Senior Specialist, Category Management (IT)

Our vision is to provide clean, secure, and affordable energy to the world. This vision underpins our commitment to respond to the world’s shared energy challenges – expanding the global supply of energy, improving our quality of life, and supporting the transition to a lower-carbon future. The energy we make is Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). We began operations in 2016, and we are already the largest producer of LNG in the United States and the second largest LNG operator in the world.

At Cheniere, we provide the world with safe, reliable energy in the form of LNG. But more than that, we provide opportunities for our employees to make an impact on their local communities every day. Our diversity is key to our continued success and forges a path where our culture supports greater equity and inclusion for our employees, customers and beyond.

Cheniere Supply Chain Management (SCM) is shaping our future with a focused transformation program. We are mobilizing to establish an agile and resilient supply chain that is fit to support our company’s growth. The Cheniere SCM team are accountable to support our indirect business partners to create value, mitigate risk and assure security of supply. We are building a team of SCM professionals that not only deliver value today but create a more agile and resilient supply chain for the future.

POSITION OVERVIEW

This is a critical position in a team that supports Cheniere’s Shared Services requirements for Indirect Category contracts predominately Cheniere’s Information Technology (IT) teams (Digital Security, Software Services, Infrastructure).

The position will work closely with business partners to develop and deploy Category Strategies. In doing so, the Senior Specialist will work closely with business partners to source, select, contract, and manage supplier relationships. Additionally, this position will be responsible for integrating new business processes, contracting principles and systems being developed through our SCM transformation.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND ESSENTIAL DUTIES

Stakeholder Management 

• Maintains ownership of business relationships across the businesses.
• Collaborates with business partners to assure their way-of-working is compliant with company compliance, ethics, and delegated authorities.
• Leverages Cheniere’s scale to coordinate business needs with suppliers.
• Acts as the single point of accountability for all spend against their delegated categories.
• Collaborates with other SCM team members to assure work is delivered with quality and on time.
• Supports the Contract Owners in the gathering of performance feedback for effective contractor management.

Shared Services Indirect Category Strategy and Implementation

• Provides current business requirements and incumbent supplier contract input to the development of comprehensive Shared Services Category Strategies.
• Leverages Shared Services Category Strategies to develop and implement Sourcing and Contracting which enable the strategy.
• Implements Shared Services Category Strategies for delegated categories.
• Maintains supplier relationship performance based on Category Strategy expectations.

Strategic Sourcing, Contracts Negotiation, and Shared Services Contract Life Cycle Management 

• Initiates the Supplier Pre-Qualification process for new suppliers working with SCM Supplier Assurance team for assigned Shared Services.
• Develops and ensures Competitive Sourcing Events and Contracting is compliant, timely and delivered in line with the Shared Service Strategic Sourcing Strategy requirements.
• Develops Requests for Proposal (RFPs) utilizing GEP system to consider total cost models to understand value, operating costs, and price impacts on existing budgets working with cross functional business partners. Prepares bid ranking evaluation criteria matrix, RFP packages, Approach to Market (ATM) and Recommendation of Award (ROA) documents in line with SCM Sourcing and Contracting Policy.
• Leads contract negotiations to establish best in class contracts with suppliers to secure best price and risk mitigation for our Shared Service business partners.
• Drafts, evaluates, negotiates, and executes various contract commercial structures working with Legal, Tax, Treasury, HSE, and Insurance functions.
• Ensures timely delivery of Shared Services Contract Agreements in support of Company’s safe, reliable, and competitive operations requirements.
• Implements and maintains post contract award awareness of supplier activity requirements.
• Ensures contractual records and documentation and contract correspondence maintained and logged into the appropriate systems.
• Supports the Delivery Purchasing team in the creation of Contract Purchase Agreements (CPA’s) and Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA’s / Outline Agreements) in Oracle P2P system in line with Contract Agreement Negotiations.

IT Procurement

• Proficiency in IT procurement processes, including contractor selection, RFIs/RFPs, Demos, complex evaluation process, and contract performance monitoring.
• SaaS and Cloud Agreements: Experience in negotiating and managing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) agreements, cloud-based contracts, ensuring compliance, scalability, and data security.
• Digital Security, testing, prevention, data breach emergency response planning, and all other related digital services requirements.

Telecommunications Contracts

• Knowledge of telecommunications contracts, including service level agreements (SLAs), network connectivity, bandwidth requirements, and related terms and conditions.

The Senior Specialist is also responsible for:

• Integrates and works collaboratively with business partners in the delegated categories.
• Develops and leads Shared Services Strategic Sourcing Events in support of Category Management Strategies by working with cross functional Shared Services teams.
• Delivers the selection of suppliers for Indirect Categories.
• Engages with Supplier Assurance, Purchasing Delivery team, and business partners to deliver strategies to meet business needs and supply market capability.
• Manages direct Contract Agreement Negotiations working with Legal, Insurance, Treasury and Risk Management functions.
• Implements Contract Agreements working with the Purchasing Delivery team and Share Services businesses.
• Develops and leads supplier performance reviews meeting with Shared Service business partners.
• Manage Shared Services commercial contract life cycle requirements for assigned Category Agreements.
• The duties and responsibilities described are not a comprehensive list and additional tasks may be assigned to the employee from time to time; or the scope of the job may change as necessitated by business demands.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

• General understanding of LNG or Oil & Gas plant and pipeline experience.
• General knowledge of select Indirect Category and Strategic Sourcing Strategies.
• Advanced knowledge of purchasing implementation processes.
• Hands-on experience with Sourcing, Contract Agreement Negotiation for Indirect Service contract provisions, commercial terms, and contract life cycle management.
• Hands-on experience with competitive source-to-contract events and purchase to pay systems i.e. Oracle, SAP, GEP, Coupa, JDE, etc.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Education and Certifications:

• A bachelor’s degree in supply chain management or related business

Experience:

• A minimum of five (5) years’ hands on experience with sourcing, competitive bidding, RFP development, bid evaluation, selection, contracting and purchasing.

DIRECT REPORTS

• None

WORK CONDITIONS

• Physical Area: Our Houston office is located in the heart of downtown and we offer free parking or a metro ticket to get here. With all corporate teams at the same location, there’s always a buzz around the office. You’ll have dedicated desk space and plenty of human interaction.
• Facilities and hardware: Our offices are modern, bright, and designed to foster collaboration. You’ll have access to great IT equipment and support and can readily access the downtown tunnels, restaurants, and gyms. You may occasionally need to travel to our sites at Sabine Pass and Corpus Christy and those sites are governed by FTZ regulations which does include drug and alcohol testing.
• Working conditions: Cheniere is committed to improving the wellbeing of our employees and while you may on occasion need to work outside usual working hours, we aspire to provide a good work life balance for all.
• Company culture: So, what’s the culture like at Cheniere? It’s our values — teamwork, respect, accountability, integrity, nimbleness, and safety — at work. We’re happy when we hear employees say we have a great culture. But we’re not satisfied with building a great culture, we’re endeavoring to build the best culture.

ADA JOB REQUIREMENTS

Reasonable accommodation will be made to ensure that the essential functions of the job can be performed and not hinder the employee’s performance due to physical, mental, or emotional disability.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Cheniere Energy is an equal opportunity workplace. All employment decisions are made without regard to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, marital or veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other legally protected categories. This includes providing reasonable accommodation if requested for disabilities or religious beliefs and practices.