Job Title: Category Management Specialist I - Sr Staff

Work Place Flexibility: Hybrid 

Legal Entity: Entergy Services, LLC 

**Position opened for: S60729 & ER0418**

Job Purpose

The Category Management Specialist utilizes significant supply chain, category management and contracting capabilities and experience to implement Procurement & Supply Chain (P&SC) strategies and commercial agreements for assigned categories within Nuclear Strategic Procurement.  The position is responsible for the utilization of the standard category management process of Plan-Strategy-Source-Perform and will function to support end-to-end value for an assigned portfolio of spend, primarily within Entergy’s nuclear third party spend. The specialist operates without supervision, and in certain instances provides, support, guidance, and training in the technical and professional skills areas to other category management specialists. The role is recognized inside SC as a subject matter technical adviser on category management, strategic sourcing, contract strategy, methodology, analysis, and contract provisions. The primary objective of the role is to create value through the supply chain in terms of safety, cost, risk mitigation and enhanced supplier performance.

Key interfaces for this position are internal business customers such as business unit stakeholders, Tax, Finance, Risk Management, Safety, Human Resources, Legal, external suppliers and industry organizations. Within P&SC, common interfaces for this role are Procurement and Supply Chain Operations, Strategy and Performance, Capital Projects.

Job Duties/Responsibilities

• Safety/Human Performance:
• Actively promote strong safety behaviors and ensure the team always puts safety first. 
• Utilize key tools, programs, and proactive field visits to assure standards and behaviors. 
• Monitor and influence suppliers to proactively identify any safety concerns.
• Incident Response:
• Perform storm role duties as assigned through the Storm Assignment Management System (SAMS).

• Category Strategy:
• Develop and execute category and subcategory strategies, checklist, manage spend and regularly track market trends, Ability to work strategically and tactically to deliver positive business results.
• Category Processes - Systematic process to review commercial, process, technical, risk management and sustainability strategies for product categories and subcategories.
• Supplier Management: 

• Supplier management strategy in place, linked with supplier segment, category strategies, and business reviews to ensure supplier performance.
• Supplier Base: Supplier portfolio is regularly reviewed based on price/performance and cost structure comparison.
• Optimization:
• Recurrent effort to bundle purchasing and to forecast demand across departments/business units/sites.

• Customer Engagement
• Ability to influence and work across Cross-functional teams and levels in the organization to optimize supply-chain.

Education, Experience and/or Certification

• Category Management Specialist I:
• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Accounting, Engineering, Legal, or other related discipline OR minimum 4 years of combined supplier contracting, vendor management, other related supply chain or business experience.
• Category Management Specialist, II:
• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Accounting, Engineering, Legal, or other related discipline and 2+ years of combined supplier contracting, vendor management, or other related supply chain experience OR in lieu of a degree, minimum 6+ years of supplier contracting, vendor management, or other related supply chain experience.
• Category Management Specialist, III:
• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Accounting, Engineering, Legal, or other related discipline and 5+ years of category management, strategic sourcing, or other related supply chain experience OR in lieu of a degree, minimum 9+ years of category management, strategic sourcing, or other related supply chain experience.
• Minimum 2+ years’ energy industry supply chain experience in category management or strategic sourcing
• Category Management Specialist, Sr.:
• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Accounting, Engineering, Legal, or other related discipline and 9+ years of category management, strategic sourcing, or other related supply chain experience OR in lieu of a degree, minimum 13+ years of category management, strategic sourcing, or other related supply chain experience.
• Minimum 3+ years’ energy industry supply chain experience in category management or strategic sourcing
• Category Management Specialist, Senior Staff:
• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Accounting, Engineering, Legal, or other related discipline and minimum 12+ years of category management, strategic sourcing or other related supply chain experience OR in lieu of a degree, minimum 16+ years of category management, strategic sourcing or other related supply chain experience
• Minimum 6+ years’ energy industry supply chain experience in category management or strategic sourcing
• Preferred: 
• Certification from an industry accreditation organization such as CPSM, APICS, etc. (II through Sr. Staff)

