Supplier Relationship Manager

Primary Work Address: 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD, 20815

Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account.

HHMI is focused on supporting and moving science forward in a variety of different ways ranging from conducting basic biomedical research, empowering educators, inspiring students, developing the next generation of scientists – even stretching into film and media production.  Our Headquarters is in Chevy Chase, MD and is home to over 300 employees with expertise in communications, digital production, biomedical sciences, and everything in between.  The work housed here supports and augments the groundbreaking research conducted in HHMI labs across the nation.  As HHMI scientists continue to push boundaries in laboratories and classrooms, you can be sure that your contributions while working here are making a difference.

Summary:   

The Supplier Relationship Manager selects, evaluates, and manages supplier partnerships. They build, maintain, and leverage these relationships, along with data analytics, to solve problems and achieve business goals. This individual leads the supplier relationship and maintenance processes across HHMI, ensuring that every lab receives the proper level of support for procurement processing and escalated problem resolution. Acting as an internal advisor, they provide input to purchasing management staff on supplier trends and insights, relay purchasing information to direct reports. And answer purchasing management staff questions on specific commodity items, suppliers, or requirements for end-users. This is a highly collaborative role and will partner with the Business Systems team to resolve issues with system configuration, response, and activity levels, including support of AN suppliers and catalogs.

This role focuses on using strategic sourcing principles in the procurement process. The manager is responsible for driving the achievement of Service Level Agreement (SLA) standards and ensure HHMI policies and procedures are followed in all aspects of procurement and Institute operation. Accordingly, they consider each factor that influences a supplier’s overall value. For example, in addition to the cost and quality of a product or service, they consider the benefit or risk of partnering with a supplier, their reliability, long-term compatibility, intangible value, and much more. Overall, they maintain constructive, collaborative relationships across procurement, and Institute-wide operations, leveraging these relationships to ensure continual operational focus with a goal to maximize value and minimize risk. 

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: 

Develop Procurement Policies

• Establish, analyze, and optimize the business’s procurement strategy ensuring alignment with business goals.

Lead Collaboration with Stakeholders and Internal Teams

• Partner with stakeholders, executive leaders, and department heads to understand business needs. Establish requirements, scope, and criteria for sourcing projects.

• Lead assigned team members in the provision of consistently high-quality services within targeted productivity, efficiency, and accuracy metrics.

• Support primary service partner in addressing their customer’s needs to ensure they have adequate support in developing sourcing requirements.

Manage Supplier Selection

• Leverage RFx to facilitate strategic sourcing and manage the RFP timeline. Lead initial market research and supplier profiles to aid supplier selection. Create, issue, and manage RFPs in a digital ECM. Manage proposal evaluation and final supplier selection.

• Manage requests to add/change/inactivate suppliers and supplier data (including non-employee individuals for expense reimbursement) in Workday, reviewing the need, accessing information about existing suppliers and providing the end-user alternative options before adding new trade suppliers.

• Manage the competitive sourcing process from start to finish in coordination with the Office of General Counsel, ensuring it is conducted in a fair, competitive, ethical, and consistent manner.

Build ongoing supplier relationships

• Use supplier management best practices throughout negotiation, contracting, onboarding and renewal. Then, conduct regular supplier performance evaluations and supplier risk assessments.

• Work with supplier maintenance and buyers to set up administrative support for new or revised online catalogs and associated contracts.  Develop communication plans to announce contract award and implement the contract, including the explanation of “ordering” processes for all HHMI customers.

Analyze Procurement Data

• Collect and interpret procurement data including cost analysis reporting, benchmarking spend, RFP data and return on investment.

• Develop and maintain detailed knowledge of all commodities through constant research of industry offerings and trends.

Optimize Procurement Processes

• Perform regular reviews of established procurement processes to ensure continual improvement. Subsequently refining policies, due diligence questionnaires and RFP templates.

• Understand supplier management activities and recommend changes to the procurement process in collaboration with purchasing service partner manager.

• Manage the sourcing cycle to ensure all HHMI requirements are still valid and included in contract terms, and that the competitive process yields HHMI the best overall value and ROI in support of the given commodity.

