Category Manager

Work Type : Full Time

Location : QLD
- Contribute to the broader company strategic direction and culture.
- Challenge business norms to provide superior performance
- North Lakes Location - Work close to home

**About us**

At Auto & General (A&G), we provide great products and services to safeguard our customers in their time of need. Our range of general insurance products protects customers on the road, at home and on holiday with various Car, Motorcycle, Home, Contents, and Pet products as well as Roadside Assistance.

**The Role**:
The purpose of this fast-paced & diverse role is to provide commercial leadership and direction through the effective management of key strategic and national business relationships within the Claims and Assessing department.

**Accountabilities**:

- Identify and realise market and internal opportunities to create competitive advantage
- Oversight of supplier relationships, developing new commercial relationships to right size the growing scale of our network of repairers, as well as aligning behaviours and ultimately culture to our core service proposition to ensure a seamless customer journey
- Ensure compliance and business risk policies are both adhered to and challenged to meet the commercial, legislative and business environments
- In consultation with the Head of Supply, negotiate, develop and implement appropriate supplier management and assessing controls & strategies that result in the company’s overall objectives being met
- Develop and implement contemporary frameworks & policy with regard to supplier performance management
- Ensure government and industry regulatory requirements are understood and abided by suppliers and partners
- Develop and implement advanced category management techniques to leverage value creation opportunities
- Draft high-quality contract documents and carry out contract variations, including updating or expanding scopes of services
- Drive Industry best in class contract management, with a focus on strategic contracts enabling long-term sustainability for the business
- Advanced level of analytical & modelling skills that will support and drive tactical and strategic decision making for both Auto & General and its suppliers and partners
- Maintain relationships with key stakeholders to become a highly valued category expert
- Provide contract management support to project teams throughout the contract life-cycle
- Lead and manage your team regarding engaging in high-level strategic planning for the business and provide training as required on best practice procurement, managing contracts, negotiations, managing suppliers and policy and procedures

**Essential Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications**:

- Demonstrated leadership capability and the ability to drive high levels of team performance and engagement.
- Demonstrated best practice strategic category management, including centralisation of procurement strategy and achievement of significant cost savings primarily within the insurance sector or similar services industries.
- Demonstrated key stakeholder management with a background in procurement in a large, complex organisation, you have strong stakeholder engagement and influencing skills, the presence to deal at the highest levels and the drive to bring the vision to reality.
- A minimum of five years’ experience in a hands-on category management/procurement role ranging from identifying opportunities, tenders & due-diligence through to contract execution & performance tracking; with accountability for significant financial levers deploying a high degree of commercial acumen.
- Extensive experience in drafting high-quality contract documents & contract variations, including updating or expanding scope of services.
- Strong & proven analytical & financial modelling ability, with the capacity to identify and implement opportunities for business & supplier improvement.
- Experience in developing category management plans, and demonstrable examples of driving cost reduction initiatives across categories.
- Strong knowledge of legislative frameworks relating to financial services is preferred.
- Strong communication skills and the ability to build relationships with key internal and external stakeholders.
- Highly developed negotiation skills with a focus on building mutually beneficial outcomes for the organisation and key partner groups combined with superior communication skills.
- A relevant tertiary qualification in business, accounting, commerce or similar is highly desirable.
- Proven ability and confidence to present and communicate with external partners including Senior Managers and General Managers.
- Ability to interpret, evaluate and disseminate data.
- Claims and/or significant Insurance Industry experience preferred but not essential.

**Our perks**
- **Location - **This role is based at our North Lakes office - a convenient location close to local retail, restaurants and other amenities.
- **Extra leave** - Enjoy