India is among the top ten priority markets for General Mills, and hosts our Global Shared Services Centre. This is the Global Shared Services arm of General Mills Inc., which supports its operations worldwide. With over 1,300 employees in Mumbai, the center has capabilities in the areas of Supply Chain, Finance, HR, Digital and Technology, Sales Capabilities, Consumer Insights, ITQ (R&D & Quality), and Enterprise Business Services. Learning and capacity-building is a key ingredient of our success.Position TitleCategory Manager Ocean FreightFunction/GroupGlobal Sourcing SolutionsLocationMumbaiShift Timing1:30 PM to 10:30 PMRole Reports toHead Sourcing, GICRemote/Hybrid/in-OfficeHybrid
About General Mills
We make food the world loves: 100 brands. In 100 countries. Across six continents. With iconic brands like Cheerios, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Nature Valley, and Haagen-Dazs, we have been serving up food the world loves for 155 years (and counting). Each of our brands has a unique story to tell.How we make our food is as important as the food we make. Our values are baked into our legacy and continue to accelerate.us into the future as an innovative force for good. General Mills was founded in 1866 when Cadwallader Washburn boldly bought the largest flour mill west of the Mississippi. That pioneering spirit lives on today through our leadership team who upholds a vision of relentless innovation while being a force for good. For more details check out http://www.generalmills.comGeneral Mills India Center (GIC) is our global capability center in Mumbai that works as an extension of our global organization delivering business value, service excellence and growth while standing for good for our planet and people.With our team of 1800+ professionals, we deliver superior value across the areas of Supply chain (SC), Digital & Technology (D&T) Innovation, Technology & Quality (ITQ), Consumer and Market Intelligence (CMI), Sales Strategy & Intelligence (SSI), Global Shared Services (GSS), Finance Shared Services (FSS) and Human Resources Shared Services (HRSS). For more details check out https://www.generalmills.co.inWe advocate for advancing equity and inclusion to create more equitable workplaces and a better tomorrow.
Job Overview
Function Overview
The GIC Supply Chain team manages end-to-end operations, encompassing planning, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, and analytics. They strategically plan to meet market demands, optimize sourcing, ensure efficient production, and oversee the seamless movement of goods from production to delivery. The team employs advanced analytics throughout these processes, fostering adaptability and operational excellence. This collaborative approach ensures a well-coordinated supply chain that aligns with both organizational goals and dynamic market conditions. Link
Purpose of the role
The purpose of the Category Manager, Ocean Freight role, based in the General Mills India Centre, is to develop and execute a comprehensive sourcing strategy for ocean freight, maximizing value creation within General Mills' One Global Sourcing (OGS) group and aligning with the GMI Accelerate Strategy. This includes developing and implementing category strategies, managing the end-to-end sourcing process (RFX, negotiations, contracting), conducting market analysis and should-cost modeling, building and managing supplier relationships, ensuring compliance, and leveraging continuous improvement tools. The role requires strong analytical, communication, and project management skills, as well as the ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders globally.The Category Manager will act as an in-house expert, providing upstream feedback and driving value creation across key performance indicators (Total Value/Productivity, Service, Quality, Force for Good, and Innovation). Specifically, you will implement category strategies, manage supplier and stakeholder relationships, negotiate contracts and payment terms, and drive cost savings in alignment with the Global strategy. You will be responsible for executing and negotiating contracts that deliver service enhancements and Total Value (HMM) for your categories, reporting to the manager to execute growth and holistic category strategies and achieve business goals. This will involve working with global regions including GEMS (Global Emerging Markets), Brazil Europe and Australia, North Asia, and other regions, with a particular focus on collaborating with the EUAU Indirect Sourcing team to align on category strategy and direction.
Key Accountabilities
- Support Transportation Category Owner in developing category strategies. Develop and implement category strategies; support development of short-term and long-term plans; drive spend consolidation and identify synergies. Identify new potential suppliers in this space
- Create holistic category strategies, aligning with global regions. Support the development of short-term and long-term plans
- Build continuous Value pipeline and drive relentless execution against balanced scorecard focused on Total Value/Productivity, Service, Quality, Force for Good (incl. GHG) and Innovation
- Drive execution against a balanced scorecard (Total Value/Productivity, Service, Quality, Force for Good, Innovation).