Knowledge/Skills

  Technical          

• An understanding of Entergy’s business model and key interfaces across the business and supply chain.
• Skillful application of strategic and creative thinking to produce a range of solutions to problems, anticipating changes in the business environment, and making data driven decisions.
• Deep proficiency and ability to provide innovative solutions in category management processes; including safety metrics and tools; category strategies are used as exemplars across supply chain.
• Capability to lead on the development of data/information analyses to assist the business in decision making; provide business insights and data trends through detailed reports.
• Deep understanding of supplier relationship/vendor management principles and practices.
• Skillful application of pre-award and post-award contract management processes; integrate business unit specific knowledge; identify and mitigate contractual, market and supplier risks to Entergy.
• Proficient in coaching/applying the development and implementation of sourcing strategies; strategies are used as exemplars across supply chain.
• Deep understanding of the capacity and cost structure of existing suppliers.
• Extensive application in developing detailed RFx price breakdowns and deconstructing vendor pricing models to support financial analysis and bid comparison.
• Proficiency in the ability to extract data and applying market intelligence to assess supply market status and evolution.
• Deep expertise in developing “cost to serve” for customers; coaches/guides others.
• Extensive knowledge and proficiency in creating negotiation strategies and leading supplier negotiations that support operational excellence through safety, price, quality, service and innovation; strategies are used as exemplars across supply chain.
• Extensive knowledge of business and supply chain operations within Entergy; including Entergy’s purchasing and payment policies; experience and knowledge of supply chain systems and processes.
• Highly proficient influencing skills to promote effective demand planning across business units, functions and supply chain (zero-based purchasing, pro-active purchase planning and hedging).
• Capability to be a trusted advisor; leader/coach in identifying what is important to the customer base (Sr. and Sr. Staff)

  Professional

• Skillful application of project management principles to ensure systematic, thorough completion of each assignment, identifying critical pathways and risks to delivery.
• Expertise in application of commercial skills and financial acumen to category management, understanding the key business drivers and impact to Entergy on outcomes.
• Insightful business analytical skills to provide detailed reports with commentary based on data analysis; interpret data and propose conclusions, using trends in data. 
• Ability to coach supply chain personnel in category management technical tools and techniques.
• Skillful at internal and external stakeholder communications; operates independently with stakeholders; apply influencing skills to develop best outcomes for Entergy.
• Skillful at building broad relationships and effective networks with all stakeholders.
• Understanding of the management of change relative to supply chain situations.
• Ability to communicate autonomously with category management stakeholders, including executive level, delivering key messages concisely, supported by relevant data; influencing skills to develop best outcomes. (Sr. and Sr. Staff)
• Deep knowledge to effectively manage the costs of the business; understand the impact of contract terms on Entergy cost structure. (Sr. and Sr. Staff)

Primary Location: Mississippi-Jackson Mississippi : Jackson || Arkansas : Little Rock || Arkansas : Russellville || Louisiana : Hammond || Louisiana : Killona || Louisiana : New Orleans || Louisiana : St. Francisville || Mississippi : Port Gibson 
Job Function: Corporate
FLSA Status: Professional 
Relocation Option: No Relocation Offered
Union description/code: NON BARGAINING UNIT 
Number of Openings: 2
Req ID: 125348
Travel Percentage:Up to 25%

An Equal Opportunity Employer, Minority/Female/Disability/Vets. Please click here to view the EEO page, or see statements below.

EEO Statement: The Entergy System of Companies provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a protected veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. The Entergy System of Companies complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment including, but not limited to, recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training. 

The Entergy System of Companies expressly prohibits any form of unlawful employee harassment based on race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of the Entergy System of Company employees to perform their expected job duties is absolutely not tolerated.

Accessibility: Entergy provides reasonable accommodations for online applicants. Requests for a reasonable accommodation may be made orally or in writing by an applicant, employee, or third party on his or her behalf. If you are an individual with a disability and you are in need of an accommodation for the recruiting process please click here and provide your name, contact number, the accommodation requested and the requisition number that you are requesting the accommodation for. Employee Services will contact you regarding your request.

Additional Responsibilities: As a provider of essential services, Entergy expects its employees to be available to work additional hours, to work in alternate locations, and/or to perform additional duties in connection with storms, outages, emergencies, or other situations as deemed necessary by the company. Exempt employees may not be paid overtime associated with such duties.

Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal

The non-confidential portions of the affirmative action program for individuals with disabilities and protected veterans shall be available for inspection upon request by any employee or applicant for employment.  Please contact HRCompliance@entergy.com to schedule a time to review the affirmative action plan during regular office hours.

WORKING CONDITIONS:
As a provider of essential services, Entergy expects its employees to be available to work additional hours, to work in alternate locations, and/or to perform additional duties in connection with storms, outages, emergencies, or other situations as deemed necessary by the company. Exempt employees may not be paid overtime associated with such duties.