The Rail and Equipment - Strategic Procurement Senior Specialist serves as the primary liaison between Supply Chain Planning, Supply Chain Deliver, Customer Experience, and strategic rail and related equipment service providers throughout the Americas. This role is responsible for the procurement and strategic sourcing of rail transportation, railcar fleets, railcar leasing, rail storage and track leases, maintenance services and other rail-related equipment. The position develops and executes sourcing strategies, drives productivity, manages commercial supplier relationships, and negotiates commercial agreements to ensure safe, reliable, and cost-effective supply chain solutions.

The Sr. Specialist will develop a broad insight into rail sourcing and use that knowledge to bring value to Celanese.

 Essential Job Functions

• Develop and execute sourcing strategies for rail freight, railcar leasing, storage, and equipment categories across the Americas.
• Lead fleet review initiatives to ensure strategic equipment capacity.
• Coordinate, consolidate, monitor and report on the category spend. Monitor and analyze expenditures and other financial information, to ensure that expenses are consistent with approved budgets and at optimal cost.
• Conduct Road vs Rail analysis to compare/ optimize best mode of transportation.
• Collaborate with S&OP and Customer Experience functions in providing logistics procurement contract support/capacity including plans/projects/optimization studies.
• Develop and maintain a regional vendor database to support product shipments that are on-time, predictable, and cost effective. 
• Ensure Celanese is the preferred customer of choice by developing and facilitating strategic relationships.
• Develop and execute sourcing plans to support contract negotiations (pricing/service/term), supplier relationships, database management, and market analyses.
• Innovate through consolidation opportunities to simplify business and leverage buying power.

Day to Day Responsibilities:

• Negotiate commercial agreements covering rail transportation, railcar leases, equipment services, and storage arrangements.
• Manage contract lifecycle activities including renewals, amendments, compliance tracking, and termination requirements.
• Route contracts through appropriate approval processes utilizing Ariba and procurement governance tools.
• Manages the vendor relationship for any escalated service issues that arise with various carriers that are beyond the scope of Customer Experience.
• Schedules regular carrier reviews (e.g. Quarterly Business Reviews) with service providers to discuss performance and new opportunities.
• Maintain productivity database for past, current, forecasted opportunities.
• Monitor key vendor spending to ensure that expenses are consistent with approved budgets and at an optimal cost.
• Prepare and circulate market intelligence for cost and capacity indications.

Qualifications and Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree, preferably in Supply Chain Management, Business, or Logistics related field.
• 5-7 years’ relevant work experience in rail transportation, railcar fleet management, equipment leasing, logistics procurement, or related transportation categories preferred.
• Experience with negotiating contracts.
• Petrochemical industry experience preferred.

Technical Skills

• Knowledge of Rail operations (daily operations, carriers, service lanes, quality and service standards, negotiation techniques, and follow-through, etc.).
• Strategic sourcing and category management expertise.
• Knowledge of how carriers operate and ability to judge their performance.
• Strong analytical, financial, negotiation, and problem-solving skills. 
  Knowledge of SAP, Ariba, TMS and Microsoft Office tools. 

Necessary Functional Skills

• Analytical and organizational skills.
• Strategy development and implementation of strategic plans.
• Knowledge of sourcing/purchasing methods and negotiation skills.
• Strong communication and negotiation skills, both verbal and written.
• Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Excellent relationship building skills, both internally and externally.
• Good judgment and decision-making skills.
• Detail oriented and proactive to ensure maximum value captured.
• Financial and Business Acumen: interpreting and applying the understanding of key financial indicators to make better contractual decisions.
• Cultivate innovation: Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful.
• Working knowledge of Legal and Risk concepts and clauses in contracting.