Category Manager III

Position

Category Manager III at Zurn Elkay Water Solutions

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation is a thriving, values‑driven, publicly traded company (NYSE: ZWS) focused on integrity, giving back, and an inclusive, engaging environment where careers flourish. Named by Newsweek as One of America’s Most Responsible Companies and an Energage USA Top Workplace, Zurn Elkay empowers more than 2,800 employees worldwide across 24 global locations, delivering world‑class plumbing and water delivery solutions.

This position reports to the Director of Strategic Sourcing and is responsible for managing global procurement of direct materials for the Drinking Water & Filtration business units. The Category Manager provides leadership and strategic direction for assigned procurement categories, developing and executing category strategies that align with company objectives, ensuring cost competitiveness, quality, and delivery performance across multiple sites. The role collaborates with cross‑functional teams, suppliers, and stakeholders to drive value, mitigate risk, and support sustainability initiatives.

• Maintain the highest level of code of conduct and ethics.
• Create and implement category strategies to optimize cost, quality, and delivery.
• Manage complex multi‑year customer/supplier relationships aligned with front‑end portfolio strategies.
• Plan, organize, direct, control, and communicate sourcing activities related to BU products and other assigned commodities, aligning cross‑functional supply, engineering, technical support, product management, and operations groups.
• Conduct cross‑functional brainstorming sessions to identify strategic commodities and deployment priorities for cost‑saving initiatives.
• Provide oversight to sourcing/project managers on project deployment with stakeholders.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to identify, screen, and qualify strategic suppliers; work with global facilities to create regional and global material cost‑saving funnels aligned with commercial strategies and financial targets.
• Drive spend analysis, implement countermeasures for projects that fall short of plan, and make decisions to remedy issues.
• Possess an understanding of total cost of ownership.
• Proactively assess internal and external process improvements, influence effective change, and drive innovation and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with global business units on the preparation of RFPs and RFQs, leading the screening and supplier selection process.
• Negotiate and draft supply agreements, including payment terms, deliveries, price, freight terms, currency exchange, raw material commodity fluctuations, and inventory levels.
• Analyze market and delivery conditions to determine present and future material availability, preparing market analysis reports.
• Provide timely reporting to agreed KPI’s and present Strategic Sourcing plans, activities, and progress.

• BA or BS degree, preferably in Engineering or Supply Chain; minimum in a business/industrial related field.
• At least 5 years of experience as a Category Manager in an industrial manufacturing environment with experience in Engineering, Supply Chain, or a similar position.
• Proven success strategically working with suppliers or customers.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally (~25%).
• Experience sourcing in low‑cost regions.
• Experience working with multiple global locations.
• Proven success in a change‑management and “stretch” environment.

• Category Strategy Creation and Implementation – ability to create category and commodity strategies and drive the business toward them.
• Decision Quality – making good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward.
• Managing Complexity – making sense of complex, high‑quantity, sometimes contradictory information to solve problems.
• Driving Results – consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances.
• Managing Conflict – handling conflict situations effectively, with minimal noise.
• Planning & Aligning – planning and prioritizing work to meet commitments aligned with organizational goals.