Head of Procurement

Our client is an international water treatment equipment manufacturer. With a full suite of differentiated and proprietary end-to-end solutions for advanced water and wastewater treatment powered by the top minds in water, the company serves its clients’ mission-critical operations in the world’s essential industries, including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, food & beverage, lithium and critical minerals, and renewable energy. Their innovative solutions reduce water used and wastewater discharged, reclaim valuable resources, and renew wastewater into freshwater. The Head of Global Procurement will build and lead a high-performing global procurement function that improves gross margin, strengthens supply continuity, and increases cost competitiveness. Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, this role will own the procurement strategy and procurement execution across both direct procurement and indirect procurement. The role will deliver measurable and finance-verified savings, improve supplier performance, and establish strong procurement governance, analytics, and scalable processes. This leader will be both strategic and operational: driving category strategies and major negotiations while ensuring procurement reliably supports business execution. Specific duties and responsibilities of this role include:

• Build and lead a global procurement team covering direct procurement and indirect procurement, including organization design, hiring, capability building, and performance management.
• Establish procurement governance, policies, approval workflows, and negotiation standards across regions and functions.
• Own a global cost reduction and margin improvement roadmap with clear accountability, tracking, and savings validation.
• Develop and execute global category strategies for direct procurement and indirect procurement spend areas.
• Lead supplier evaluation, competitive sourcing processes, supplier selection, and negotiation of commercial terms.
• Establish strong contracting discipline, including pricing structures, volume frameworks, warranties, and service commitments.
• Improve supplier performance across cost, quality, on-time delivery, lead time, responsiveness, and continuous improvement.
• Lead supplier risk management, including alternate sourcing strategies, capacity assurance, and continuity planning for critical categories.
• Own the end-to-end purchasing process from requisition to purchase order to delivery to invoice resolution, improving cycle time and execution reliability.
• Improve payment terms, contract coverage, and purchasing compliance while maintaining strong supplier relationships.
• Build procurement analytics and performance dashboards, with regular reporting to the Chief Financial Officer and leadership team.
• Implement or optimize procurement processes and procurement tools to support global scale.

Requirements for this position include:

• Ten to fifteen or more years of experience in procurement, sourcing, or supply chain roles with a global scope.
• Experience in industrial manufacturing, engineered systems, or multi-site global operations.
• Demonstrated track record of delivering significant cost savings and margin improvement with strong analytics and governance.
• Strong experience with category strategy, supplier negotiations, and commercial contracting across both direct procurement and indirect procurement.
• Proven ability to build and lead teams across geographies and influence senior stakeholders.
• Strong financial and analytical capability, including cost modeling and total cost analysis.

The salary for this position is $160 to $180K and full benefits. Interested candidates should forward a resume (MS Word attachment preferred) plus a brief email describing your relevant experience and reasons for your interest to: [email protected]. Or call (519) 270-3780 for more information. All inquiries will be held in strict confidence. Jeff Smith & Associates is a technical recruiting firm that specializes in the placement of exceptional candidates in the Water and Wastewater Treatment industries. To view other opportunities on which we are currently working, go to our website at www.jsmithassoc.com.