Procurement Director Fragrance and Flavors na Unilever

­­Role Name: Portfolio Procurement Director F&F

Procurement Team: Sourcing | Materials - Fragrances & Flavours

Organization: Procurement/Supply Chain

Reporting to: Procurement VP materials

Location: UK

Contract conditions: Local terms

Role’s key contribution: This role is part of Procurement’s Sourcing team, which is responsible for leading supplier relationships, and possessing and delivering Value Chain Expertise, Scale & Global Leverage and Sourcing Best Practices to deliver unmissable affordable superiority.

Your role is to set and deploy the strategy for sourcing Fragrances and Fragrance raw materials and Flavours aligned to the Business Group and Supply Chain Strategy for Homecare, Personal Care, Beauty and Wellbeing and Foods. You will be responsible to lead the procurement strategy in the Fragrances and Flavors portfolio across the Business Groups. This will require exceptional stakeholder engagement across functions. You need to ensure you have best in class service, partnerships, the most competitive prices and genuinely committed to Unilever’s sustainably led business model, connected with Unilever and the business agenda. Your role works closely with incumbent Fragrance and Flavours and UFH (Unilever Fragrance House)  Director. The UFH program  develops Unilever’s own Fragrance capabilities, e.g. development of Fragrances, ingredient buying for Fragrances and manufacturing via Tolling model. Part of the Fragrances will be developed by UFH  and part will be co-created with Fragrance Houses and contracted via external with the Fragrance houses.

Responsibilities of the Role:

• You are a strategy guru: You lead the co-creation of a long term, strategic sourcing strategy for your own portfolio. You can keep on top of dynamically changing market conditions, understand direct and indirect factors influencing prices and develop a view of future trends. You implement this strategy by deciding what to buy, where to buy, how to buy and when to buy with multiple global suppliers. Establishing a new capability of ingredient fragrance sourcing and buying. Exploring new ingredients, technologies, and techniques to maintain a competitive edge. Collaborate with ingredient suppliers, third party compounders, perfumers, and partners to source high-quality ingredients, produce fragrances and maintain strong service, resilience, quality, and cost-effectiveness.  
• You are external facing and an expert in the supplier landscape: You assess, identify, and select the appropriate supplier base that meet the needs of the business. You ensure and manage overall performance of suppliers and surpass stakeholder needs.
• You take considered decisions under pressure: You handle complex and diverse customer, supplier, supply chain or operational issues within generally defined practices and policies in selecting methods and techniques for obtaining solutions.
• You are a born leader: You are a leader of procurement projects in your portfolio and for your materials. You take on a role leading portfolio wide activity such as accurate price forecasting and complexity reduction.
• You are a storyteller: You use your strategic influencing skills to drive Procurement considerations and strategic recommendations with Stakeholders.
• You create growth for Unilever: You work closely with Brand, R&D, Supply Chain, Strategy and Insights and Category Procurement teams to support the launch of innovations and new product development.
• You achieve key financial targets: Delivering the business financial targets for Buying Performance, Product Superiority and Complexity reduction for the portfolio materials/services and suppliers. You prepare information on purchase prices and conditions to enable proper budgeting and cash forecasting.

Key Skills

To drive additional value from the unique position you are in, you need to be excellent in:

• Procurement Sourcing Strategy – (level 4 - Effective) Ability to find, evaluate and select the best suppliers to drive savings, increase value and manage risk.

• Supplier Analysis – (level 3 - Intermediate). Ability to assess the weaknesses and strengths of prospective and current suppliers with respect to their – availability of capable staff, business model, capacity, sales revenue, stocks, reputation, mark-ups, mark-downs, gross margins, quality, service, reliability, pricing policies, payment terms, etc.​

• Value Chain Understanding – (level 4 - Effective). A value chain is a set of activities that an organization carries out to create value for its customers. Value Chain understanding is the ability to understand how the company makes value, by understanding all the activities and how they connect. Understanding the value chain allows us to look for ways to add more value.

