Category Manager

at  Rogers Communications

We are committed to connecting Canadians through unique partnerships, our world-class network and content Canadians love—and our innovative team is growing. We are looking for dedicated team members to join our Corporate team who have a genuine passion for making positive impacts on customers and the communities where we live and work. We have a variety of business units with exciting and meaningful work waiting for you, including Communications, HR, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Supply Chain, Finance, and Real Estate. If you are considering your next step, we have exciting opportunities waiting for you. Come build a rewarding career at Rogers and be a driving force behind our success story!
The Core Network Procurement team is seeking a Category Manager eager to join our team. Reporting to the Sr. Manager, Network Procurement, the Category Manager will be an expert within Wireline Network platforms and related spend categories. The successful candidate will work with business partners to manage the strategic direction, total cost of ownership and risk mitigation. Your task will be to establish optimal commercial arrangements for next-generation network ecosystems (hardware, software, software licensing) aligned with Rogers’s strategic business objectives. Your technical and business acumen will advance Procurement’s trusted advisor status, optimize spend and value for money, drive best practices and provide future-focused strategies to achieve Rogers’ goals.
The successful candidate will be responsible for achieving CAPEX/OPEX savings targets with a TCO mindset for the spend category and be accountable to working collaboratively with other groups within Procurement and with our business partners in Network and Finance to realize CAPEX and OPEX savings through RFx and direct negotiations. The individual will need to work across different pillars within the organization to corral and drive the overarching procurement point-of-view and to realize the desired outcomes.
The Category Manager will cultivate a strong rapport with key senior technical, business, and finance stakeholders/partners based on foundational trust, respect, collaboration, and cooperation and help to achieve business objectives. The Category Manager shall have strong experience in presenting technical topics with confidence to senior business partners/leaders. The candidate shall have the ability to resolve multi-party conflicts effectively. The candidate shall excel in a culture of continuous improvement, leveraging innovation and system-based tools to increase efficiency and value while delivering an intuitive, user-friendly experience for internal and external stakeholders.

• Take end-to-end ownership of assigned network core spend category strategies to drive CAPEX/OPEX savings aligned with company objectives and business partner goals.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to influence, develop, and gain buy-in on aligned category strategies and advance key supplier partnership aligned with such strategy with a focus on strategic opportunities.
• Provide leadership and guidance to business partners on best-in-class procurement practices, on-going advancements and opportunities associated with assigned categories, and strategic category insights to support delivery of company objectives.
• Lead and own relationships with assigned key suppliers within your categories ensuring fulfilment of contractual obligations and business partner requirements.
• Act as a first level escalation point for issues related to suppliers for which you are identified as the procurement prime.
• Manage assigned supplier issues and dispute escalations to settlement, including negotiation of supplier contracts.
• Responsible for building, maintaining, and enhancing solid relationships with key internal stakeholders across the organization to ensure suppliers within the category and the category strategy are meeting business needs.
• Challenging the status quo by actively participating in and taking a leadership role in the continuous improvement, implementation of innovations and automations to create best-in-class procurement practices that are intuitive and user-friendly for internal stakeholders and suppliers.
• Implement and champion ethical procurement practices, procurement policies, supplier social responsibility objectives, and supplier diversity and sustainability programs.
• Act as internal consultant to business owners on sourcing practices, supplier performance, compliance, and risk management policies, processes, and procurement standard practices.