Smiths Group

Company Description

John Crane, a business of Smiths Group, is a global leader in mission-critical flow control solutions for energy and process industries that enable efficient and sustainable operations. Our products include mechanical seals and systems, couplings, bearings, filtration systems, and predictive digital monitoring technologies.

We have a global network of more than 200 sites in over 50 countries and employ more than 6,000 people worldwide. We partner with our customers to help them keep their operations safe, reduce downtime, improve efficiency, and meet the latest environmental standards.

John Crane is part of Smiths Group. For over 170 years, Smiths has been pioneering progress by engineering for a better future. We serve millions of people every year, helping to create a safer, more efficient, productive, and better-connected world across four global markets: energy, security & defence, space & aerospace, and general industrial. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs approximately 16,000 colleagues in over 50 countries.

Job Description

Department: Global Supply Group

Direct Report: Global Category Manager

Expected to work closely with Product Line, Demand Planning, Purchasing Team, Engineering, Quality

• Manages the global category spend across all global operations
• Monitors global markets trends to mitigate the impact of supply shortfall risks or price increases
• Designs and develops the supplier-base to leverage global spend opportunities, reduce lead times, and total cost of ownership
• Develops and implements category global sourcing plans and spend strategies to support broad business objectives
• Manages the entire supplier lifecycle, from approval to disqualification
• Defines the strategy for supplier consolidation and reduce costs whilst maintaining or improving service level and quality
• Leverages spend and optimizes quality, delivery, and cost by continuously identifying opportunities to reduce waste
• Negotiates proper global contracts and develops frame agreements for strategic spend that endure volatility, solo source
• Be the main contact for global supplier relations through single point of contact Supplier Management organization. Engages key stakeholders as required including Senior Management
• Sets performance objectives to assigned suppliers (quality improvement, on-time delivery, lead-time reduction, cost reduction). Defines baseline, improvement targets and monitors progress through a regularly updated supplier scorecard
• Benchmarks performance and audits suppliers with assistance from key stakeholders
• Promotes technical innovation by ensuring John Crane access to new technologies
• Meeting stakeholder, customer requirements and needs (cost, capacity, quality, and delivery)
• Thorough global markets (related to assigned Category) understanding including benchmarking
• Global leverage
• Global contracts and frame agreements
• Strategic category plan definition, implementation, and communication to key stakeholders
• Supplier Performance and Business Reviews.

Qualifications

• Good supplier management skills
• Integrity and excellent negotiation skills
• Ability to work in teams
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Ability to work with a global footprint organization and meet deadlines.
• Formal category and sourcing strategic plans with the list of preferred suppliers, deployed and reviewed twice a year
• Quality and On-time delivery improvements
• Lead-time and costs / pricing reductions
• Supplier base rationalization
• Percentage of spend allocated to preferred / global suppliers
• Percentage of spend covered by global contracts and frame agreements.
• Bachelor's degree; Master's Degree - Preferred minimum experience of 10 years in Project Management, Procurement & Sourcing organization
• Adequate knowledge of the Category management
• A working knowledge of Quality Management Systems, API standards along with the experience of qualifying and auditing suppliers is essential. Experience with Continuous Improvement, Lean or Sic Sigma is a plus
• Knowledge of Instrumentation & Fluid Sealing Systems fabrication is an added advantage

Additional Information

With colleagues stretching across the globe, we are proud of our diversity. To foster inclusivity, we run employee resource groups (ERGs) to provide a safe space for employees to connect and support each other. Our cross-business ERGs include Veterans, Pride Network, Black Employee Network, Women@Work Network, and Neurodiversity.

Across our company, we recognize excellence, culminating in the Smiths Excellence Awards, our annual celebration of the most extraordinary activities, people, and projects that best showcase our strengths and help drive our business forward. We announce these on our annual Smiths Day, a global celebration of Smiths around our network.

Join us for a great career with competitive compensation and benefits, while helping engineer a better future.

We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.

At no time during the hiring process will Smiths Group, nor any of our recruitment partners ever request payment to enable participation – including, but not limited to, interviews or testing. Avoid fraudulent requests by applying jobs directly through our career’s website (Careers - Smiths Group plc)