Category Manager Indirect Procurement – MRO & Plant CAPEX

Within the Villeroy & Boch Group, the Category Manager Indirect Procurement – MRO & Plant CAPEX is a value-driven, change-oriented role responsible for challenging established procurement and maintenance practices and introducing new sourcing models, technical alternatives, and innovative commercial approaches across MRO and plant-related CAPEX. The role goes beyond traditional negotiations and leverages data, analytics, and systems to identify savings opportunities, improve transparency, and support fact-based decision-making across the Group’s manufacturing footprint.

Key Responsibilities

Innovation-Led Category Strategy

• Design and deploy forward-looking category strategies for MRO and plant CAPEX.
• Execute RFI, RFP, and RFQ processes and lead negotiations to completion.
• Reassess OEM vs. alternative sourcing models using TCO and lifecycle data.
• Reduce complexity in spare-parts portfolios through cross-site harmonization.
• Drive initiatives to lower inventory, emergency spend, and unplanned CAPEX.

Advanced Sourcing & Value Creation

• Lead innovative sourcing initiatives, including re-specification, bundling, and long-term agreements
• Build and maintain should-cost and clean-sheet models
• Translate technical and commercial changes into measurable savings (OPEX & CAPEX)
• Track, validate, and sustain savings through robust data management

Data, Systems & Insight (Excel & SAP)

• Use advanced Excel to analyze spend, build financial models, and simulate sourcing scenarios
• (e.g. pivot tables, advanced formulas, scenario modeling, dashboards)
• Extract, structure, and analyze data from SAP (MM, SRM/Coupa, or equivalent) to support category decisions
• Ensure data accuracy, transparency, and traceability for savings and compliance
• Support continuous improvement of reporting, catalogs, and master data

Plant-Level Engagement & Change Enablement

• Partner with Maintenance and Engineering teams to challenge “business as usual”
• Support plants with data-driven recommendations during critical situations
• Drive adoption of new sourcing models through facts, credibility, and pragmatism

Governance & Scalability

• Embed innovative category approaches into contracts, catalogs, and SAP workflows
• Ensure savings sustainability through compliance, KPIs, and reporting discipline
• Contribute to procurement digitalization and transformation initiatives

Profile & Capabilities

Experience

• Strong background in indirect procurement with deep exposure to MRO and plant CAPEX
• Proven ability to generate savings by changing sourcing logic and using data effectively
• Experience working in SAP-based procurement environments

Key Skills

• Minimum 3 years experience as Category Manager in a Multinational Company
• Strong negotiation and influencing skills, with the ability to balance commercial rigor and operational needs
• Advanced Excel proficiency
• SAP proficiency– MM and procurement-related modules
• Strong analytical and financial modeling skills
• Ability to influence technical stakeholders using data and insight
• Structured, curious, and improvement-oriented mindset
• Fluent English (C1 level) required; proficiency in additional languages is considered a plus

Strategic Contribution & Mindset

• Challenge legacy specifications, OEM dependencies, and historical sourcing decisions
• Introduce innovative sourcing models and technically validated alternatives
• Identify structural savings through standardization, lifecycle optimization, and demand management
• Use data and analytics to expose inefficiencies and opportunities
• Bring external benchmarks and best practices into the organization

Additional info:

• Location: Milan, Via Borsi 9
• Travel Flexibility: around 15 to 20%
• Starting time: Q1 2026