Head of Global Category – Energy / NPM Purchasing ContiTech - CTBC

About the Role The Global Role Head of Global Category Energy is responsible for the worldwide strategic purchasing of electricity, natural gas and related energy services and its subcategories for all Contitech BAs. This position reports directly and functionally to the Head of Global Cluster Operational Supplies and steers the implementation of the respective Category Strategy. What You'll Do

• Lead and manage the category team in line with Continental's leadership principles.
• Measure, report and control objectives and target setting.
• HR management to ensure team success and motivated staff.
• Actively support employees in complex or difficult cases to ensure success.
• Act as interface and represent Continental and Purchasing Community toward internal and external stakeholders (Engineering, Plants, Suppliers).
• Understand business and purchasing strategy to derive actions for own managed category.
• Guide, support and train local and central stakeholders to execute with the right tools, methods and processes.
• Interfaces / Contacts Internally worldwide Purchasing Departments Central, BU- and Plant representatives (e.g. Maintenance, Engineering, FM, IT, Quality, SCM, Accounting, etc.) and special departments.
• Develop and sustain supplier strategy for respective integrated category in alignment with stakeholders.
• Understand multiple data management systems and manage data analytics for the integrated category.
• Turn strategy into concrete actions and tangible goals as well as defining, monitoring and reporting relevant KPIs.
• Ensure stakeholder satisfaction through transparent and early communication / involvement.
• Drive the adoption of digital tools and procurement technologies (e.g., e-sourcing platforms, AI-driven analytics).
• Analyze the global supplier market and conduct benchmark analyses to derive actions for the global supplier portfolio.
• Maintain sustainable supplier relationships and conduct Strategic Supplier Meetings to deploy the global integrated category strategy.
• Support the steering the annual supplier evaluation and derive development programs where needed.
• Perform annual and regular negotiations to constantly improve the cost situation for respective category, actively drives improvement or Total Cost of Ownership programs with suppliers.
• Monitor if supplier acts in line with Continentals Business Partner Code of Conduct (BPCoC), responsible value chain (RVC) rules and processes and takes actions accordingly.
• Support the New Supplier Introduction Process.
• Autonomous preparation, conduction and finalization of international negotiations for own integrated category including supplier decisions compliant with the relevant internal policies (incl. audit-compliant documentation) with the target to achieve the defined goals and a special focus on highest value creation (e.g. with support of TCO analysis).
• Drives make or buy scenarios, optimizes bundling effects and initiates Value-Engineering projects.
• Conduct complaint and claim negotiations with special strategic interest which can’t be performed independently by the local units.
• Effective management of contract lifecycle for both existing and new contract agreements - compliant with the relevant internal policies (incl. audit-compliant documentation) - in order to ensure performance, financial and operational success.
• Ensure Compliance with Business Partner Code of Conduct, Continental Ethics and Values and all Corporate Guidelines.
• Lead or participate in projects with relevance for owned category or within the purchasing organization.
• Integrate sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) criteria into sourcing decisions, supplier selection, and performance evaluation. What We're Looking For
• Academic degree in economics, engineering or equivalent qualification.
• Proficient experience of MS Office 365 programs as well as other relevant tools.
• Fluent skills in English language, written and oral; further languages beneficial (e.g. German, Spanish).
• Several years of relevant professional experience in Purchasing (or similar functions) in an international environment.
• Advanced experience in project management and working in projects with an international scope.
• Good experience in conducting negotiations with global responsibilities.
• Knowledge on purchasing processes description and optimization.
• Working experience in negotiating and operating with different cultures and international teams.