Sourcing Specialist

Discovery Corporate Services – Group Procurement

Sourcing Specialist

About Discovery

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

About (Group Procurement)

Discovery conducts a centre-led Procurement department which has three strategic objectives, namely optimising cost efficiency, supplier partnering to create shared value and transformation through preferential procurement. These are underpinned by the principles of proper governance and good corporate citizenship.

Key Purpose

The main purpose of the Commodity specialist is to implement sourcing strategies for HR and Travel services that will drive the objectives of increased savings and inclusive procurement while adhering to governance and managing the objectives of the internal stakeholders. The specialist will effectively manage the assigned portfolio and departmental objectives. An important aspect of this role is optimizing cost efficiencies, supplier performance and supporting Discovery’s business plans.

Areas of responsibility may include but not limited to

Strategic

• Support the Procurement Manager with developing and implementing commodity sourcing strategies based on existing and forecasted spend.
• Assist with optimising sourcing per category spend analysis and optimisation with a total cost of ownership approach.
• Participate on cross-functional teams to ensure that Discovery is leveraging spend and driving best value.
• Support internal customers for the sourcing of goods and services by following established and approved procurement policies and procedures in order to provide the lowest cost consistent with quality and service requirements while maintaining good supplier relations.
• Optimise procurement savings.
• Maintain effective working relationships with external customers and /or suppliers with a view to assess or improve the quality of the procurement and purchasing.
• Work with cross functional team with the aim to increase contract coverage and process efficiency.
• Assist with preparation of monthly reports for exco and recommend areas of improvement for the procurement division.

Administration

• Chairing daily, weekly or monthly procurement forums which review procurement requests for purchase orders, for the categories under management.
• Review planned orders, create requisitions for purchased items, capture new purchase orders and assign for approval.
• Facilitate interactions with suppliers and internal business stakeholders on a daily basis to resolve transactional issues and gather critical information (invoices, tracking info, tax docs etc.)
• Contract pricing validation for all purchase requests under category management.
• Request competitive quotes and proposals.
• Matching and receipting of orders for payment to ensure payments are made in required 30 days.
• Creating catalogues for service providers against which they can purchase items within the portfolio.

B-BBEE

• Engaging vendors that do not meet the minimum B-BBEE requirements to agree on a plan to improving their B-BBEE levels.
• Scanning the market to identify vendors that we could onboard to help us reach our shortfalls.
• Recommending vendors to take part in RFP and other sourcing processes.

Contract Management

• Work with internal business stakeholder to ensure 80% of spend with suppliers is under contract.
• Engaging with suppliers for contracts renewal prior to expiration.

Managed Spend under procurement

• Meeting with business areas to see how we can influence and increase spend within the areas.
• Discussing the procurement policy and process with the various business areas to use this as part of the compliance.

Savings

• Developing category strategies that will assist in reaching the required savings targets.
• Recording savings achieved into the relevant registers once approved and signed off by business areas.
• Meeting with vendors to see how we can reduce our overall costs and Total cost of ownership (TCO).

Supplier Relationship Management

• Conducting Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR) with strategic suppliers to identify changes in the environment that could impact on Discovery.
• Where suppliers are not meeting the required SLA’s to meet with vendors to provide a remedial plan on how to rectify this.

Reporting

• Development and generate monthly, weekly, ad-hoc reports for business units and Procurement Management Team

Personal Attributes and Skills

• Must be able to operate independently and under pressure
• Able to perform multiple concurrent tasks and responsibilities and to deal with changing priorities while maintaining personal effectiveness
• Strong negotiation skills at all levels
• Must have a strong understanding of contract management and risk mitigation
• Ability to communicate (orally and in writing) and be responsive to internal customer requirements
• Must be decisive and driven by deadlines
• Must be willing to challenge ideas and provide suggestions which are in the best interests of the company
• Ability to work collaboratively with internal customers and other procurement professionals
• Must exhibit sound interpersonal skills involving interfacing, coordinating and negotiating with internal customers and suppliers

Education and Experience

• Qualification in Supply Chain preferred, preferably CIPS accredited.
• 5 years procurement experience, with at least 2 years a commodity specialist
• Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing sourcing strategies which resulted in a world-class supply base that continually exceeded cost, quality, delivery and service objectives.

Employment Equity  

The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY   
                             
The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.