Global Category Manager IM

Nouryon is a global, specialty chemicals leader. Markets and consumers worldwide rely on our essential solutions to manufacture everyday products, such as personal care, cleaning goods, paints and coatings, agriculture and food, pharmaceuticals, and building products. Furthermore, the dedication of approximately 7,650 employees with a shared commitment to our customers, business growth, safety, sustainability and innovation has resulted in a consistently strong financial performance. We operate in over 80 countries around the world with a portfolio of industry-leading brands.

Global Category Manager IM

At Nouryon, our global team takes positive action every day, to reach higher collectively and individually. We create innovative and sustainable solutions for our customers to answer society’s needs - today and in the future.

We are looking for team members who bring ideas forward, champion others and work together to do better. Does that sound like you?

In your future role as a Global Category Manager IM, you will

The Category Manager - IT leads the development and execution of global category strategies, strategic sourcing, and supplier management for the company’s IT indirect spend, optimizing cost, quality, and value across software, SaaS, cloud services, hardware, and IT professional services. The role delivers value through cost optimization, supplier innovation, risk mitigation, and strong contract execution.

The category focuses on information technology, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity software, licenses, and services. Partnering closely with IT, Information Security, Legal, Finance, and senior functional stakeholders, the Category Manager aligns sourcing strategy with enterprise technology priorities, translates business requirements into effective sourcing decisions, manages supplier performance, and drives governance and compliance.

Category Management

• Own and continuously evolve global IT category strategies and execute multi-year sourcing roadmaps aligned to business and technology priorities
• Establish the right roster of preferred suppliers and drive supplier consolidation, cost optimization, and efficiency improvements
• Design and run end-to-end sourcing events, including RFIs, RFPs, RFQs, and negotiations
• Build total cost of ownership (TCO) models and business cases to support sourcing decisions
• Evaluate emerging technologies and sourcing models to support digital initiatives

Contracting & Commercial Negotiations

• Negotiate and finalize complex enterprise agreements across software, SaaS, cloud, hardware, and services, ensuring terms and conditions meet business objectives.
• Ensure strong commercial terms, including pricing, service level agreements (SLAs), security, intellectual property, and risk protections
• Lead supplier negotiations and deliver continuous, sustainable productivity, cost savings, and cost avoidance

Supplier Relationship Management

• Run supplier relationship management (SRM) with strategic technology suppliers, monitoring Key Performance Indicators, service levels, and innovation contributions
• Resolve high-risk escalations and manage contractual and reputational risks proactively
• Partner with Legal, Information Security, and Risk teams on supplier governance, third-party risk, and due diligence

Stakeholder Management

• Manage senior-level relationships across IT, Information Security, Legal, Finance, and Compliance to ensure alignment of procurement goals with business priorities
• Collaborate with the functions to continuously optimize spending; monitor and optimize IT spend, licensing, and cloud utilization; and drive adoption of procurement processes with a customer-focused approach

Risk & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with procurement policies and regulatory standards
• Promote ethical sourcing, sustainability/ESG criteria, and supplier diversity initiatives

We believe you bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Information Systems, or another relevant discipline OR Master’s degree or MBA; Master’s degree in Information Technology or related field
• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in Category Management of Indirect Services Procurement in a global environment; experience in enterprise IT sourcing and category management (software, SaaS, cloud, hardware, and IT services); demonstrated success negotiating complex, high-value enterprise technology agreements
• Experience sourcing AI and cybersecurity solutions; knowledge of software asset management (SAM) and IT asset management (ITAM)
• Strategic category leadership, supplier relationship management (SRM), stakeholder influence and business partnering, financial and analytical acumen, risk and contract management, data-driven decision making, project management
• Strategic sourcing and RFx execution (RFI/RFP/RFQ), contracting and commercial negotiation, total cost of ownership (TCO) modeling and business case development, analytical skills, problem solving, interpersonal skills
• Tech savvy: strong understanding of software licensing models, SaaS, cloud platforms (AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud), cybersecurity, and IT professional services; proficiency with procurement platforms (e.g., SAP Ariba, Coupa); Ops Fintech experience

Good to know

Please apply via our online recruitment system. We will not accept applications via e-mail. Once it's with us, we will review to see if we have a match between your skills and the role! For more information about our hiring process, visit: nouryon.com/careers/how-we-hire/

We look forward to receiving your application!

We encourage you as a valued Nouryon employee to share talents from your network to help us to bring in new talent through our new Employee Referral Program! Bringing new, skilled people with a great mindset is beneficial for both you and Nouryon. All info you need to make a referral is here. Join us in growing Nouryon!

About Nouryon

If you’re looking for your next career move, apply today and join Nouryon’s worldwide team in providing essential solutions that our customers use to manufacture everyday products such as personal care, cleaning, paints and coatings, agriculture and food, pharmaceuticals, and building products. Our employees are driven by the wish to make an impact and actively drive positive change. If that describes you, we will gladly make way for your ambitions. From day one we support you with your personal growth, through challenging positions and comprehensive learning and development opportunities, in a dynamic, international, diverse, and proactive working environment.

Visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn.

#WeAreNouryon

We have already chosen our sourcing channels for this recruitment and kindly ask not to be contacted by any advertisement agents, recruitment agencies or staffing companies.

Nouryon is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.

Nouryon is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.