Category Lead

Stolt-Nielsen is a leading group of businesses that offer bulk-liquid and chemical logistics as well as innovative land-based aquaculture globally. The Category Lead is responsible for Stolt Tankers category management strategy, performance, and team, and for supply chain sustainability. This is an excellent opportunity for a senior category manager with maritime experience to have an impact on the company’s category management processes and successes in the years to come.  

About Stolt Tankers

With its combined proposition of tankers (deep-sea, coastal and barge ships), terminals (in ports) and containers (depots and trucks), Stolt-Nielsen provides its customers with door-to-door logistics solutions for bulk liquid chemicals and food-grade products. With 165 ships across Europe, Asia, and Americas, Stolt Tankers has the largest fleet in the world. Its 70 deep-sea ships operate on an integrated network with various coastal, regional, and inland barging ships around the world. Moreover, the company has a natural commitment to sustainability, and aims for Stolt Tankers to be 100% carbon neutral by 2050.

“Every Stolt-Nielsen employee – in every role, across every business – plays an important role in helping us achieve our purpose, lead in our markets, seek new opportunities and perform at our best, every day.”

Vacancy: Category Lead

The Category Lead is part of the Stolt Tankers business and manages and supports the four Category Managers that are each responsible for a set of contracts. These contracts usually have a value of  more than 500K  with some much larger. The Category Lead leverages both contracting and negotiation experience and management skills to support the team throughout these processes. Also, the role involves the identification of new contract opportunities from trends analysis (provided by market analysts) as well as the planning and roll-out of vendor management (performance, auditing). The Category Lead reports to the Head of Global Procurement & Logistics.

In addition, the Category Lead quickly develops a strong vision for what Stolt-Nielsen category management should look like and – together with the Global Head of Procurement & Logistics – develop its strategy for the coming years. For this, a good understanding of the shipping industry is essential. One element up for discussion is the structure of categories, splitting, for example, navigational from software, engine parts from spare parts, and consumables. This could allow team members to better focus or move between categories, as well as to have clearer procurement demarcations between adjacent categories.

“Sustainability is truly a priority for Stolt-Nielsen, and will also be a focus point in the work of the Category Lead.” – Lynnda Pekel, Global Head of Procurement & Logistics

Furthermore, sustainability is a priority for Stolt-Nielsen. For the Category Lead, this is directly reflected in all supply chain-related questions. This means creating transparency in and insights about the supply chain: who are the Stolt-Nielsen suppliers and their suppliers, how do they operate, where could Stolt-Nielsen impact their operations, and what is the company’s overall supply chain carbon footprint?

This is an excellent opportunity for a senior category manager with maritime experience to join a world-leader in chemical logistics and have a lasting impact on the company’s category management processes and successes in the years to come. The role is based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands and involves some travel.

Interested?

Stolt-Nielsen works with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
To express your interest, contact Charlotte Braat at charlotte.braat@topofminds.com.