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Job Description

About the Role:

The Global Category Lead, External Manufacturing is a Senior Director-level role reporting to the Head of Direct Procurement. This position is responsible for defining and executing the global category strategy for external manufacturing, ensuring enterprise value through cost optimization, supplier innovation, risk management, sustainability, and business growth. The role serves as a strategic partner to senior leaders across Global Supply & Quality, Plasma Derived Therapies, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and R&D, leading make-versus-buy decisions and shaping Takeda’s global contract manufacturing network. The Global Category Lead oversees a broad portfolio spanning large molecule, small molecule, plasma, sterile fill-finish, and contract packaging suppliers, while driving supplier performance, supply continuity, commercial strategy, and enterprise-wide value delivery. In addition, the role leads and develops category management teams, governs key supplier relationships and contracts, influences critical business and investment decisions, and ensures a resilient, compliant, and high-performing external manufacturing ecosystem that supports Takeda’s long-term strategic objectives.

How You will contribute:

• Develop and execute category strategies that align external spend with enterprise objectives, business priorities, and long-term value creation goals

• Shape demand and business requirements by challenging specifications, operating models, supplier strategies, and sourcing approaches to optimize total value and return on investment

• Lead complex strategic programs and category value plans, ensuring delivery of cost, productivity, innovation, sustainability, quality, and risk management objectives

• Drive cross-functional collaboration across business, operations, finance, legal, and procurement teams to deliver End-2-End category strategies and strategic initiatives

• Build and maintain a high-performing supplier ecosystem that balances innovation, competitiveness, resilience, and long-term business needs, while including Quality and Sustainability requirements.

• Own strategic supplier relationships, governance, and performance management to drive continuous improvement, innovation, and value delivery

• Ensure supplier strategies, commercial models, and contractual frameworks support business objectives, regulatory requirements, quality standards, and supply continuity

• Synthesize market intelligence, supplier insights, and business data into compelling narratives that influence strategic decisions and stakeholder alignment

• Act as a strategic business partner to senior stakeholders, influencing spend decisions, investment priorities, operating models, and external resource deployment

• Lead, develop, and enable high-performing teams by building critical capabilities, fostering collaboration, and driving a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and business partnership

• Coach category managers and associates toward excellent, business-aligned category strategies, embedding adherence to best-practice category-management methodology and raising the quality and consistency of strategy development and execution across the team

• Attract, develop, and retain category talent in a competitive market, actively building succession strength and career pathways across the team

• Allocate people and priority across the category portfolio, making cross-category trade-offs to maximize aggregate enterprise value.

• Accountable for the value-delivery agenda across the category portfolio, setting and governing the targets and KPIs — spanning the enterprise value framework of P&L impact, P&L protection, and cash improvement, plus value beyond savings (risk, business performance, innovation, quality, sustainability) — and holding category managers accountable for realization.

• Own the contracting and commercial strategy across the portfolio, governing Master Service Agreement (MSA) management and the frameworks that downstream Service Agreements, SOWs, and purchase orders draw against, while leading the most strategic, enterprise-critical agreements directly.

• Accountable for end-to-end management of the total category spend portfolio, ensuring every dollar of spend is owned, compliant, and optimized — setting the spend, tail-spend, and buying-channel strategy that category managers execute within their categories.

• Understanding of business continuity and supply continuity principles, with ability to assess supply risks, develop mitigation strategies, and ensure resilience across supplier networks and critical operations

• Shape the enterprise strategy for contract manufacturing and provide advisory council on make-versus-buy decisions across the external manufacturing network, in close collaboration with GSQ (Global Supply and Quality), Pharmaceutical Sciences, R&D Procurement and Plasma Derived Therapies (PDT)

• Serve as the primary point of contact for contract manufacturing within the GSQ and PDT organizations, cultivating executive relationships across the External Supply and Quality groups,