Scope: 

• This role has supervisory responsibilities. 

 

Qualifications 

 

Education: 

• Bachelor's degree in purchasing, business, or related discipline. 

• CPM, CPSM or CPIM certification, preferred.

 

Experience: 

• Eight years of progressively responsible procurement experience, preferably in an academic or research environment.

• Proficient with Microsoft Office suite programs, contract management software, and procurement systems (Ariba and Workday experience, preferred).

• Supervisory experience, directing the work of others, providing feedback, and managing team performance.

• Experience managing vendor relationships and performing contract negotiations.

Skills and Abilities: 

• Good communication, interpersonal, and analytical skills.

• Strategic thinking and creative problem-solving skills.

• Ability to direct the work of others, provide feedback and manage team performance.

• Ability to managed multiple projects and departmental initiatives

• Creates a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives.

• Ability to be a thought leader and work cooperatively with others across the organization to achieve shared objectives

• Establishes and maintains effective customer relationships.

• Demonstrated ability to deliver end results with accuracy and efficiency.

• Actively seeks new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels and application of industry concepts.

• Exercise business ethics and transparency with good judgment in safeguarding confidential or sensitive information and adhere to high standards of confidentiality and honesty.

 

Physical Requirements: 

Remaining in a normal seated or standing position for extended periods of time; reaching and grasping by extending hand(s) or arm(s); dexterity to manipulate objects with fingers, for example using a keyboard; communication skills using the spoken word; ability to see and hear within normal parameters; ability to move about workspace. The position requires mobility, including the ability to move materials weighing up to several pounds (such as a laptop computer or tablet).  

 

Persons with disabilities may be able to perform the essential duties of this position with reasonable accommodation. Requests for reasonable accommodation will be evaluated on an individual basis. 

 

Please Note: 

This job description sets forth the job’s principal duties, responsibilities, and requirements; it should not be construed as an exhaustive statement, however.  Unless they begin with the word “may,” the Essential Duties and Responsibilities described above are “essential functions” of the job, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.  

HHMI is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Primary Work Address: 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD, 20815

Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account.

HHMI is focused on supporting and moving science forward in a variety of different ways ranging from conducting basic biomedical research, empowering educators, inspiring students, developing the next generation of scientists – even stretching into film and media production.  Our Headquarters is in Chevy Chase, MD and is home to over 300 employees with expertise in communications, digital production, biomedical sciences, and everything in between.  The work housed here supports and augments the groundbreaking research conducted in HHMI labs across the nation.  As HHMI scientists continue to push boundaries in laboratories and classrooms, you can be sure that your contributions while working here are making a difference.

Summary:   

The Supplier Relationship Manager selects, evaluates, and manages supplier partnerships. They build, maintain, and leverage these relationships, along with data analytics, to solve problems and achieve business goals. This individual leads the supplier relationship and maintenance processes across HHMI, ensuring that every lab receives the proper level of support for procurement processing and escalated problem resolution. Acting as an internal advisor, they provide input to purchasing management staff on supplier trends and insights, relay purchasing information to direct reports. And answer purchasing management staff questions on specific commodity items, suppliers, or requirements for end-users. This is a highly collaborative role and will partner with the Business Systems team to resolve issues with system configuration, response, and activity levels, including support of AN suppliers and catalogs.

This role focuses on using strategic sourcing principles in the procurement process. The manager is responsible for driving the achievement of Service Level Agreement (SLA) standards and ensure HHMI policies and procedures are followed in all aspects of procurement and Institute operation. Accordingly, they consider each factor that influences a supplier’s overall value. For example, in addition to the cost and quality of a product or service, they consider the benefit or risk of partnering with a supplier, their reliability, long-term compatibility, intangible value, and much more. Overall, they maintain constructive, collaborative relationships across procurement, and Institute-wide operations, leveraging these relationships to ensure continual operational focus with a goal to maximize value and minimize risk. 

 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: 

Develop Procurement Policies

• Establish, analyze, and optimize the business’s procurement strategy ensuring alignment with business goals.

