Market Category Specialist, Capex (East Africa)

Diageo is a global leader in premium alcoholic beverages. Its East African subsidiary, East African Breweries PLC (EABL), is a prominent producer of beer, spirits, and non-alcoholic drinks across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

The Procurement team at Diageo is dedicated to maximizing its annual spend, building premium quality brands, and fostering sustainable value and growth. This team drives end-to-end value across the supply chain and develops innovative supplier solutions, contributing to the company's sustainability goals. The role supports the category lead in strategy refinement, focusing on performance and spend insights, and leads or assists in executing key strategic projects, particularly large Capital projects and Utilities CapEx, with opportunities to engage across all spend areas. It also involves supporting risk management activities, conducting market risk assessments, and collaborating with in-market teams to share supplier performance data and develop improvement plans.

1. Work with internal partners to ensure RFPs focus on key business and commercial outcomes.
2. Develop best-in-class market data, knowledge, category strategies, and sourcing events following Diageo standards.
3. Collaborate with business partners to ensure sourcing exercises achieve required outcomes while managing risks and assuring program value.
4. Cultivate relationships with stakeholders, partners, and suppliers for deeper insights into needs and capabilities.
5. Generate insights and opportunities from internal and external benchmarking, develop cost models, and build analytics capabilities for strategy review and improvement.
6. Support the development of category strategies by capturing business requirements, analyzing market dynamics, and assessing opportunities.
7. Develop and implement sourcing strategies to support sustainability targets.
8. Plan, prepare, and apply negotiation toolkits for sourcing projects, supporting contract negotiation and management.
9. Provide data inputs for risk management activities.
10. Apply and improve Procurement best practice standards.
11. Utilize supplier relationship management frameworks to assess performance, identify improvements, and build action plans.
12. Develop the supply base to support sustainability targets and collaborate with suppliers for breakthrough opportunities.
13. Establish standards and trusted relationships with global and regional suppliers to ensure strong performance and issue resolution.

1. Graduate or equivalent qualification, and membership of a professional body like CIPS.
2. Minimum of 3 years of experience in CapEx Procurement.
3. Strong analytical and financial awareness, including understanding financial goals and value drivers.
4. Technically literate with a proven track record of successful system usage.
5. Excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills, along with strong interpersonal skills.
6. Proven track record of consistent performance and delivery.
7. Strong background in category management, sourcing, and relationship management.
8. Ability to engage and collaborate effectively with technical teams.
9. Capability to work with in-market teams to share insights and best practices.
10. Aptitude for completing Pan-regional and global sourcing exercises with multiple business partners, including analysis, recommendation, and securing business alignment.
11. Ability to work with regional teams in executing sourcing recommendations and ongoing supplier performance management.