Lead Category Manager - Metal, Asia

Job description

Lead Category Manager - Metal, Asia Make A Difference For Those Who Make The World™ Come make the world and accelerate your success. It takes great people to achieve greatness. People with a sense of purpose and integrity. People with a relentless pursuit of excellence. People who care about making things better For Those Who Make The World™. Sound like you? Join our top-notch team of more than 50,000 diverse and high-performing professionals globally who are making their mark on some of the world’s most beloved brands, including DEWALT®, BLACK+DECKER®, CRAFTSMAN®, STANLEY®, CUB CADET®, and HUSTLER®. Position Summary: The Asia Metals Lead Category Manager is a key member of the Global Strategic Sourcing organization, responsible for developing and driving the global category strategy for direct materials metals, with primary leadership responsibility for Asia execution. This role leads strategic supplier management, commercial negotiations, contracting, and supplier development to deliver year-over-year productivity, working capital improvements, and supply continuity. The role partners closely with Engineering, Operations, Finance, Legal, Logistics, and other functions to drive sourcing excellence and measurable value creation across regions. Key Responsibilities Develop, maintain, and communicate the global category strategy for direct materials metals, including segmentation, preferred supplier strategy, risk management, and multi-year value roadmap. Establish global sourcing governance, including standard processes, KPI framework, and performance routines to ensure consistent execution and results across regions. Lead global market intelligence for metals (indices, capacity, cost drivers, supply risk) and translate insights into sourcing actions and stakeholder guidance. Serve as the regional lead for Asia, owning supplier relationships and execution of sourcing initiatives in-region while ensuring alignment to global strategy and standards. Lead and manage Asia supplier negotiations, including pricing, terms, capacity commitments, lead times, and risk mitigation plans. Identify, qualify, and onboard new/alternate suppliers in Asia through structured assessments, trade fairs, and cross-functional evaluations. Plan and execute RFx/tenders, benchmarking, and price/value analyses to optimize total cost of ownership and procurement outcomes. Negotiate, implement, and manage supplier contracts and service level agreements in partnership with Legal and internal stakeholders. Ensure controls and KPIs are in place to measure progress; drive corrective action plans when performance gaps exist. Drive supplier development initiatives and continuous improvement programs to improve quality, delivery, cost, and responsiveness. Partner cross-functionally (Engineering, Operations, Finance, Legal, Logistics, IT, Marketing as applicable) to align specifications, manage change, and implement sourcing decisions. Deliver year-over-year productivity and working capital goals through a balanced set of commercial, technical, and operational levers. The Person: You love to learn and grow and be acknowledged for your valuable contributions. You’re not intimidated by innovation. Wouldn’t it be great if you could do your job and do a world of good? In fact, you embrace it . You also have Bachelor’s degree required. 5–10 years of experience in Global Procurement / Strategic Sourcing, including supplier selection, supplier management, and contract negotiations. 5+ years of category strategy experience, preferably in steel/metals procurement or a closely related direct materials category. Demonstrated success delivering productivity/cost reduction projects with measurable results. Strong knowledge of strategic sourcing tools and methods (e.g., RFx, should-cost/benchmarking, total cost analysis, supplier performance management). Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word). Strong interpersonal, communication, negotiation, leadership, and problem-solving skills. Ability to manage multiple priorities in a matrixed, global organization with minimal supervision. Willingness to travel domestically and internationally 10–20%. Multi-lingual capability with Mandarin and English required. Preferred Qualifications Experience with supplier integration and continuous improvement methodologies (e.g., Lean / Six Sigma concepts). Experience working with cross-functional technical stakeholders (Engineering/Quality) in direct materials environments. Experience with international assignments/delegations. Core Competencies Strategic thinking and category leadership Commercial acumen and negotiation Data-driven decision making and market intelligence Stakeholder management in a matrix environment Supplier performance management and development Risk management and supply continuity planning Stanley Black & Decker is a values-driven organization, and we are passionate about delivering products to meet unmet societal needs, creating a more sustainable world and empowering makers! As a team, we bring our diverse background, beliefs and experiences together to solve challenging, important problems. If you are interested in helping solve customer problems by capitalizing on the promise of digital transformation, we would like to speak with you! And More: We want our company to be a place you’ll want to be – and stay. Being part of our team means you’ll get to: Grow: Be part of our global company with 20+ brands to grow and develop your skills along multiple career paths. Learn: Have access to a wealth of learning resources, including our digital learning portal. Belong: Experience an awesome place to work, where we have mutual respect and a great appreciation for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Give Back: Help us continue to make positive changes locally and globally through volunteerism, giving back, and sustainable business practices. What’s more, you’ll get that pride that comes from empowering makers, doers, protectors, and everyday heroes all over the world. We’re more than the #1 tools company. More than a driving force in outdoor power equipment. More than a global leader in industrial. We’re visionaries and innovators. As successful as we’ve been in the past, we have so much further to go. That’s where you come in. Join us! All qualified applicants to Stanley Black & Decker are considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran’s status or any other protected characteristic. We Don’t Just Build The World, We Build Innovative Technology Too. Joining the Stanley Black & Decker team means working in an innovative, tech-driven and highly collaborative team environment supported by over 43,500 professionals in 60 countries across the globe. Here, you’ll get the unique chance to impact some of the world’s most iconic brands including STANLEY TOOLS, DEWALT, CRAFTSMAN, MAC TOOLS and Black + Decker. Your ideas and solutions have the potential to reach millions of customers as we work together to write the next chapter in our history. Come build with us and take your career to new heights. Who We Are We’re the World’s largest tool company. We’re industry visionaries. We’re solving problems and advancing the manufacturing trade through innovative technology and our Industry 4.0 Initiative. We are committed to ensuring our state-of-the-art “smart factory” products and services provide greater quality to our customers & greater environmental and social value to our planet. We are unique in that we have a rich and storied history dating back to 1843, but that hasn't stopped us from evolving into a vibrant, diverse, global growth company. Global Benefits & Perks You’ll be rewarded with a competitive salary plus receive entitlements and benefits unique to your country of hire. What You’ll Also Get Career Opportunity: Career paths aren’t linear here. Being part of our global company with 60+ brands gives you the chance to grow and develop your skills along multiple career paths. Learning & Development: Our lifelong learning philosophy means you’ll have access to a wealth of state-of-the-art learning resources, including our Lean Academy and online university (where you can get certificates and specializations from renowned colleges and universities). Diverse & Inclusive Culture: We pride ourselves on being an awesome place to work. We respect and embrace differences because that’s how the best work gets done. You’ll find we like to have fun here, too. Purpose-Driven Company: You’ll help us continue to make positive changes in the local communities where we work and live as well as in the broader world through volunteerism, giving back and sustainable business practices.