Category Manager III

Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation is a thriving, values-driven company focused on doing the right things. We’re a fast growing, publicly traded company (NYSE: ZWS), with an enduring reputation for integrity, giving back, and providing an engaging, inclusive environment where careers flourish and grow.

Named by Newsweek as One of America’s Most Responsible Companies and an Energage USA Top Workplace, at Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation, we never forget that our people are at the center of what makes us successful. They are the driving force behind our superior quality, product ingenuity, and exceptional customer experience. Our commitment to our people and their professional development is a recipe for success that has fueled our growth for over 100 years, as one of today’s leading international suppliers of plumbing and water delivery solutions.

Headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation employs over 2800 employees worldwide, working from 24 locations across the U.S., China, Canada, Dubai, and Mexico, with sales offices available around the globe. We hope you’ll visit our website and learn more about Zurn Elkay at

If you’re ready to join a company where what you do makes a difference and you have pride in the work you are doing, talk to us about joining the Zurn Elkay Water Solutions Corporation family!

If you are a current employee, please navigate here to apply internally.

This position reports to the Director of Strategic Sourcing and is responsible for the management of global activities associated with procurement of direct material related to our Drinking Water & Filtration business units. This category manager will provide leadership and strategic direction for assigned procurement categories within Zurn Elkay Water Solutions. This role is responsible for developing and executing category strategies that align with company objectives, ensuring cost competitiveness, quality, and delivery performance across multiple sites.

The Category Manager will collaborate with cross‑functional teams, suppliers, and stakeholders to drive value, mitigate risk, and support sustainability initiatives.

• Maintain the highest level code of conduct and ethics.
• Create and implement category strategies to optimize cost, quality and delivery.
• Manage complex multi‑year customer/supplier relationships aligned to enable our front‑end portfolio strategies.
• Plan, organize, direct, control, and communicate strategic sourcing activities related to BU products and other assigned commodities aligning cross‑functional supply, engineering, technical support, product management, and operations groups.
• Conduct brainstorming sessions at Zurn Elkay facilities with cross‑functional teams to identify strategic commodities and deployment priorities on cost‑saving initiatives.
• Provide oversight to sourcing/project managers on the deployment of projects with internal and external 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 that align with commercial strategies and financial targets.
• Drive spend analysis, including counter measures for projects that fall short of plan and make decisions to remedy the issues to get the teams back on track to meet or exceed plan.
• Possess an understanding of total cost of ownership.
• Proactively assess internal and external process improvements and influence effective change and drive innovation and continuous improvements.
• Collaborate with global business units on the preparation of Request for Proposals (RFPs), Request for Quotations (RFQs) and lead the screening and supplier selection process.
• Negotiate and draft supply agreements, including payment terms, deliveries, price, freight terms, currency exchange, raw material commodity fluctuation, inventory levels.
• Analyze market and delivery conditions to determine present and future material availability and prepare market analysis reports.
• Responsible for timely reporting to agreed‑upon KPI’s and presenting Strategic Sourcing plans, activities…