The name Sotera Health was inspired by Soteria, the Greek goddess of safety, and reflects the Company’s unwavering commitment to its mission, Safeguarding Global Health®.

Sotera Health Company is a leading global provider of mission-critical sterilization and lab testing and advisory services for the healthcare industry. With a combined tenure across our businesses of nearly 200 years and our industry recognized scientific and technological expertise, we help to ensure the safety of millions of patients and healthcare practitioners around the world every year.

Across our 64 facilities worldwide, we have over 3,000 employees who are dedicated to safety and quality. We are a trusted partner to more than 5,800 customers in over 50 countries, including more than 40 of the top 50 medical device companies and 9 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies.

Manager, Global Strategic Sourcing

Overview

The Manager, Global Strategic Sourcing will lead category-management and strategic-sourcing initiatives across Sterigenics’ global operations. This hands-on leadership position will manage a team of sourcing professionals while personally overseeing complex, high-value, and high-risk categories across indirect goods and services, capital equipment, and direct materials.

This individual will help strengthen the sourcing function by establishing structure, improving processes, defining category strategies, and creating greater accountability around priorities, timelines, deliverables, and results. The successful candidate will be comfortable working in an evolving environment and will have demonstrated experience building and executing sourcing strategies—not simply administering an established procurement program.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of global category strategies across indirect goods and services, capital equipment, and direct materials.
• Personally manage complex, high-value, or high-risk sourcing categories while providing oversight and direction for categories assigned to the team.
• Manage and develop a team of sourcing professionals by establishing clear priorities, deadlines, deliverables, and performance expectations.
• Analyze spend, supplier markets, business requirements, and sourcing risks to identify cost savings, process improvements, and value-creation opportunities.
• Evaluate existing spend categories and further segment broad areas, such as professional services, into actionable sourcing strategies.
• Lead supplier-selection initiatives, including Requests for Information, Proposals, and Quotations (RFx).
• Negotiate supplier agreements, pricing, payment terms, service levels, and other commercial terms in partnership with internal stakeholders.
• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with suppliers supporting multiple locations and business units.
• Partner cross-functionally with Operations, Finance, Engineering, Quality, Legal, and other stakeholders to define business requirements and implement sourcing strategies.
• Support capital-equipment sourcing and other large-scale, complex projects across the organization.
• Establish sourcing goals, project plans, performance measures, and reporting processes to track progress and results.
• Identify and implement improvements that increase the efficiency, consistency, and maturity of the sourcing and procurement function.
• Monitor supplier performance and risk and lead the timely resolution of supplier-related service or performance issues.
• Ensure supplier information is accurately maintained in applicable business systems.
• Promote purchasing discipline, contractual compliance, and adoption of strategic-sourcing practices across the organization.
• Collaborate with sourcing colleagues in other regions to manage global categories and implement agreements across multiple geographies.

Experience Requirements: Skills, Knowledge and Abilities

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain, Business, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Five or more years of progressive strategic sourcing, category management, or procurement experience.
• Demonstrated ability to independently develop and execute category strategies.
• Experience sourcing indirect goods and services; experience with capital equipment and direct materials is also beneficial.
• One to three years of supervisory or people-leadership experience, including experience establishing priorities, managing performance, and developing team members.
• Experience improving sourcing or procurement processes and bringing greater structure and accountability to an evolving function.
• Demonstrated success leading RFx activities, supplier evaluations, contract negotiations, and strategic supplier relationships.
• Ability to manage multiple sourcing initiatives and complex, large-scale projects simultaneously.
• Strong financial and commercial acumen, including spend analysis, cost modeling, savings identification, and evaluation of supplier proposals.
• Advanced negotiation, influencing, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Strong cross-functional stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to work effectively with senior leaders.
• Ability to challenge the status quo and collaboratively implement change.
• Strong analytical skills, including proficiency with Microsoft Excel formulas and pivot tables.
• Strong presentation and communication skills, including proficiency with Microsoft PowerPoint.
• Ability to influence decisions through data-driven analysis and recommendations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing sourcing initiatives across multiple facilities, business units, or geographic regions.
• Experience with a broad mix of indirect services, capital equipment, and direct-material categories.
• Experience building or transforming category-management and strategic-sourcing processes.
• Experience supporting regulated, healthcare, service-based, or complex operational environments is helpful but not required.
• Global sourcing experience is helpful but not required.

Leadership Expectations

• Provide clear direction so team members understand their priorities, deadlines, and expected deliverables.
• Hold the team accountable for progress and results while providing coaching and development.
• Balance strategic leadership with hands-on category ownership and project execution.
• Work independently to achieve project, departmental, supplier-performance, and financial goals.
• Develop practical and innovative solutions that improve sourcing outcomes and organizational performance.
• Demonstrate comfort operating in an evolving environment where processes and category structures are still being developed.

Location and Work Arrangement

This position is based in Oak Brook, Illinois, and follows a hybrid schedule. Employees are generally expected to work onsite Tuesday through Thursday.

Pay: The full salary range for this position is $105,000–$182,000 annually. The anticipated starting salary will generally fall within the lower to middle portion of this range. The final offer will be determined based on the candidate’s experience, qualifications, skills, internal equity, and other business considerations.

Sotera Health goes to market through its three best-in-class businesses – Sterigenics®, Nordion® and Nelson Labs®. Sterigenics is a leading global provider of outsourced terminal sterilization and irradiation services for the medical device, pharmaceutical, food safety and advanced applications markets. Nordion is the leading global provider of Co-60 and gamma irradiators, which are key components to the gamma sterilization process. Nelson Labs is a global leader in outsourced microbiological and analytical chemistry testing and advisory services for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.