Assistant Procurement Manager LAB Petrochemicals

JOB TITLE Assistant Procurement Manager LAB - Americas, Europe, Africa, TUI, ME (Temporary Project Role), This role is a great opportunity for someone who wants to actively lead a portfolio that requires fundamental changes in the value chain impacting the formulations of some the most well-known laundry and cleaning brands in the world. This position is also a key contributor to helping deliver one of the most ambitious sustainability agendas for Unilever. If you are someone who is passionate, who works well with others, and is a master at building partnerships, then come join Unilever's LAB procurement team! Unilever is the largest LAB buyer in the world with a spend of 1B€+ globally. As the largest user of LAB in the world, it will be your role to ensure Unilever purchases competitively and builds resilience into their supply chains. This is not a straightforward challenge considering the LAB market is oligopolistic with a few major players controlling global supply. Looking beyond competitiveness and resilience, there is also a huge sustainability program in the LAB portfolio. Central to the sustainability vision for the LAB portfolio is Unilever's "Carbon Rainbow" strategy, a ground-breaking pathway to "de-carbonise" our formulations and drive reductions in GHG footprint. Non-renewable sources of carbon (known as black carbon) will be progressively replaced with renewable sources of carbon effectively de-linking LAB from fossil fuels and moving us towards Unilever's commitment to be net zero. With the greatest proportion of Unilever's Home Care carbon footprint coming from LAB, this move is a critical step towards achieving our pledge of net zero emissions from products by 2039, and the "Carbon Rainbow" program under the Clean Futures Home Care strategy. LAB, and petrochemicals, are at the centre of these programs to move away from a virgin fossil fuel-based economy. As the market leader, Unilever is positioned to drive an industry transformation through our existing suppliers, new suppliers, and through new technology providers, including start-ups. The LAB portfolio is undergoing the biggest sustainable transformation in the history of the industry, which is a journey you can be a part of! RESPONSIBILITIES

• Support the negotiation and sourcing strategy for LAB in the Americas, Europe, NAMET, and Africa covering an annual spend of 300M€, and a basket of other supporting materials and minor surfactants with a spend 30M€ (e.g. SAS, SCS, dried LAS, Sulphur, etc.).
• Conduct joint business development plans with key partners and manage ongoing relationships, ensuring competitiveness, service, and ability to support long term division growth needs.
• Develop best in class strategic sourcing and contracting strategies for commercial agreements.
• Provide market level strategy support and execution for the Home Care BG including supply chain transformations and partnering the market teams to address regional requirements.
• Create a multi-year NMCI delivery program funnel to drive value through things like E2E value chain optimization, leveraging global benchmarking to identify areas of opportunity across markets, and by supporting formulation optimization.
• Provide a reliable and accurate price trend forecast that is clearly communicated to senior BG and BU stakeholders.
• Working closely with the LAB team supporting the Asia markets effectively moving and acting as one global LAB team.
• Being based in Europe, you will play a major role in supporting internal stakeholders and day to day operations for Europe, Africa, TUI, and ME.
  
  Must have procurement knowledge, preferably in the chemicals area.
• Strong analytics skills including a deep knowledge of Excel.
• Familiar with cost modeling and contracting strategies.
• Experience in managing supplier relationship management and leading negotiations.
• Adept at working in a global virtual network with teammates and suppliers based across the world.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to concisely communicate to senior level internal and external stakeholders.
  
  In 2020, Unilever announced the intention to build a new sustainable campus site in Kingston, London to house the employees who currently work in 100 Victoria Embankment in Blackfriars ("100VE"), Lever House in Kingston and Graze in Richmond, the build is due to be complete in early 2025. Most recently, in August 2024, we announced our intention to retain our premises in 100VE until our lease expires in 2027.
We are due to consult with our existing workforce on the new proposal to retain 100VE for the duration of our lease. Therefore, until such a time consultation has concluded as to the retention of our 100VE office, this role will be based in 100 Victoria Embankment until early 2025 and then will move to the Kingston Campus.