Director, Category Management - Advanced Materials

Director, Category Management -  Advanced Materials

Position Summary

The Director, Category Management -  Advanced Materials is a strategic leader accountable for owning and executing a comprehensive, forward-looking sourcing and supplier strategy to build a resilient global supplier network and drive innovation and value creation across the Advanced Materials category. The leader will shape ASM’s long-term sourcing roadmap, create leverage, negotiate contracts and ensure cost, quality, and supplier excellence.

As part of ASM’s Global Sourcing leadership team, the Category leader will collaborate closely with Engineering, Operations, Quality, and Business Units to translate business needs into strategic sourcing solutions — enabling ASM to scale globally with resilience, agility, and technological leadership.

ASM utilizes some of the most highly technical materials to enable its leading-edge technologies that drive ASM’s leading innovation and technology. These highly specialized materials categories (quartz, silicon carbide, ceramics, graphite and heating elements) will require a highly technical leader who also possesses commercial acumen.  The categories are highly driven by technological needs and close engagement with key technical leaders.  Additionally, this leader will need to understand full supply chain scope from raw materials through manufacturing and surface treatment. One critical key to long-term success will be partnering to ensure access to technology,

What you will be working on

The Advanced Materials Category leader will be responsible for owning and driving Category and Supplier strategies for Quartz, Graphite, Silicon Carbide, Heaters and E-Chucks and any other exotic materials required.

Architect a Future-Ready Supply Base

• Develop and execute a 3–5 years global category sourcing strategy, ensuring our supplier capabilities are 2-3 years ahead of product introduction.
• Achieve year-over-year total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction through deep technical value engineering, not just negotiation.
• Establish a "Zero-Defect" quality culture with key suppliers, driving toward Six Sigma levels and achieving a >95% OTD for complex, long-lead items.
• Continually evaluate new suppliers that can vertically integrate and scale with ASM. Uplevel the commercial relationships with key partners through Supplier Relationship Management programs that help to deliver long-term value for ASM.

Technical Leadership & Supplier Innovation

• Act as the primary technical authority for your category, leveraging deep expertise to evaluate emerging technologies and supplier capabilities.
• Drive supplier-led innovation, establishing joint development roadmaps that result in the adoption of at least two new technologies or processes per year.
• Champion early supplier involvement in New Product Introduction (NPI), thereby significantly reducing time-to-market.
• Be able to engage engineering and suppliers on technical level discussions on design and opportunities to improve yield, quality and costs.

Team Leadership & Development:

• Build, coach, and develop a high-performing, global sourcing team.
• Foster a culture of excellence and data-driven decision-making, leveraging tools like SAP S/4HANA, Power BI and other analytics tools.
• Achieve high team retention rate through active mentorship and development planning.
• Influence and manage internal stakeholders such as manufacturing, quality, purchasing, planning, business units and finance. Ensure team responsiveness towards supporting cross functional initiatives that relate to continuity of supply, cost management, quality enhancement, lead time reduction, capacity management, etc.

Operational Excellence & Execution

• Own end-to-end supplier relationship management, implementing standardized scorecards and metrics, holding quarterly business reviews (QBRs) and driving continuous improvement.
• Lead cross-functional efficiency programs and improvements to reduce overhead, lead times, liabilities and costs.
• Ensure supply chain resilience by developing and maintaining robust business continuity plans, including second sourcing, raw materials management other relevant potential risks to cover short term and Long-Range-Planning.

What we are looking for

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, engineering, materials science or equivalent degree.
• Minimum of 15 years of progressive strategic sourcing, procurement, or engineering experience in a high-mix, low-volume / high-complexity manufacturing environment (e.g., semiconductor, aerospace, medical devices).
• Proven track record in managing complex global supply chains and categories such as mechanical systems, advanced materials, contract manufacturing, or electrical categories.
• Strong commercial acumen, negotiation skills, and experience managing suppliers across globally.
• Demonstrated leadership in driving sourcing transformation and building high-performing teams.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, technology-driven industry with demanding supply chain challenges.
• Experience using SAP S4/HANA preferred.
• Technical acumen in Advanced Materials categories from: designing or engineering parts; working at a company that manufactured these types of parts or managed this Category or suppliers in this Category.

What sets you apart

• Excellent written and verbal Communication skills. Can clearly and succinctly articulate clear strategies and action plans. Are able to deliver dynamic presentations to share information, drive alignment, update and influence to various levels of audiences.
• Strategic Visionary: You anticipate technological shifts and build supply chains to capitalize on them.
• Influential Leader: You build trust and exert influence at the highest levels, both internally and with supplier executive teams.
• Relentless Problem-Solver: You thrive on solving problems that have no existing solution.
• Business Acumen: You seamlessly translate a technical challenge into its financial and strategic implications for ASM.
• Proactive, entrepreneurial mindset with continuous improvement orientation.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, technology-driven industry with demanding supply chain challenges.