Procurement Category Manager

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Procurement Category Manager to join our Global Procurement team. In this role, you will be responsible for strategic sourcing projects and negotiations that align with our business objectives, ensuring the efficient sourcing of high‑tech products and services.

This role requires excellent procurement and interpersonal skills, enabling you to shift between spending categories and projects while maintaining strong relationships with our strategic suppliers and internal stakeholders, and ensuring the deliverables are met. As Procurement Category Manager, you will also have the opportunity to help build a strong, future‑proof Global Procurement organization.

• Category management — develop, communicate, and create buy‑in for your global and regional category strategies. The categories will encompass a broad spectrum of spend, both indirect (medical lab studies, R&D, sales and marketing, insurance) and direct (medical Subco, distributed medical instruments, …) to support various industries, including healthcare, aerospace, medtech, research, and academia.
• Stakeholder management — partner with our medical business unit and staff departments such as marketing, finance, legal, HR, and IT to understand current and future business needs.
• Strategic sourcing — execute and manage the category strategies, considering the procurement policies, process flows and business objectives.
• Build strong supplier relations to ensure standards for quality, delivery, and performance, and manage a network of reliable value‑added suppliers via KPIs.
• Negotiate the best purchasing price, integrating the total cost of ownership, service requirements, compliance, and quality specifications.
• Set up and perform data analysis on your categories to analyse cost drivers, understand category markets, and identify best practices.
• Recognise potential cost optimisations, taking into account TCO, standardisation opportunities, and risk management.
• Contract governance — negotiate and implement contracts and service level agreements, driving commercial and operational objectives.
• This role reports to the Global Procurement Director and provides coaching to the category buyers in the team.

• Master’s degree with a proven track record in procurement at a global level.
• You like working on both strategic and tactical levels and are experienced in category management, supplier relationships, and contract management.
• You enjoy working on a wide variety of indirect and direct spend categories and projects.
• You are an ambassador for the procurement organisation, generating overall cost awareness and supplier engagement, and you help educate business partners in procurement processes and procedures.
• You are well aware of the mechanisms of supply‑chain management and the role of procurement in the end‑to‑end supply‑chain process.
• Procurement process development and implementation skills. You take initiative if you come across room for standardisation in procurement processes on a local, regional, and global level.
• Solid experience in procurement negotiation, project management, sourcing, and cost analysis processes.
• Analytical and financial capabilities to analyse and interpret data and turn it into insights.
• Strategic negotiation skills and an understanding of cost‑driving elements.
• Experienced in stakeholder management across multiple business units and regions.
• Strong communication skills.
• Flexible and a hands‑on mentality.
• Fluent spoken and written English.

When creating a better and healthier world, a good place to start is with yourself. That's why we encourage our employees to prioritise their overall well‑being, fostering physical fitness, mental resilience, and social connections through a range of workshops, sports activities and other events and initiatives that contribute to a balanced and fulfilling work‑life harmony.

Hybrid working & flexibility

Personal growth and career advancement

Team building

Innovation is key

• Purchasing and supply chain
• Full‑time
• Hybrid
• Mid‑senior level

Materialise is a dynamic, international high‑tech company, founded in 1990 and headquartered in Belgium, with over 2,300 employees worldwide. Materialise’s mission is to innovate for a better and healthier world through its software and hardware infrastructure and in‑depth knowledge of additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing). Our customers are in diverse industries, such as automotive, aerospace, medical, research and academia.

As a growing company, Materialise is always looking for enthusiastic professionals who want to work in an environment full of revolutionary technology and surrounded by people passionate about their work.

Reach out to our team to get the answers to your questions.