Job Description
As a Network & Hardware Category Manager, your main objective is to :
· Set the Group Procurement strategy for Network & Hardware working with multiple internal stakeholders.
· Challenge the needs in a constructive dialog with stakeholders.
· Define and drive the negotiation strategy whilst ensuring the involvement and buy in of stakeholders including AXA Senior Executives.
· Linking with the community of Network & Hardware Sourcing Experts and developing relationships with AXA Operating Company procurement teams (including CPO) to develop transparency on common work/vendors/challenges and to support local projects in a pull mode.
· Maintain constant market knowledge, identifying vendor strategies, detecting disruption in the market, anticipating and mitigating risks and seizing opportunities.
Main missions
Your responsibilities include:
- Ensure upstream procurement involvement within the IT stakeholders through Sourcing Business Partners for Group Operations or through the network of AXA Companies buyers in order to deliver value / savings & minimize AXA risk exposure.
- Proactively manage contract lifecycle: renegotiation, ensure compliance etc.
- Challenging the needs: the Sourcing Lead Expert will challenge the needs and have a dialog with business areas to set the right conditions to optimize benefits. Levers will include specification/test to open to alternative solutions/alternative vendors, reuse of excess licenses available, change in deployment to optimize number of licenses.
- Gather needs throughout for aggregation purposes and getting best deals for the AXA Group.
- Define negotiation strategy with internal stakeholders, involve these stakeholders, including AXA Executives, when driving the negotiations with Vendors.
- Drive the contractual negotiations with Vendors and internal stakeholders (Legal, Compliance, Data Privacy, Security, Resilience). For AXA Companies, in pull mode, the Network & Hardware Sourcing Expert may be in support / advising mode to another AXA Company buyer.
- Provide the Procurement network Groupwide with key information about the negotiated deals, being able to promote these deals to ensure AXA Companies adherence to them.
- Drive the development of new market opportunities (new suppliers, technologies, substitution products, etc.) for creating/ensuring competition between vendors for the benefit of AXA.
- As may be assigned, operate as a Key Vendor Manager at global level (for a specific vendor), ensuring relevant alignment to Key Vendor Management framework.
- Propose and implement levers for reducing or avoiding costs through vendor competition.
We are looking for someone with the following experience and skills:
Experience
- Master’s degree in Procurement / MBA level / CIPS qualified.
- Significant experience (5+ years) in Procurement with at least three years spent in Network, Workplace or Datacenter categories.
- Exposure to large, multi-country company
Technical skills
- Excellent negotiation skills, including experience with monopolistic like vendors.
- Ability to design and articulate negotiation strategies.
- A broad understanding of IT evolution.
- Deep knowledge of pricing models (software metrics, SLAs, etc).
- Knowledge of key contractual clauses.
- Awareness Asset Management and deployment.
- English - Fluent in speaking and writing - another European language is a plus.
Soft skills / transversal skills
- Good Communication and teamwork, able to work in an agile mode across the IT community.
- Excellent collaboration.
- A strong colleagues and internal customers focus.
- Result orientated.
- Creative and innovative mindset to challenge established business models and approaches.
- Ability to work with the wider leadership team.
- Ability to work in an international environment.