Category Lead (Repairs, Machinery & Chemicals)

Our 27-year journey rides on the passion of over 24,000 seafarers and 1,000 onshore professionals. Today, we are one of the largest independent third-party ship management companies managing over 600 diverse types of vessels.

Headquartered in Hong Kong SAR, China, we operate on a global scale having 27 offices in 12 countries. Our client base spans over 100 world-class ship owners, including Fortune 500 companies from China, Greece, India, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and the USA, among others.

In a shore career at FLEET, you will be working with a team of a highly passionate, self-driven and committed group of people. We aim to be a place where you can achieve your full potential, regardless of your background. We are looking for individuals who are ambitious about making a strong contribution to FLEET’s short and long-term sustainable growth – whether you are dealing directly with clients or working in a role supporting the business, such as technology, legal or communications.

Job Position Summary   

As a member of Fleet’s global procurement leadership team, the category lead is in charge of meeting the company's demands for repairs, machinery and chemicals through careful planning and negotiation in accordance with procurement strategy and budget for 650+ vessels 

Key Roles and Responsibilities
Develop category strategy 

• Design and develop strategy for each sub-category type with a project plan detailing the spend, savings and discount structure  
• Derive insight from historical purchase data and industry trends to project annual purchasing plans 
• Ensure supplier relationship management (SRM) is a key focus area for the category success   
• Reporting of discounts 
• Assist procurement director in the development of Fleet procurement strategy with insights from the external marketplace  

Supplier Development  

• Accountable for sourcing for potential suppliers within category, and managing a supplier database for machineries with a clear focus for OEM and Non-OEM vendors 
• Identify and shortlist a selection of qualified suppliers based on technical specifications from technical teams, aligned to budgets 
• Document a list of qualified suppliers for each category to assist Procurement COE in developing database of approved suppliers 

Meet category saving targets 

• Accountable for meeting category saving targets as determined by the procurement director 
• Develop negotiation, cost comparison and purchasing strategies to ensure professional relationships and FML’s economy of scale are leveraged upon to achieve saving targets 
• Work with procurement analysts to document final cost of purchase to track actual spending against targets to measure success of category saving efforts, and report findings to inform budget and business decisions 

Drive continuous improvement within the department 

• Responsible for implementing and driving continuous improvement initiatives through employees within the department 
• Collaborate with internal teams to identify improvements and convert them to policies, processes or technological infrastructure 
• Drive the operationalization and implementation of improvement initiatives within the department through employees in the department 
• Implement the company's ESG procurement strategy through initiatives, and report them annually 
• Monitor adherence to timeline and budget for continuous improvement projects and technological implementations within the department and report progress to procurement director through category plans and reports 

Day-to-day operations 

• Accountable for leading negotiation efforts between FML and suppliers 
• Lead negotiations between FML and suppliers to ensure FML’s economy of scale and leveraged upon for cost control and professional relationships are built and strengthened 
• Collaborate with purchasing teams to clearly communicate details of contracts with suppliers for a seamless supply chain  

 
Manage costs  

• Responsible for adherence of all department operations to budget. Ensure contractual agreements are in place with major spend suppliers for machinery, chemicals etc. 
• Accountable for the aggregation, projection, and presentation of the annual budget for chemicals & spares category   
• Assist procurement director in the identification, and resolution of areas of anomaly in budget reports for the department 

Team Development  

• Provide opportunities by engaging teams through projects, stakeholder & supplier interactions, remotely or in-person where required 
• Develop capabilities of team members through formal trainings or informal mentorship 
• Drive the identification and addressing of gaps in competencies through observation of day-to-day operations and provide timely feedback for continuous improvement 

Job Experience, Functional Knowledge and Qualifications

• Relevant technical procurement expertise and knowledge (10 years minimum) with a strong preference for equipment maintenance and repair managing spend in the range of ~150mUSD  
• Category management experience within technical categories and act as the center of excellence for the managed categories through understanding of the products, their applications, suppliers, industry trends, the competitive landscape, and upcoming technologies and innovations 
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and interpersonal skills, comfortable in engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders in an ambiguous environment with an agile and entrepreneurial mindset 
• In depth understanding of the principles of strategic sourcing, and category management 
• In-depth understanding of operational requirements in the ship management industry 
• An educational background in Mechanical or Marine Engineering, a Masters in Business, or Procurement and Supply related qualifications can be an added advantage 

Relationship:

• Key relationships with procurement director, technical directors, group managers, other category leads and direct reports as well as external stakeholders such as suppliers & owners 
• Cross functional alignment with key verticals such as legal, finance, business development and new building teams etc.  

Fleet Management Limited is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by local laws.