every day. We offer an enviable range of dairy brands including Galbani, President, Kraft Natural Cheese, Cracker Barrel, Black Diamond, Parmalat, Siggi's, and Stonyfield Organic in addition to several brands imported from our affiliates in Europe.

At Lactalis, our core values of AMBITION, ENGAGEMENT, and SIMPLICITY are at the heart of everything we do. We are dedicated to building a safe, diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace and we know that our candidates come from many different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. If you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job posting, we still encourage you to apply and share with us your STORY, your PASSION, and your EXPERTISE! You may be just the perfect candidate for this or other roles within our company.

Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities.

From your PASSION to ours

The Senior Director of Purchasing as a key member of the North American Strategic Procurement team is responsible for developing and implementing short and long term purchasing strategies that deliver best-in-class results in the areas of people, processes, costs and supply, as well as the implementation and ongoing integrity of purchasing policies, practices, and systems. He/she works in strong collaboration with the global purchasing team, must develop networking relationships with the global procurement team, and is comfortable working in a global and matrixial organization. The incumbent advises direct reports on short and long-term sourcing strategies, leads department working capital initiatives, and assures progress against project timelines and deliverables. The incumbent will ensure that the overall focus of his/her department is consistent with the overall goals of the organization and that services provided by the department are responsive to the areas of the company within Canada and the USA.

From your EXPERTISE to ours

Key responsibilities for this position include:

* Ensure that purchased materials, suppliers and services are in compliance with the company's requirements.

* Responsible for the purchasing Packaging categories across various defined business units throughout the United States 4 different divisions and Canada .

* Support and manage company acquisitions with the support of the global procurement team.

* Develop and manage best-in-class purchasing policies, processes, systems, tools, training and auditing.

* Responsible for reducing total costs of packaging without jeopardizing quality or business continuity in relation with suppliers executive and CEO's.

* Support global strategy and negotiation initiatives led by corporate global procurement team by providing information such as pricing, specifications, vendor listings, market intelligence and managing the negotiations finalization at local level.

* Partner with and provide purchasing leadership and insight to the Operations, Finance, Quality, R&D, Supply Chain, Sales and Marketing groups as required at North American level.

* Partner with and provide purchasing leadership executives and insight to the other functions within all Lactalis North American divisions as required.

* Develop and lead a high performing team of purchasing professionals by hiring appropriate talent and providing appropriate training, development, performance feedback and establishing stretch objectives.

* Establish a high level of capability, knowledge, productivity, accountability, and decision making within the Procurement group. Champion the transfer of purchasing knowledge between all functional groups.

* Could be assigned to special projects by the VP, Corporate Procurement.

* Full ownership of Budget with input on the Budget Assumptions from the VP, Corporate Procurement and the global Strategic procurement team.

* Develop, maintain and implement with the support of the global team a sustainable purchasing packaging strategy at zone level.

* Develop and implement terms & conditions, RFQ, RFP, online bidding and other programs and processes to ensure best value and cost. Create competitive advantage of the business through innovations within applicable purchasing area.

From your STORY to ours

Qualified applicants will contribute the following:

Education & Experience

* University degree (MBA is an asset).

* Minimum 15 years leadership experience in a purchasing environment within Packaging categories

* Minimum 7 years leadership experience

* SAP or similar business systems experience.

* French language will be an asset

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

* Strong leadership and interpersonal skills; influencing others towards a common objective

* Knowledge of Milk, Yogurt, Cheese, food packaging

* Strategic, tactical and analytical skills - systematic perspective on strategic picture & provides a clear vision of the department direction

* Detailed understanding of an overall business and purchasing function (purchasing strategy, supplier management, purchasing category management, cost management, budgeting and controlling)

* Highly business focused and proactive

* Strong organizational skills (handling workload and complexity)

* Strong negotiation skills

* Ability to interact with wide variety of business situations and all levels of management, trade groups, conventions

* Visionary leader with a strong track-record of delivering results

* Planning, project management, and execution skills

* Proficient with standard office computer technology such as Microsoft Office products and the Internet.

* Consultative and customer centric approach that nurtures interest, engagement, and the sharing of ideas