Global Category Lead - Discovery Research

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Job Description

About the Role:

This role is a member of the R&D Procurement team, leading category strategy and a team of category managers to maximize enterprise value from external spend. It partners with senior stakeholders to shape business priorities, strengthen supplier relationships, and deliver measurable outcomes across cost, innovation, quality, sustainability, and risk.

How you will contribute:

• 
  
• Define and lead category strategies that maximize enterprise value from external spend through cost optimization, innovation, risk management, sustainability, and business growth
• Act as a strategic partner to senior business leaders, aligning category priorities with organizational objectives and ensuring external spend supports critical business outcomes
• Drive long-term business outcomes by shaping category strategy, supplier portfolio strategy, and enterprise spending decisions
• Orchestrate cross-functional resources and stakeholder collaboration to deliver category goals, strengthen supplier partnerships, and ensure sustainable business performance
• Manage a small team of category managers

Accountabilities:

• 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

Education, Behavioral, Competencies, Skills:

Education:

• Bachelors degree
• MBA of a relevant field would be an advantage

 

Behavioral:

As members of Global Procurement, you are expected to demonstrate ways of working that support our strategic ambition and shape how we create value for Takeda. You will contribute to a procurement function that:

• Shapes strategy upstream through close business partnership
• Deliver total enterprise value beyond savings
• Takes ownership of spend and outcomes end to end
• Uses curiosity, insights, and data to drive better decisions

These principles define how we partner with the business, our suppliers, and each other. Role-specific examples of these behaviors are embedded throughout the objectives, accountability, and skills outlined in this job description.

 

 

Competencies and skills:

• 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 research, externalized scientific services or similar categories in healthcare, biotech or pharmaceutical industry
• 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

 

 

Takeda Compensation and Benefits Summary

We understand compensation is an important factor as you consider the next step in your career. We are committed to equitable pay for all employees, and we strive to be more transparent with our pay practices. 

For Location:

USA - MA - Cambridge - Kendall Square - 500

U.S. Base Salary Range:

$177,000.00 - $278,080.00

The estimated salary range reflects an anticipated range for this position. The actual base salary offered may depend on a variety of factors, including the qualifications of the individual applicant for the position, years of relevant experience, specific and unique skills, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, and the location in which the applicant lives and/or from which they will be performing the job. The actual base salary offered will be in accordance with state or local minimum wage requirements for the job location. 

For information about our benefits, please click here.

EEO Statement

Takeda is proud in its commitment to creating a diverse workforce and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, parental status, national origin, age, disability, citizenship status, genetic information or characteristics, marital status, status as a Vietnam era veteran, special disabled veteran, or other protected veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws, and any other characteristic protected by law.

Locations

USA - MA - Cambridge - Kendall Square - 500

Worker Type

Employee

Worker Sub-Type

Regular

Time Type

Full time

Job Exempt

Yes

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