• Supplier Negotiation – (level 5 - Experienced). Successful negotiations are not a win-lose proposition. The best negotiations result in a win for all parties, which leads to stronger relationships and a desire to continue a partnership that is mutually beneficial. During the procurement process, a negotiation between corporate buyers and sellers is the first step in developing a supply contract which has a direct effect on profit or loss. To be a good negotiator you need to: prepare and plan, be knowledgeable about the subject matter negotiated; be able to think clearly and rapidly under pressure and uncertainty; be able to express thoughts verbally; be a good listener; have sound judgment and integrity; and be able to persuade others.
• Contract Negotiation – (level 3 - Intermediate). Contract negotiation is the process of coming to an agreement on a set of legally binding terms. When two companies negotiate, both parties seek to obtain favourable terms and minimize financial, legal, and operational risk.
• Sourcing Resilience – (level 3 - Intermediate). Ability to run procurement operations to focus not only on 'just in time' but also on 'just in case', by anticipating and planning for uncertainty. It does involve finding robust alternative suppliers and anticipate situations that can have an impact on such as: out of stock, bankruptcy, climate issues.
• Stakeholder Management – (level 5 - Experienced). Ability to identify and then understand the motivations and behaviours of anyone who can affect what you are trying to achieve on a project; then developing relevant strategies to influence outcomes.
  • Strategic Partnerships – (level 5 - Experienced). Ability to join forces with like-minded strategic partners to reach objectives that would be unattainable if going solo. Ability to adopt a deliberate approach to ensure the planned benefits of the relationship are achieved. This includes:
    • developing and maintaining strong individual relationships with your strategic partner and its stakeholders
    • obtaining a deep analytical understanding of your strategic partner and the relationship
    • defining a clear strategy & plan for the strategic relationship
    • ensuring a strong governance, monitoring, and evaluation of the strategic relationship
    • and regularly refreshing and adapting your approach to the strategic relationship

• Collaboration – (level 4 - Effective). Enables people within an organization or outside an organization to engage with each other productively and efficiently. Within the organisation, the role will work very closely with the BG/BU Marketing and R&D functions.
• Program Management (level 3 - Intermediate). Lead the planning and implementation of key change programmes, specifically Scoville program.

Additional Skills - WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO SUCCEED 

Experiences & Qualifications 

• +10 years of Supply Chain experience. 

• +10 years of experience in Procurement ideally in different portfolios (MBS, Logistics, Ingredients, CM, etc). 

• Experience in Procurement Sourcing Strategy, supplier analysis and negotiations. 

• Proven track record of analytical thinking and project management. 

• Leadership experience on transformation projects both globally and regionally preferred. 

• Proficiency in English and further languages are welcome. 

• Experience in working in a virtual team and managing global stakeholders. 

Other Skills 

• An excellent strategic thinker – you need to know how your work will impact multiple different aspects of Fragrance and Flavour / BG Procurement and use your experience to identify roadblocks and opportunities for growth within Procurement and SC total. 

• Ability to collaborate effectively across regions and within global teams, understanding regional differences and accommodating where necessary. 

• An understanding of the Procurement market externally, bringing new ways of working (including digitisation and optimisation), alongside a healthy belief that all processes can be improved. 

• An analytical mind: using data and clear, empirical evidence to understand what strategies should be executed on and when. Manage the team to undertake root cause analysis and rigorously implement improvement action plans to continually develop the robustness of supply chain processes linked to requirements planning 

• An ability to understand when it is best to be in the detail, and when it is best to see the big picture. 

• Think integrated Supply Chain processes. Think opportunity, simplification and harmonization 

• A great influencer: using your effective influencing skills to manage expectations from across different sub-functions, external partners, and supply chain leaders. 

Key Unilever Behaviours:

• Deliver with excellence - Sets high standards of performance, prioritizing critical tasks, taking the initiative and step up to tough challenges, and having a track record of exceeding goals.
• Care Deeply - Involves others and working cooperatively to achieve a common goal, seeking to understand, learning from and including those with different perspectives and backgrounds. Communicates a compelling vision, building strong morale and a sense of belonging, and inspiring others to do their best to achieve work objectives
• Stay 3 Steps ahead – Thinks ahead and approach challenges using a broad perspective to create breakthrough strategies
• Focus on what counts - Deals comfortably with uncertainty and change, taking action and making tough decisions in high stakes situations, and adapting your approach in response to changing circumstances

NOTES

Please apply via this portal as e-mail applications may not be processed and include your talent card if completed.

By applying for this vacancy, you are confirming that you have made your Line Manager aware of your application and that you are at a point in your career with Unilever where it is appropriate for you to be applying for other positions.  

Should you require additional information or reasonable adjustments to allow you to present your best self during this process, please contact your Talent Partner listed at the right hand side of this vacancy.

What we offer

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (unilever.com).

Location 

In September 2020, Unilever announced the intention to build a new sustainable campus site in Kingston, London. This site will house some employees who currently work in 100 Victoria Embankment in Blackfriars together with colleagues who are currently located in Lever House in Kingston. We are excited to be creating our own Unilever sustainable, agile work environment. The campus is due to be completed in 2026.

Relocation to the UK

Please be aware if you are applying for this role from outside the UK, if successful, your application will be treated as a self-initiated Change Location Outside of Country (CLOC) transfer. This means any relocation costs must be self-funded with the potential to reclaim some specific pre-approved expenses up to £5,000. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you have any questions.