Senior Specialist/Principal Specialist Category x6 at Sasol

Short Description / Purpose of Job:

• Ability to combine thinking strategically with acting on a tactical/operational level in order to perform business analysis, risk assessment, scenario planning and draw conclusions to support the right business decisions to identify and capture cost opportunities and deliver excellent results by within a highly performing team for the respective commodity groupings.

Recruitment Description / Key Accountabilities:

• Act as a leading contributor to the design, development and implementation of commodity strategies. 
• Lead the development of relevant scope of work aligned to internal user requirements.
• Plan, lead and execute detailed spend analytics (e.g., key cost driver identification, should cost models, price variance analysis, offer comparisons, vendor spend allocation scenarios modelling), including gathering relevant data from various sources. 
• Contribute to the vision of the future supplier landscape, supplier characterization and onboarding needs for new suppliers.
• Execute continuous value delivery through optimization of Scope of Work, increased vendor productivity, SLAs rightsizing, specifications and user requirements.
• Lead development of sourcing strategy (e.g., identification of strategic imperatives based on business, commercial requirements and savings targets).
• Support or lead part of the end-to-end negotiations process (preparation, team assembly, stakeholders buy-in, orchestration, messaging, actual delivery).
• Develop allocation framework, identify senior stakeholders and propose assignment of business to different suppliers in order to secure optimal sourcing set-up (within given mandate and in agreement with MB lead).
• Contribute to the yearly target savings for own category.
• Identify, highlight and act upon cross-category synergies & opportunities.
• Oversee execution of Buy Better implementation activities to realise full potential savings.

Formal Education:

• University Bachelor's Degree in Engineering or equivalent in a related field

Min Experience:

• 10+ relevant years in technical, procurement or commercial roles

Competencies:

• Analytics: The systematic computational analysis of data or statistics.
• Critical reasoning: The action of critically thinking about something in a logical, sensible way and taking all factors into consideration.
• Facilitation: The means of expediting a process or operation quickly and efficiently.  Particular focus is on meetings but can include other processes such as the delivery of products and services where others are involved and their participation is critical to success.
• Integration: The consolidated view with various parts, circumstances, legislation, landscapes or aspects linked or coordinated.
• Negotiating: The ability to compromise in a cooperative effort to reach mutually satisfactory conclusions and results.
• Problem Solving: Is a step-by-step process of defining a problem, searching for information, and testing a series of solutions until the problem is solved. In involves critical thinking, analysis and persistence.
• Project Management: The process of planning, organizing, and managing tasks and resources to accomplish a well-defined objective, usually within constraints of time, resources, and cost.
• Verbal Communications: Any exchange of words, either written or spoken, used to transmit information
• Written Communications: Sending of messages, orders or instructions in writing through letters, circulars, manuals, reports, telegrams, office memos, bulletins, etc. It is a formal method of communication and is less flexible.