Package: Competitive with benefits
Position Type: Permanent

SARIA Food & Pharma / Global Category Manager (IT)

At SARIA Food & Pharma, our activities are characterized by connected value chains, decades of shared market expertise and a unifying spirit of innovation to continuously develop our people and our products

Van Hessen, Devro and Bioiberica use animal raw materials to create their wide range of products, which are ubiquitous and universal, but anything but ordinary. With a complementary portfolio of casings for the sausage industry that includes natural and collagen-based casings, Devro and Van Hessen are leading product experts in their industry. The global life science company Bioiberica produces active ingredients for humans, animals and plants, from starting material it receives from Van Hessen.

We create the added layer of value with our products and services, improve the well-being of all by taking life science further and combine our attention to detail with the extraordinary, because it all matters.

In 2024, SARIA Food & Pharma started the process of further professionalizing Procurement across SARIA Food & Pharma and its Business Units. Part of this transition was the establishment of a Global Category Management Team at Divisional level. After successfully setting up Global Category Management for Logistics, Chemicals, CAPEX, Energy and Packaging, we are now starting to focus on the next category, IT.

About the role:

In your role, you will be responsible for taking the lead in setting up and maintaining Global Category Management within IT. This involves a high focus on supplier and contract management, and sourcing support for new IT hardware and software. From this role, you will ensure we fully utilize our global buying power by implementing the right category strategy while ensuring that contracts are up to date, fully utilized and are in line with Business Unit-specific requirements.

While you are setting up Global Category Management for your assigned category, you will simultaneously work closely with the IT Leadership Team and other Global Category Managers to develop and implement Global Category Management tools, standards, policies, and processes. To ensure we increase our control and further optime our IT spendings.

Reporting directly to the Global Head of Procurement Food and Pharma, you will collaborate closely with the other Global Category Managers and IT Leadership team, leveraging each other's strengths to drive collective success.

In your role, there will be a strong focus on identifying and realizing cost savings, while ensuring we meet Business Unit-specific requirements.

Within our team we have a strong focus on creating added value by capturing synergies and exploring how we can become even better together.

Responsibilities:

Development of a clearly defined global sourcing and contracting approach that aligns with the requirements of key stakeholders.
Set up and execute ongoing contract and supplier relationship management within the category – including expectation setting, monitoring, review, continuous improvement, and influencing supplier investment, technology development, and use of supplier resources to directly benefit SARIA Food & Pharma in innovation and cost savings.
Ensuring we conduct business under the most competitive conditions with our suppliers and that those conditions are fully utilized by all relevant Business Units.
Developing, implementing, and maintaining a ‘One SARIA Food & Pharma Global IT Procurement Strategy’ including standards, guidelines, processes, and policies that are in line with Business Unit-specific requirements.
Motivate and coach local teams to successfully execute the global strategy, driving a culture of positivity through continuous improvement, solid negotiation capabilities, Supplier Relationship Management, and development of Procurement team category knowledge.
Development and implementation of an appropriate Global Category Strategy that cost-effectively ensures security of supply.
Provide a thorough understanding of the supplier, their suppliers, the market dynamics, fundamentals, and drivers.
Responsible for identifying and driving Global sourcing and contracting projects and ensuring they are implemented and followed by the BUs.
Initiate and managing global tenders across key procurement categories, utilizing RFX tools to ensure competitive and compliant supplier selection.

About you:

Degree qualified in an appropriate field, complemented by a postgraduate or professional qualification such as NEVI or CIPS.
1-5 years’ working experience in a similar role or position.
Strong interest in IT Contract and Supplier Management.
Demonstrable experience of strategic category management within your responsible category and across multiple countries is advantageous.
Ability to lead, motivate and develop teams that are remote and matrix-managed.
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with significant influencing and negotiation capabilities.
Experience in direct and indirect procurement, including sourcing strategy, supplier selection, negotiation, contracting, contract implementation, and compliance management.
Proactive and entrepreneurial; you will have the unique opportunity to set up Category Management.

What next?

If this sounds like a role that you would be interested in, then we would love to hear from you. To apply, please email a copy of your CV, along with a cover letter explaining the key attributes that you could bring to the role.

We value the support recruitment agencies provide, however we are unable to accept speculative CV’s from agencies we are not already engaged with.

Email address for applications: stephen.mcnaughton@saria-foodpharma.com

Closing Date: 18/09/2025

*Please note, closing dates are subject to change and, at time of high volume of applications, this may be brought forward.

Other important information:

We believe it takes diversity of thought, culture, background, and perspective to create a truly innovative company. So if you share our values, purpose and drive for growth and sustainability, then we want to hear from you. If you require any adjustments to be able to pursue an application with us, please let our Recruitment team know.

Information Security is paramount at Devro, so your application and any personal data you share with us will be processed and stored in line with our Candidate Privacy Notice which you can view here https://www.devro.com/careers.