Global Category Leader/ Responsable Catégorie Achats - Packaging & Devices H/F

Job Title: Global Category Leader - Packaging & Devices

Division / Function: Finance/Procurement

Location: Paris

The Global Category Leader will be responsible for a growing annual spend of ~40m€ related to Packaging & Devices categories supporting Ipsen's pharmaceutical portfolio, including drug containers (vials, syringes, cartridges), drug delivery systems (autoinjectors, pens and related devices), primary packaging, secondary packaging and tertiary packaging for both injectable and oral solid dose products across the global manufacturing network.

He / She will be accountable for the Total Cost of Ownership of this category including assurance of supply, quality, services, costs and innovation to drive and manage overall supplier performance.

His / her responsibilities will be to design, build and communicate widely category strategies with close alignment with R&D and TechOps stakeholders as well as with the Global Procurement community to ultimately deliver value added to the business. He/She will contribute to the strategic development and execution of a savings pipeline and will ensure the robust delivery through clear and measurable benefits.

Essential General Responsibilities

Main Responsibilities & Technical Competencies

• Drive Category Management process for the assigned category
• Be the Procurement Subject Matter Expert on assigned category
• Partner with business stakeholders in the design, built and implementation of adequate sourcing plans
• Maintain the highest-level code of conduct and ethics.

Category Management

• Implement and execute best-in-class Category Management processes for the assigned category and sub-categories, leveraging spend analytics to identify, classify, and prioritize new value-creation and savings opportunities.
• Develop long-term strategic category plans aligned with business needs, stakeholder expectations, and enterprise-wide procurement objectives.
• Act as the Procurement Subject Matter Expert for assigned category/sub-categories, providing senior guidance to local Procurement teams.
• Deploy and continuously improve procurement best practices, ensuring consistent implementation across all manufacturing sites. Contribute to the development and enhancement of procurement strategies, tools, processes, and methodologies.
• Lead and support sourcing initiatives, including complex RFPs, negotiations, and contract execution, collaborating closely with internal stakeholders, site buyers, and Procurement Managers.
• Design, negotiate, and implement global or regional agreements (including Global Master Service Agreements) and preferred vendor panels to maximize value, innovation, quality, and supply reliability.
• Manage strategic supplier relationships through a structured SRM framework, driving performance, fostering partnerships, and mitigating risks.
• Ensure proper execution of Supply Risk Assessments and mitigation plans, particularly for high-risk items and global incoming materials.
• Contribute to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives and sustainability initiatives relevant to the category.
• Champion sustainable packaging and eco-design across category strategies, mobilizing suppliers and cross-functional stakeholders to deliver circular, innovative and compliant solutions that reduce environmental impact while safeguarding quality, cost competitiveness, patient safety and supply continuity.
• Act as a trusted advisor and challenger to business stakeholders by providing insights from supplier markets, internal analytics, and industry trends. Demonstrate strong communication skills and influence across all levels of the organization and across cultures.
• Be responsible for Category or Sub-category Procurement performance.
• Promote, facilitate & support compliance of Category sourcing strategies, processes & tools.
• When relevant for assigned sub-categories, animate buyers on category & market updates, best practices and information sharing.
• Develop & implement category-focused communication plan.

Business Partnering

• Engage upstream with business leaders to provide stewardship on their Third Party spend
• Develop a robust and trusted stakeholders management with Key leaders
• Actively engage with stakeholders for category strategies buy-in and implementation.
• Ensure consistent adoption of agreed procurement tools, methodologies and frameworks
• Responsible for the development and maintenance of standard procurement metrics, tools, methods and in ensuring that those are standardized across the function
• Ensure the Procurement ESG agenda is well embedded in Category strategy and its implementation

Key Technical Competencies

• Demonstrable expertise in Sourcing policies and practices, costing systems & financial reporting measures, and quality management.

Drive Vision and Strategy

• Paints a compelling picture of the vision (future state) and strategy that motivates others to action

Communicates effectively

• Asks open questions and digs deeper; shows care and respect for different perspectives (both verbally and non-verbally) and able to relate to other points of view;
• Communicates transparently, tells it how it is while keeping the communication respectful;
• Builds clear and crisp messages with structure and focus, uses visual communication and storytelling to make the message easy to digest and connect with the outcomes.

Business Insights

• Makes decisions based on data, facts, and figures, and considers different perspectives and the patients' voice

Influences

• Listens and observes actively (paraphrases, summarizes, uses body language) and reflects on what was said, builds on what others are saying
• Gets insights on objectives of other stakeholders and is able to identify common interests
• Actively seeks win-win partnerships/solutions
• Able to engage and bring along internal and/or external stakeholders without hierarchical authority

Collaborates

• Collaborates and communicates without boundaries, continuously removes organizational barriers
• Focuses on continuous improvement; integrates and leverages key learnings, showcases resourcefulness, demonstrates strong entrepreneurial behaviors and mindset

Excellence in Execution

• Approaches priority setting and setting the stage through the lens of execution
• Establishes clarity about the goals, accountabilities, timelines, and next steps; can identify/spot opportunities for real impact on patient and society
• Able to be focused and performance-driven with clear KPIs
• Plans and aligns effectively (steps, resources, timelines etc.);
• Displays a commitment to best practice sharing and setting

Knowledge & Experience (essential)

• Strong experience (5 to 8 years) of leading global sourcing & procurement activities in a complex multi-national organization with a strong negotiation skillset, able to drive parallel processes to meet often conflicting demands.
• Outstanding interpersonal and leadership skills, capable of influencing.
• Change agent, with strong credibility at all levels of the organization. Strong communication skills, experience of working and negotiating across/within local cultures.
• Strong analytical skills with ability to identify and explain critical issues.
• Ability to work collaboratively across functions

Education / Certifications (essential)

• Procurement or Business Master’s degree

Language(s) (essential)

• Fluent in French
• Fluent in English