Purchasing Project Manager

Abbott is about the power of health. For more than 125 years, Abbott has been helping people reach their potential — because better health allows people and communities to achieve more. With a diverse, global network serving customers in more than 150 countries, we create new solutions — across the spectrum of health, around the world, for all stages of life.

This position will have significant impact on the success of Supply Chain performance by enabling improvements that will enhance the ability of ANSC to meet customer expectations, improve quality, reduce cycle time, optimize ingredient/product/manufacturing interfaces, and reduce cost. Lead teams to identify and build flexible systems and processes for registration, formulation, bill of materials (BOM), commodity specifications and manufacturing that allow the organization to take advantage of market conditions, using interchangeable commodities to deliver appropriate nutritional targets at the lowest total cost. Lead cross-functional efforts analyzing and solving strategic unbounded problems, e.g. optimizing a manufacturing network, which have numerous opportunities and that utilize a hypothesis driven approach to determine implementable solutions and creative insights.

* Lead highly skilled global teams to create flexible processes to formulate, register and manufacture products that utilize industry Best Practices globally. Key decision maker on critical decisions with a high impact on product cost, margin and savings opportunities. * Act as primary interface between Purchasing, R&D, Regulatory Affairs, QA, and Medial to manage global concerns of contaminants, materials of interest, adulterants to assure supply chain implications are identified and considered. * Function as primary contact between Finance, Purchasing and Manufacturing to identify, validate and track CIP/M&P savings. * Act as primary contact in the establishment and on-going execution of a division program to identify and manage risk by category (brand, regulatory, medical, legal and supply) – create the program. * Support critical project execution where resources are unavailable within Purchasing Staff. * Establish metrics (including tracking and reporting) for efficiency gains, margin improvement, labor efficiency, effectiveness of risk-based strategies, and Purchasing effectiveness. Track and report.

* Bachelor’s degree required (bias toward technical degrees), Masters degree preferred, PMP (or equivalent) certification desirable * Prefer knowledge of applicable regulatory standards (infant formula and nutritionals) and/or technical knowledge of dairy, agricultural, and packaging commodities. * Extensive knowledge of and competency in project management methodology and processes, including planning tasks and allocating resources, risk management, working in teams, issues management, monitoring and reporting, and documentation. * 3-5 yrs experience in project leadership roles * Ability to plan and facilitate meetings * Demonstrated expertise in leading teams * Ability to negotiate consensus among diverse groups and influence the activities of others not in own reporting structure * Strong written and presentation skills; ability to communicate effectively with senior management * Technical background sufficient to understand issues involved with the project * Knowledge of the strategic and operational context of the projects * Personal integrity and courage to escalate issues about the project and to advocate for responsible solutions to management * Adaptability and flexibility including the ability to manage deadline pressure, ambiguity and change