Strategic Sourcing Specialist

Description

Find Your Career With LiftOne

We’re a family-owned company under our third generation of leadership and have built our business based on the principles of trust, integrity and a desire to help our customers and employees succeed.

LiftOne invests in people, facilities and innovative technology as part of the essential role we play in supporting our country’s supply chain and enabling critical goods to be delivered to homes and businesses. We’re a privately held company, and pair our scale with a strong foundation in our culture and values. This combination gives us a competitive advantage in the market and helps make us a trailblazing organization that is built to last.

We’re looking for hard-working, team-oriented professionals who enjoy working on new challenges every day. We believe our employees are the key to our success, and we’re committed to providing a work experience that helps our team grow to their full potential. We offer great benefits, competitive salaries and opportunities for advancement to all our employees.

Be a part of the essential work we do at LiftOne and make a difference for our customers, our community and our company. Learn more about what it means to become a team member with LiftOne.

Summary

The Strategic Sourcing Specialist is a highly analytical, commercially impactful role at LiftOne responsible for optimizing supplier partnerships and driving long-term enterprise value. This role is new to the organization and will go beyond basic cost reductions—focusing deeply on total cost of ownership (TCO) enhancements, vendor performance levels, pricing models and incentives, and consolidation strategies that align with LiftOne’s procurement and business objectives. The Specialist will partner closely with tactical purchasing buyers, field operations personnel, inventory control teams, and sales & account managers to ensure sourcing strategies that deliver enhanced cost savings, value and improvement levers, and risk mitigation for LiftOne’s supply chain.

Essential Functions

• Strategic Sourcing & TCO Analysis
  • Develop and deliver measurable direct procurement sourcing strategy targets grounded in total cost of ownership (e.g., price, logistics, payment terms, quality, service, risk, and lifecycle cost) for materials handling categories that include Tires & Tire Service; Motive Power (Batteries & Chargers); OEM Aftermarket Parts; Specialty Attachments; and MRO & Consumables.
  • Lead end-to-end sourcing events, including gathering requirements and benchmarking analysis, RFx procedures, vendor performance evaluations, and sourcing/contract awards.
  • Identify and implement value-based opportunities for vendor consolidations where gainful and define stratification logic to optimize vendor allocations to drive economies of scale across 21 network locations.
• Vendor Performance & Compliance
  • Lead development of center-led procurement vendor performance scorecard tool to support cadenced QBRs and to measure KPIs, including but not limited to: OTIF, OTD, qualitative controls, cost competitiveness, and SAP Auto-PO adoption rates.
  • Partner with LiftOne vendors to drive corrective action plans, continuous improvement enhancements, and performance-based business and rebate incentives.
  • Conduct and lead structured vendor reviews to align and maximize scorecard KPIs with LiftOne’s overall operational and financial goals.
• Cost Avoidance & Value Creation
  • Develop sourcing models that quantify hidden cost drivers such as logistics, warranty risk, downtime exposure, and supplier payment terms.
  • Negotiate flexible agreements to mitigate inflationary pressure, including index-based pricing, caps/floors, or commodity hedging where appropriate.
  • Identify opportunities to standardize SKUs and specifications across branches to lower complexity and holding cost.
  • Introduce gainsharing and performance-based rebate programs that reward suppliers for efficiency, quality, or service improvements.
  • Quantify and report on cost avoidance achieved through early supplier engagement, proactive escalation management, and risk-mitigation tactics.
• Consolidation & Category Strategy
  • Lead vendor rationalization and consolidation projects among direct procurement categories, ensuring an optimal balance between leverage and supply continuity. Also, drive accountability within the purchasing team by setting performance expectations and conducting regular KPI reviews with Buyers.
  • Support long-term vendor partnerships while balancing cost-advantageous OEM sources against competitive aftermarket alternatives.
• Systems & Enablement
  • Leverage SAP S/4HANA and BI tools (Power BI, Fiori reports, Etc.) to ensure sourcing strategies are executed through data-driven governance.
  • Partner with Tactical Buyers, Procurement Analyst, and Inventory Control specialists to ensure sourcing strategies cascade into day-to-day operations.
  • Develop sourcing templates, playbooks, and frameworks to standardize best practices across categories.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities

This role will has no supervisory responsibilities.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualifying individuals to perform the essential functions.

Education and/or Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business Administration, or Analytics is required.
• At least 4-7 years of deep expertise or a progressively demonstrated success in procurement, sourcing, or category management.
• Experience in material handling, industrial equipment, capital goods, or adjacent sectors (MRO, aftermarket parts, manufacturing) strongly preferred.
• ERP experience preferred; SAP S4/Hana a plus.
• Familiarity with Procure-to-Pay (PTP/P2P)
• Strong problem solving and communication skills.
• Collaborative work environment mindset.
• Strong analytical capabilities with proficiency in data visualization tools; Power BI strongly preferred.
• Ability to work under pressure effectively and professionally, in a team-oriented environment, with frequent changes in deadlines and priorities.
• Adaptability and resilience in a growing, evolving procurement business unit.
• Proficiency using Microsoft Office including Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.?

Workplace Requirements

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical Demands

While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to climb or balance; stoop, bend, kneel, crouch, or crawl and taste or smell. The employee must frequently lift, carry, push, pull and /or otherwise move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. Employee must operate equipment in a safe manner.

Work Environment

While performing the duties of this Job, depending on site location, the employee may be exposed to moving mechanical parts and equipment. The employee may occasionally be exposed to high, precarious places, fumes or airborne particles; outside weather conditions and vibration. The employee may occasionally be exposed to wet and/or humid conditions; toxic or caustic chemicals; extreme cold; extreme heat and risk of electrical shock. The noise level in some work environments is occasionally loud.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer

We require all employees to treat all our employees and candidates as equals. All personnel actions are conducted in the spirit of equal employment. We’re committed to recruit, train, promote and retain associates without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identification and expression, national origin, marital status, age, disability, genetic information, military status, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by applicable local, state or federal laws.

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EEO/AA Employer. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.