- Drive spend consolidation and identify synergies across business units. Own the sub-category from strategy to delivery, including savings target delivery.
- Create a data driven environment to support the decision making, conduct complex should cost modeling, price benchmarking and sensitivity analytics.
- Utilize strategic sourcing best practices to manage E2E competitive bidding process (RFX), develop and execute strategic negotiations, and contracts. Participate in the development of strategic sourcing plans.
- Continuously collect market intelligence and trends as it relates to the category, industry best practices and propose innovative solutions.
- Manage any communication related to proactive changes in the geopolitics or supplier landscape impacting our service level
- Manage stakeholder (business) expectations during the tender and through the year
- Develop preferred suppliers and support SRM program focused on partnering with executive and strategic suppliers to enhance relationships and create Value-add.
- Conduct/Lead supplier selection and evaluation.
- Manage contracts (MSAs), contract negotiation, and contractual dispute resolutions. Pre-negotiate and incorporate terms, conditions, KPIs, and service level metrics into vendor contracts. Ensure robust contract and spend compliance.
- Gather markets needs before launching the tender and manager communication on evolving needs through the year. Stabilize this process
- Launch tenders/RFIs, RFPs, and Auctions as needed within the General Mills sourcing policy. Conduct negotiations with suppliers with continuous alignment with relevant stakeholders.
- Conduct complex should-cost modeling, price benchmarking, and sensitivity analytics.
- Understand & leverage different cost drivers (Zero-based costing, budgeting principles, etc.) to deliver better ROI on projects.
- Negotiate favorable agreements that deliver services, capabilities and solutions that meet GMI requirements and achieve competitive pricing with long-term price protection. Improve payment terms, Total Value.
- Coach buyers to set them up for success in their categories
- Closely partner with COE to conduct market intelligence research to identify relevant category benchmarks, should cost modeling and implementaion of best practises
- Ensure compliance to the General Mills Sourcing Policies
- Indirect Sourcing and Purchasing Policy.docx (sharepoint.com)
- Indirect Sourcing and Purchasing Standard.docx (sharepoint.com)
- Ensure GMI’s Code of Conduct and Ethics policies are foremost in all supplier interactions.
- Know and Follow the General Mills Sourcing Strategy
- Supports P2P / Shared Services and all related processes.
- Ensure robust contract and spend compliance, adherence to corporate policies.
- Learn and leverage continuous improvement tools and processes such as but not limited to BPM, SCM, Annual Planning, Inflation Guidance, Total Value tracking and reporting (previous experience with FMCG and relevant knowledge on margin management metrics is needed)
- Challenge existing RACI (right work right place between sourcing and supply chain)
- Actively foster the culture of inclusivity and belonging
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Logistics, Economics or International Traderelated field
- 7 to 10+ years of sourcing experience in Ocean freight or global transportation
- Should have prior experience in working with freight forwarders, carriers, or 3PLs
- Should be familiar with global Incoterms, customs procedures, and trade compliance
- People management experience
- Global freight experience
- Solid experience with contract development and complex negotiations, risk management, market analysis, economic analysis, financial analysis
- Ability to thrive in ambiguity and during times of significant change
- Strong executive communication and interpersonal effectiveness working with global stakeholders
- Strong analytical and decision-making skills
- Experience in negotiating and managing global MSA’s with freight suppliers and relevant KPIS and metrics
- Strong project management, analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
- Agile mindset: the ability to interpret and reinterpret data sets with evolving category strategy in mind – highlighting different insights and opportunities based on stakeholder input.
- Initiative-taker: bias for action with the ability to deliver outstanding results through task prioritization and time management.
- Autonomous
- Result focus and solution oriented
Preferred Qualifications
- Preferred) Master’s degree (MBA) or certification (e.g., APICS, CSCMP, or Six Sigma)
- Proficiency in Transportation Management Systems (TMS) (e.g., SAP TM, ERP systems (e.g., SAP,) & Data analytics tools (e.g., Excel, Power BI, Tableau)
- Strong Knowledge of global shipping lanes, rate structures, and capacity management
- Familiarity with sustainability initiatives and emissions tracking in logistics
