IT Hardware Category Manager

NTT Global Sourcing strives to hire exceptional, innovative and passionate individuals who want to grow with us. If you want to be part of an inclusive, adaptable, and forward-thinking organization, apply now.

We are currently seeking a IT Hardware Category Manager to join our team in Tokyo, Tokyo (JP-13), Japan (JP).

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation established a new company named NTT Global Sourcing, Inc. which is headquartered in the United States in 2018. This new company, specializing in Sourcing and Contracting, will bring together the enterprise spend volume of each NTT Group company and engage in centralized price negotiations and the execution of comprehensive agreements with global vendors, etc. for hardware, software, and services purchased in common by each NTT Group company.
Through such activities, the NTT Group will work to improve the presence of the NTT Group in the global market, formalize our strategic partnerships, reduce the Group's total costs, and provide lower-priced, innovative services to clients.

Responsibilities

Establish sourcing and partnership strategies for the IT spend Category for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)  in Japan and local distributors and resellers.

Analyze category market conditions, competitive landscape, customer (= NTT Group companies) requirements, pricing trends and benchmarks to create world-class sourcing and relationship strategies. 

Design and implement cost savings, business value and revenue acceleration projects across all regions and NTT operating companies with a primary focus on Japan.

Review, assess and negotiate price/cost and rebate programs, global terms and conditions across Sell To (internal use spend), Sell With (managed services spend) and Sell Through (resale spend) spend motions.

Position Summary

•    This position requires confidence, independent action, initiative, a sense of urgency. 
•    A well-suited candidate can react and adjust quickly to changing conditions and come up with practical ideas for dealing with them. 
•    The style is purposeful, directed at getting things done quickly. 
•    There is a great deal of challenge and pressure, and people and problems must be handled with confidence and determination. 
•    The position requires a self-disciplined person who can handle details. 
•    This job requires self-assurance and competitive drive. 
•    There is a strong demand for high quality, organized and repeatable results.
•    The responsibilities are broad in scope, encompassing a wide variety of activities requiring rapid shifts in priorities. 
•    This is primarily a task-focused job, requiring a somewhat authoritative, directive leadership style that encourages results-driven, task-oriented collaboration.

Job Characteristics
•    Faster-than-average pace; ability to learn quickly, thoroughly, and in detail 
•    Must recognize and adjust to change 
•    There is considerable variety in the work
•    Strategic, big-picture thinking backed by an added focus on the tactical aspects of the work 
•    Setting and achieving specific standards for self and for others; an emphasis on schedule and quality 
•    Action-oriented collaboration required on a consistent basis
•    Seeks and accepts decision authority & responsibility
•    Will effectively weigh risk against the benefit; while not cautious, a calculated decision maker 
•    An independent decision maker, will utilize team consensus and/or collaboration
•    Requires a lively and incisive communicator, more authoritative than persuasive in style 
•    A stimulating influence on others, while being firm, direct, and self-assured in dealing with them
•    Some collaboration within own team but a more independent style in general
•    Maintains control of overall agenda, includes others in a task-focused manner
•    Creates a disciplined process
•    Must possess world-class negotiation skills

Education and Experience
Technical Experience:  
•    Minimum 5-10 years of experience in progressively challenging roles in strategic sourcing and/or category management with the majority of experience in the Information Technology sector.
•    A minimum of 3 years of this experience shall be the equivalent of Manager-level in strategic sourcing and/or procurement leadership role.
•    Must have hands-on experience managing tough price negotiations and delivery on a global basis and be able to demonstrate a track record of effectively driving cost savings and performance improvement while in such a role.
•    Strong understanding of IT sector pricing and rebate models, as well as value added services - as practiced by the major vendors across the globe.  Must have demonstrated ability to effectively manage commercial and strategic relationships on a global basis with Tier-I vendors.  
•    Experience should include in-depth knowledge and experience working with the following vendors:
–    Dell Japan, HP Japan, Cisco Japan, Fujitsu, NEC etc.
–    CTC/Net One Systems/Daiwabo etc.

•    Experience in defining and driving key aspects of supply chain operational excellence in a global, multi-BU environment – including demand planning, forecasting, maintenance optimization, performance measurement and optimization.  

 
Educational Requirements:
•    Bachelor’s degree is required, preferably in Engineering, Science, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Technology or an equivalent technical discipline.   
•    Must be bi-lingual and fluent (both spoken and written words) in Japanese and English

Knowledge and Skills
•    Transformative change management skills and self-awareness to take varying approaches with a dynamic set of stakeholders.
•    Strong analytical skills.  Must be able to assess historical spend and asset usage data from multiple disparate sources, analyze the data and layout coherent, data-driven roadmaps to achieve cost reductions and/or operational improvements.    
•    Able to analyze the current state of practices within NTT Global Sourcing and NTT Operating Companies by collaborating with stakeholders to forge comprehensive supply chain strategies that increase leverage and drive commercial improvements. 
•    Must be able to assess ‘best practices’ and ‘pricing benchmarks’ in the industry and compare these across Operating Companies, accounts, BUs and regions. Develop gap analysis relative to these practices/benchmarks to help identify savings and improvement opportunities. Develop strategies that create leverage to close gaps while delivering improved economics and/or operational performance to NTT.
•    Able to analyze current Agreements and assess alignment with end-customer Agreements. Where misalignments exist, develop, and implement strategies that improve alignment. Collaborate with internal stakeholders to garner support for such improvement initiatives.
•    Must have ability to analyze the various asset acquisition practices and identify opportunities to reduce cost and/or risk by improving these practices where such opportunities exist. Further, partner with account leadership and regional delivery leads to drive such cost reduction initiatives into the business.
•    Must have strong verbal, presentation, and written communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively and be able to influence stakeholders on key strategic initiatives that involve challenging ‘Change Management’ elements. Ability to foster enthusiasm and drive to succeed from team members, and lead by example.

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This is a full-time salaried position with a group company within NTT Global Sourcing.  Please note, 1099 or corp-2-corp contractors will NOT be considered. This position is only available to those interested in direct staff employment opportunities.  We offer a full comprehensive benefits package that starts from your first day of employment.

About NTT Global Sourcing

NTT Global Sourcing specializes in strategic sourcing, will bring together the procurement volume of each NTT Group company and engage in centralized price negotiations.  NTT Global Sourcing will execute comprehensive agreements with global vendors, etc. for hardware, software, and services purchased in common by each Group company. Each Group company will individually procure products and services from each global vendor, etc. based on the comprehensive agreements executed by the procurement company.

Through such activities, NTT Global Sourcing will work to improve the presence of the NTT Group in the global market, formalize our strategic partnerships and creating innovative services to clients.

NTT Global Sourcing, headquartered in Plano, Texas, is a division of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, a partner to 88 percent of the Fortune 100.