Opportunity
Responsible for supporting the financial and operational performance within specific areas of IT Categories including a share of the $175M IT spend. Responsible for negotiating XaaS, telecom, infrastructure, security, AI, and IT service agreements globally, for all business units. Accountable for supporting the IT team with supplier selection, value analysis, and go/no go decisions. Serves as the liaison between legal, privacy, risk, IT and business stakeholders and supplier partners. Analyzes supplier quotations, SOWs and other contracts to determine the best solution based upon metrics such as value delivered and total cost of ownership. Familiar with a variety of purchasing concepts, practices, and procedures. 
Specific Responsibilities
Lead the development of Category Strategies Learn and understand the current state of the category in the market and at Kohler Identify gaps issues and challenges affecting assurance of supply, quality, service, cost, lack of innovation and relationships Proactively identify future areas of opportunity to address cost, building a pipeline of value to be executed through a variety of sourcing and other approaches Project Support and Management  Support the execution of IT and business projects and initiatives focused on driving and delivering value to the organization Develop sourcing strategies for cross-functional RFx, evaluation, supplier selection, proposal analysis, and contract negotiation Manage and defend against cost increases at contract renewal Implement various negotiation tactics to minimize unfavorable risk and impact to Kohler Evaluate and support the addition of new providers and technology, and improved processes  Administration and Continuous Improvement Support the management of existing vendor relationships and performance Interact with senior leaders and report on cost savings and avoidance, risk mitigation, and keep stakeholders informed of project development  Become an expert in understanding the procurement purpose and process Develop key relationships with stakeholders and provide training and support Identify areas of improvement in the procurement team and process, and propose changes to make improvements happen 
 Required Competencies
Business/Technology 
Contract Proficiency 
Understand the importance of contract quality 
Proficient understanding of business and legal Interpretations of contract T&Cs 
Proven ability to manage various commercial and legal aspects of IT agreements Proficient in managing/leading the contract and sourcing process Collaboration  Able to build and maintain key internal / external relationships critical to success, including those with senior leaders including directors, VPs and C-level officers Comfortable collaborating with stakeholders on requirement gathering and execution General understanding of IT solutions, concepts and terms Able to prioritize workloads due to actual level of urgency, and proactively keep stakeholders up to date Negotiation Experienced in negotiating the gamut of hardware, software licensing and services agreements Ability to negotiate with varying degrees of negotiation power and leverage Skilled in cost analysis, with a focus on total cost of ownership and value delivered Develop and execute negotiation strategies for large opportunities Interpersonal Approach Delight customers/stakeholders Strong drive for results Ability to learn quickly Strong degree of independence in work Comfortable asking questions when unclear Solutions-oriented problem solving Collaboration Develop and maintain relationships  Accept responsibility and be accountable for commitments Communicate proactively, timely and effectively