• Design and implement contract manufacturing sub-category strategies spanning large molecule, small molecule, plasma, sterile fill-finish, and contract packaging, aligned to the enterprise global procurement category strategy

• Secure a resilient global external manufacturing network, able to deliver Takeda products to patients anywhere across the Takeda network, covering capacity, dual sourcing, technology transfer, qualification, and supply-continuity planning

• Drive strategic supplier management within the category through a targeted set of top contract manufacturing partners, quarterly business reviews, and Service Level Agreements and KPIs that are synthesized and managed to improve overall supplier value and performance

• Oversee execution of routine category business processes including vendor evaluation, issue resolution, supplier performance management, and contract negotiation; lead RFP creation and negotiate competitive pricing and contract terms, partnering actively with Takeda Business Services on Procure-to-Pay

• Steward the global procurement policy within the category and implement strategic supplier management, supplier risk management, supplier diversity, and CSR programs, delivering spend, savings, cash flow, and payment targets.

• Capture consolidation and integration synergies by leveraging Takeda's global scale across manufacturing sites and regions, applying best practice and managing risk with agility at global, regional, and local level

• Create a culture of compliance internally and with suppliers, where the team lives Takeda's values every day and abides by the Global Code of Conduct and the Supplier Code of Conduct

Minimal/Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree

• MBA of a relevent field would be and advantage

• 10+ years experience in procurement, category management, supply chain, or related commercial functions within complex global organizations

• Proven ability to develop and execute category strategies

• Strong commercial and financial acumen with a demonstrated track record of delivering measurable value through cost optimization, risk management, innovation, sustainability, and operational efficiency initiatives

• Subject-matter expertise in Contract manufacturing, including its global supplier market, regulatory and GMP landscape, quality and qualification requirements, and supply-risk profile

• Ability to influence and challenge senior stakeholders, shaping business decisions and aligning procurement strategies with organizational priorities

• Deep understanding of strategic sourcing, supplier relationship management, category management, and contract governance principles

• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and delivering results in complex, matrixed, and multi-stakeholder environments

• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to leverage market intelligence, data, and insights to inform decision-making and identify value opportunities

• Demonstrated ability to build, develop, and lead high-performing teams while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Change-leadership and transformation experience, driving new operating models and ways of working across a function

• Strong negotiation, communication, and executive stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence outcomes at all organizational levels

• Experience leveraging digital technologies, automation, and data-driven approaches to enhance procurement performance, decision-making, and business value delivery

• Demonstrated learning agility and continuous improvement mindset, with an interest in developing category expertise and leveraging digital, automation, and AI-enabled solutions

• Knowledge of supplier risk management, business continuity planning, and sustainable procurement practices

• Fluent written and spoken English

• In-depth knowledge of direct procurement categories, specifically contract manufacturing and manufacturing technologies, with working familiarity of adjacent raw materials, packaging, equipment and supplies, and transportation and logistics

• Deep technical expertise in strategic sourcing for GxP-regulated manufacturing, including make vs. buy and on-shore versus off-shore evaluation, technology transfer, and site qualification

• Experience in biotech, pharmaceutical, or other highly regulated industries with progressive leadership of procurement across a global external manufacturing network.

• Demonstrated track record of designing and implementing complex contract manufacturing sourcing strategies at scale;

• Understanding of quality, regulatory, and compliance obligations in external manufacturing, including quality agreements, audit and inspection readiness, and deviation and change-control governance

• Exceptionally skilled at stakeholder management and negotiation with senior executive stakeholders across multiple business units, manufacturing sites, and countries holding both global and local agendas

• Procurement qualification (e.g. ISM, IPMM, or MCIPS) valued

Travel requirements:

• Global travel up to 30%.

Locations

Zurich, Switzerland

Base Salary Range:

CHF212,500.00 - CHF292,160.00

For information about our benefits, please click here.

Worker Type

Employee

Worker Sub-Type

Regular

Time Type

Full time