Category Buyer

Your Tasks

Category Management and Strategic Sourcing:

• Responsible for end-to-end procurement activities for assigned categories, ensuring alignment with global, regional and local procurement teams

• Leading strategic sourcing initiatives, including market analysis, supplier identification, RFx processes, commercial evaluations, negotiations and contract implementation

• Developing, implementing and continuously improving category strategies to deliver sustainable value, cost optimization and risk mitigation

Stakeholder Management and Business Partnering:

• Acting as a trusted business partner for internal stakeholders by providing procurement expertise, market intelligence and sourcing recommendations

• Managing procurement requests and resolving procurement-related operational issues

• Driving savings initiatives, value engineering and demand management opportunities across assigned categories

Supplier Management and Negotiations:

• Negotiating commercial terms and conditions with local and regional suppliers, including pricing, TCO, payment terms, service levels and contractual conditions

• Managing supplier relationships and supplier performance, including regular business reviews, performance improvement initiatives and risk management

Projects, Regional/Global Initiatives and Process Improvement:

• Leading cross-functional procurement projects and supporting regional and global procurement initiatives

• Actively participating in regional and global procurement projects by providing expertise in sourcing, negotiations, supplier management and category strategy

• Supporting procurement transformation, process optimization and implementation of procurement best practices

• Providing guidance and knowledge sharing to other procurement colleagues and supporting their professional development

Governance, Compliance and Procurement Operations:

• Ensuring compliance with global procurement policies, internal controls and company governance standards

• Approving purchase requests through SRM in accordance with procurement rules

• Entering purchase requests into SAP in accordance with procurement rules where required

• Executing procurement requests in accordance with procurement rules

• Maintaining procurement-related master data and submitting requests for supplier master data creation, modification and deletion in accordance with company policies

• Collecting and analyzing procurement data, preparing procurement documentation, monitoring procurement performance and supporting reporting activities

Your Profile

Required Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• University degree (Business Administration, Economics, Supply Chain Management or related field preferred)

• Minimum 3 years of experience in procurement, strategic sourcing or category management

• Proven experience leading supplier negotiations and managing strategic supplier relationships

• Experience managing sourcing projects independently

• Strong commercial acumen with solid analytical and financial evaluation skills (including TCO analysis)

• English language proficiency

• Advanced computer proficiency, particularly Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint

• Experience working with SAP and procurement systems (e.g. SRM, Ariba or equivalent)

Required Competencies:

• Good negotiation, influencing and stakeholder management skills

• Strong strategic thinking and business partnering capabilities

• High level of ownership, accountability and result orientation

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills

• Strong project management and organizational skills

• Ability to work independently while effectively collaborating within cross-functional teams

• High professional ethics and integrity

• Good communication and presentation skills

• Continuous improvement mindset

• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a dynamic environment

At Beiersdorf, we want to help people feel good about their skin – and our commitment goes far beyond caring for skin. For 140 years, we have developed innovative skin and body care products for well-known brands such as NIVEA, Eucerin, La Prairie, Hansaplast, and Labello. We act according to our purpose, WE CARE BEYOND SKIN, and take responsibility for our consumers, our employees, the environment and society.

Behind every brand, every product and every accomplishment are our more than 20,000 employees. It is for them that we live an inclusive culture of respect and trust that is strongly aligned with our values – CARE, COURAGE, SIMPLICITY and TRUST. We also embrace diversity by valuing the uniqueness of each individual and being committed to equal opportunities for all.