We are establishing a dedicated Procurement Cost Intelligence function to advance our category management maturity through rigorous cost modeling and analysis. We seek an accomplished, strategic leader to build and lead this new discipline, closing critical gaps in cost visibility and driving a culture of cost transparency and savings across the enterprise. Reporting to the Managing Director – Supply Chain CoE, the General Manager will oversee a team with three direct reports and partner closely with Procurement, Finance, Operations, and CoE Analytics teams. You will develop and deploy robust cost models, should-cost methodologies, and bill-of-materials (BOM) analyses that inform sourcing strategy, supplier negotiations, and value realization in our most important spend categories.
This role will also lead a targeted “Tiger Team” internal consulting model to deliver measurable cost savings through process efficiency and operating model improvements in priority categories.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on strategist who has personally built sophisticated cost models in real business settings and can both chart the vision and dive into the details as needed.
Key Responsibilities:
- Build Cost Intelligence Capability & Frameworks: Establish and own standardized cost modeling frameworks, tools, and governance for the enterprise. Create methodologies for cost estimating, cost driver analysis, and cost reporting that can be applied across categories to ensure consistency and high quality of all cost insights. Define best practices for service cost modeling (e.g. labor rate models, utilization assumptions) and product cost breakdowns.
- Activity-Based Costing (ABC) & Should-Cost Excellence: Lead the development of Activity-Based Costing (ABC) “should-cost” models, aligning cost drivers to actual operational activities. Build and maintain should-cost vs. actual cost analytics to identify gaps, leakage, inefficiencies, and realization risks. Apply Bill of Materials (BOM) and service cost breakdown methodologies where applicable, including: Labor-intensive service BOMs (roles, hours, productivity, overhead, margin), Product and consumables BOMs (materials, ingredients, packaging, logistics). Partner with Finance and Operations to reconcile model outputs with actuals and ensure alignment with financial reporting.
- Enterprise Cost Visibility & Analytics: Ensure that the cost base and key cost drivers for each major spend area are rigorously analyzed, tracked, and clearly understood by business leaders. Drive the conversion of raw cost data (rates, supplier quotes, operational metrics, G&A allocations) into actionable intelligence and insights that inform budgeting, forecasting, and investment decisions. Proactively highlight cost trends, outliers, and opportunities for efficiency across the organization.
- G&A Cost Transparency: Drive greater transparency into General & Administrative (G&A) costs and other support function expenses (e.g. IT & Digital Services, HR Services, Corporate Services like Marketing, Consulting). Develop models to break down and monitor these costs (such as labor vs. non-labor components, rate cards, utilization of services) and identify opportunities to optimize service levels and unit costs.
- Lead “Tiger Team” Internal Consulting for Cost Savings: Deploy a 2 person team on targeted, high-impact initiatives to drive cost savings through process efficiency improvements, operating model redesign, and demand and consumption optimization. Partner across Procurement, Finance, Operations, and functional leaders to identify opportunities, execute diagnostics, and deliver measurable savings. Ensure insights and solutions are scaled and institutionalized, not one-off fixes.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence: Serve as the enterprise’s subject matter expert and advisor on third-party cost intelligence. Work closely with Procurement category leaders to embed cost analysis into category planning and supplier management processes. Collaborate with Finance (FP&A and accounting) to reconcile procurement-driven savings with financial results and to improve cost allocation models.
- Leadership & Talent Development: Lead and develop a high-performing cost intelligence team. Directly manage three cost analysts. Foster a culture of curiosity, continuous improvement, and proactive cost leadership within the team and across the broader organization.
