You’re not the person who will settle for just any role. Neither are we. Because we’re out to create Better Care for a Better World, and that takes a certain kind of person and teams who care about making a difference. Here, you’ll bring your professional expertise, talent, and drive to building and managing our portfolio of iconic, ground-breaking brands. You’ll help us deliver better care for billions of people around the world.

About Us:

At Kimberly-Clark, you’ll be part of the best teams committed to driving innovation and growth. We’re founded on 150 years of market leadership, and we’re always looking for new and better ways to perform—so what can you do with that? There’s no time like the present to make an impact at Kimberly-Clark. It’s all here for you at Kimberly-Clark. Kimberly-Clark is leading the world in essentials for a better life. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with nearly 46,000 employees worldwide and operations in 36 countries, Kimberly-Clark posted sales of $20.2 billion in 2022.

Kimberly-Clark’s global brands are sold in more than 175 countries. Every day, 1.3 billion people trust Kimberly-Clark products and the solutions they provide to make their lives better. With well-known family care and personal care brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Andrex, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex, Poise and Depend, we hold the No. 1 or No. 2 share position globally in more than 80 countries. As a global company, we are committed to cultivating a fair, respectful and engaging work environment that inspires our diverse global team to thrive professionally and contribute to the communities where we operate. We also have a responsibility to attain a deeper understanding of our impact on the world. Addressing Sustainability issues and incorporating solutions through all levels of Kimberly-Clark is a critical component of our business.

Job Summary:

The Global Category Director is responsible for the categories of super absorbent materials (SAM) and chemicals, ensuring K-C is leveraging its global volumes, spend and relationships in a way that benefits K-C as an enterprise. In full partnership with Global Supply Chain Manufacturing leaders, this role leads procurement strategies that enable collaboration, innovation, reliability improvement, capacity enablement, and value creation. The role ensures implementation and compliance with global strategies. The role owns key stakeholder relationships and communicates strategies to regional procurement resources. The Global Category Director will manage a purchasing portfolio of approximately $1B annually, making it one of the largest category groupings for K-C Procurement.

Responsibilities:

Setting category strategy

• Develop global category strategies aligned to business needs.
• Execute and institutionalize global category strategy.
• Interface with Business Unit, Manufacturing, Research, Logistics and Engineering stakeholders in the development, approval and execution of the global category strategies.
• Set targets and expectations globally, in conjunction with internal stakeholders, for total value creation including quality, service, value creation and cost targets.
• Provide expert-level global category knowledge.
• Develop robust business continuity plans for complex portfolios.

Supplier relationship management

• Provides global leadership for supplier collaboration and innovation in alignment with business needs and strategies.
• Partners with business teams to lead supplier relationships.
• Negotiates on behalf of the K-C enterprise.
• Builds external relationships.

Leadership/people development

• Provide thought leadership to and shares best practices with all regions.
• Develop a high performing team of global procurement professionals.
• Lead the Global Superabsorbent Material (SAM) and Chemicals Procurement team.
• Represent the category at global meetings as appropriate.
• Build competence and capability in global, regional, and local procurement teams.

Global alignment

• Primary point of contact responsible for ensuring positive stakeholder experience.
• Engage category stakeholders to understand business unit needs, align on their goals and objectives and provide category insights.
• Share best practices and wins within the categories across all regions.
• Ensures regional alignment with global strategies.
• Understand and manage regional differences in a collaborative manner.

Knowledge development

• Develops and maintains knowledgebase of the category.
• Keeps current framework of operations to ensure transfer of knowledge over time.
• Continual review of external and internal business and technical environments and trends

Critical Success factors for the Role

• Deep technical experience in Super Absorbent Material (SAM), Chemicals or related products
• Proactive and effective internal stakeholder collaboration and alignment on long term strategic business goals including Business, Research & Engineering, Marketing, Manufacturing and Supply Chain leaders.
• Proven ability to drive long term value.
• Global and Regional talent building in the procurement division and a proven track record of exporting talent into the business.
• Proven strategic abilities.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant discipline and a demonstrated ability based on extensive experience and education.
• Ten plus years of relevant experience in complex supply chain with at least five plus years in a senior leadership role.
• Proven ability to develop and lead high performing teams in a global environment.
• Expert negotiator/results oriented.
• Expert level category knowledge, preferably within a fast-moving consumer packaged goods category, absorbent materials, or chemicals.
• Ability to solve complex problems.
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills and able to effectively communicate across a matrixed organization, including executive leaders.
• Ability to work across global regions and cultures.
• Ability to reconcile diverse business strategies and challenges.
• Extensive stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a matrix organization.
• Ability to lead through influence including executive leaders.

Total Benefits: For a complete overview, see www.mykcbenefits.com

For Kimberly-Clark to grow and prosper, we must be an inclusive organization that applies the diverse experiences and passions of its team members to brands that make life better for people all around the world. We actively seek to build a workforce that reflects the experiences of our consumers. When you bring your original thinking to Kimberly-Clark, you fuel the continued success of our enterprise. We are a committed equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, genetic information, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

With an inclusive culture, our employees – and the original thinking they bring to Kimberly-Clark – make us stronger. EOE disability/vet.

K-C requires that an employee have authorization to work in the country in which the role is based. In the event an applicant does not have current work authorization, K-C will determine, in its sole discretion, whether to sponsor an individual for work authorization. However, based on immigration requirements, not all roles are suitable for sponsorship.

The statements above are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this classification. Statements are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and skills required for this position.

Additional information about the compensation and benefits for this role are available upon request. You may contact 866-444-4516 or kcchrprod@service-now.com for assistance. You must include the six-digit Job # with your request.