Senior Specialist, Contract Management and Delegation of Purchasing Authority

The Opportunity

This position may work out of our Willis Tower, Chicago, IL or our Abbott Park location.

The Business Excellence (BEx) Team sets global procurement strategies and enables supporting processes, tools, and policies.

BEx team members apply source to pay best practices and enabling technology knowledge to guide Abbott towards a best-in-class organization.

The team members are highly visible and collaborative across Abbott divisions, supply base and business stakeholders globally.

The Business Excellence Senior Specialist will be leading the Contract Management Function supporting stakeholders in developing and driving best practices and continuous improvement across people, process and technology within the contract management function.

This role will be focused on maturing the contract management and repositories within key markets with the vision of expanding the maturity model globally.

While the immediate focus will be on simplifying and aligning the contract signature process and reposition, the individual will have a long-term target to support continuous improvement and special projects globally.

What You'll Work On :

Support Global Procurement Services and Divisional stakeholders in developing simplistic and clear contracting guidelines in collaboration with Legal.

This includes developing long-term roadmap to enhance defining the contracting process and leading organization change management to educate stakeholders on the contracting guidelines.

Provide strategic and tactical guidelines to the Contract Center of Excellence to ensure the available repositories are robust, accurate, and maintained as needed daily.

Develop relationships with stakeholders and Legal to understand and develop contract management and repository targets and maturity maps globally.

Support the refresh of legal contract management and contracting training for Purchasing Professionals globally. As contract templates require training, coordinate with Legal and stakeholders to roll out training.

Lead the continuous improvement and on-going development of the contract management function within a Source to Pay Technology Platform and / or available technologies.

Lead the expansion of the US contract repository into additional areas of the business.

Support Audit requests (e.g., pulling contracts, attend control walkthrough meeting), as needed.

Collaborate with teammates across the Source to Pay process to ensure a collaborative and robust contract management strategy supporting Global Procurement Services priorities.

Support the Delegation of Purchasing Authority (DOA) program strategic and tactical projects. As Contracting and DOA scope overlap, enhance the clarity of the process (e.

g., signature authority).

Strategic Thinking :

Full understanding of the "One Procurement" strategies. Strong knowledge and project work across multiple categories that impact the team positively.

Performs routine professional-based activities and contribute to and manage some projects.

Proactively seek feedback and provide innovative ways to improve the procure to pay processes, cycle times, and customer experience.

Works within defined processes and procedures and may help determine appropriate approaches for change.

Relationship Management :

Meet regularly with divisional stakeholders and support functions to ensure good customer satisfaction and continuous improvement

Support training with procurement professionals and surrounding functions.

Leading People :

Works effectively in a team environment with the ability to manage upward and downward with light leadership management

Exhibit cultural awareness with diverse business entities

Seek, develop, and maintain business relationships with suppliers, clients and stakeholders

Communicate with appropriate teams to collaborate on contracting or DOA initiatives

Compliance :

Responsible for compliance with applicable Corporate and Divisional policies and procedures.

Accountability :

Executes against the goals set by the Global Process Organization / Corporate Financial Services

Seek innovative ways to maintain and improve procurement processes, cycle times, total acquisition costs, and customer service levels

Key Organizational Relationships :

Contract Center of Excellence

3rd Party Partners

Regional Procurement Operations

Global and Regional Category Leads and Manager

Procurement Regional Leads

Legal

Corporate Financial Services

Organizational Change Management

Required Qualifications :

Bachelor’s Degree

4-6 years of Category Management, Contract Management, Contract Technology, Consulting, Business Excellence, and / or Legal in a business stakeholder setting

Strong problem-solving skills, continuous improvement mindset, and analytical skills with a high proficiency with reporting and excel tools

Strong people and team collaboration skills, including good communication skills (written and verbal), interdisciplinary, intercultural, influence, and networking skills.

Self-Starter and possesses drive for professional development