Lead Collaboration with Stakeholders and Internal Teams

• Partner with stakeholders, executive leaders, and department heads to understand business needs. Establish requirements, scope, and criteria for sourcing projects.

• Lead assigned team members in the provision of consistently high-quality services within targeted productivity, efficiency, and accuracy metrics.

• Support primary service partner in addressing their customer’s needs to ensure they have adequate support in developing sourcing requirements.

Manage Supplier Selection

• Leverage RFx to facilitate strategic sourcing and manage the RFP timeline. Lead initial market research and supplier profiles to aid supplier selection. Create, issue, and manage RFPs in a digital ECM. Manage proposal evaluation and final supplier selection.

• Manage requests to add/change/inactivate suppliers and supplier data (including non-employee individuals for expense reimbursement) in Workday, reviewing the need, accessing information about existing suppliers and providing the end-user alternative options before adding new trade suppliers.

• Manage the competitive sourcing process from start to finish in coordination with the Office of General Counsel, ensuring it is conducted in a fair, competitive, ethical, and consistent manner.

Build ongoing supplier relationships

• Use supplier management best practices throughout negotiation, contracting, onboarding and renewal. Then, conduct regular supplier performance evaluations and supplier risk assessments.

• Work with supplier maintenance and buyers to set up administrative support for new or revised online catalogs and associated contracts.  Develop communication plans to announce contract award and implement the contract, including the explanation of “ordering” processes for all HHMI customers.

Analyze Procurement Data

• Collect and interpret procurement data including cost analysis reporting, benchmarking spend, RFP data and return on investment.

• Develop and maintain detailed knowledge of all commodities through constant research of industry offerings and trends.

Optimize Procurement Processes

• Perform regular reviews of established procurement processes to ensure continual improvement. Subsequently refining policies, due diligence questionnaires and RFP templates.

• Understand supplier management activities and recommend changes to the procurement process in collaboration with purchasing service partner manager.

• Manage the sourcing cycle to ensure all HHMI requirements are still valid and included in contract terms, and that the competitive process yields HHMI the best overall value and ROI in support of the given commodity.

Scope: 

• This role has supervisory responsibilities. 

 

Qualifications 

 

Education: 

• Bachelor's degree in purchasing, business, or related discipline. 

• CPM, CPSM or CPIM certification, preferred.

 

Experience: 

• Eight years of progressively responsible procurement experience, preferably in an academic or research environment.

• Proficient with Microsoft Office suite programs, contract management software, and procurement systems (Ariba and Workday experience, preferred).

• Supervisory experience, directing the work of others, providing feedback, and managing team performance.

• Experience managing vendor relationships and performing contract negotiations.

Skills and Abilities: 

• Good communication, interpersonal, and analytical skills.

• Strategic thinking and creative problem-solving skills.

• Ability to direct the work of others, provide feedback and manage team performance.

• Ability to managed multiple projects and departmental initiatives

• Creates a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives.

• Ability to be a thought leader and work cooperatively with others across the organization to achieve shared objectives

• Establishes and maintains effective customer relationships.

• Demonstrated ability to deliver end results with accuracy and efficiency.

• Actively seeks new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels and application of industry concepts.

• Exercise business ethics and transparency with good judgment in safeguarding confidential or sensitive information and adhere to high standards of confidentiality and honesty.

 

Physical Requirements: 

Remaining in a normal seated or standing position for extended periods of time; reaching and grasping by extending hand(s) or arm(s); dexterity to manipulate objects with fingers, for example using a keyboard; communication skills using the spoken word; ability to see and hear within normal parameters; ability to move about workspace. The position requires mobility, including the ability to move materials weighing up to several pounds (such as a laptop computer or tablet).  

 

Persons with disabilities may be able to perform the essential duties of this position with reasonable accommodation. Requests for reasonable accommodation will be evaluated on an individual basis. 

 

Please Note: 

This job description sets forth the job’s principal duties, responsibilities, and requirements; it should not be construed as an exhaustive statement, however.  Unless they begin with the word “may,” the Essential Duties and Responsibilities described above are “essential functions” of the job, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.  

HHMI is an Equal Opportunity Employer