Vice President of Supply Chain - BAE Systems Inc.

Job Description
The Vice President of Supply Chain for BAE Systems, Inc. (aka Inc.) provides Supply Chain proactive thought leadership, program development and insight specifically for the Supply Chain function in support of the Inc business. Acts as a key partner to continue to evolve strategy and goals related to Procurement, demand planning, Sales & Operational planning, Supply Chain master data management, and Transportation and Logistics with the main objective of ensuring the function supports the Company's strategic goals while increasing the impact and capability of the function. The role significantly impacts operating cost, working capital, and risk for a business with $8B+ in annual spend commitments, 17,000 suppliers, supporting 20+ operating sites globally, and strong focus on functional development for 3000+ employees.

The role reports to the (Global) Chief Supply Chain Officer, a member of the BAE Systems, Inc. Senior Leadership Team and Global Supply Chain Leadership Team, chairs the Inc. Supply Chain Council, and is a member of the Global Supply Chain Council.

Key accountabilities include:

• Developing and driving implementation of a multi-faceted functional strategy and governance for the Inc. business; collaborating with other home markets to maximize enterprise value.
• Drives the assurance of a robust Supply Chain Risk Management approach and program across Inc. and aligns as agreed with opportunities to leverage best practices with Group efforts in the same area.
• Chairs the Inc. Supply Chain Council leading the alignment of key policies, procedures and projects leveraging best practices across Inc. When applicable, in conjunction with executives and operational leaders will lead efforts to align Supply Chain resource intensive technologies including the development of multi-year technology/tool roadmap related to supply chain.
• Partners cross functionally (ex. other Council chairs) to implement and lead business processes to deliver against all organizational objectives, including achieving targets pertaining to Supply Chain.
• Driving functional excellence and talent development; leveraging best practices globally to deliver improved capability and outcomes year-over-year.
• Plays a key role in driving best practice deployment and utilization across Inc. as it relates to common functional processes including procurement, material planning, warehousing, and transportation/logistics.
• Works with the Sector Supply Chain/procurement leaders (including Enterprise Shared Services), and global category directors to coordinate supplier purchases and long-term agreements to optimize enterprise leverage and relationships.
• Acts as a thought leader for system-wide supply chain strategy, policies, procedures; monitors key performance indicators, analyzes performance data, and coordinates cross-functional teams to increase effectiveness of supply chain initiatives where leverage opportunities exist across multiple sectors.
• Acts as an Inc. representative on external Industry forums related to Supply Chain and Procurement, ex. AIA Supplier Management Council.
• Is an acting member of the Inc. Senior Leadership Team and actively participates in functional performance reviews, Quarterly Business Reviews, Requests for Bid Authorization and Program Performance Reviews as the functional lead for Inc.
• Takes a strategic leadership role with identified critical Inc. wide and/or global suppliers as part of expanding BAE Systems Supplier Relationship Management.
• Working with Sector functional leads (including Enterprise Shared Services) to proactively ensure proper controls are in-place related to the Finance Control Framework and that we are driving improvements in tools, processes and measures to track year-over-year improvements in audit outcomes.

DESCRIPTION AND STATUS OF THE PROGRAM:

• The Inc. Vice president of Supply Chain will support the Business Leaders, Supply Chain VP/Directors, and global Chief Supply Chain Officer to continue this transformation, working with and through the Supply Chain organizations across the company. Due to the complexity of the various businesses, a key and critical requirement for this position is the ability to effectively foster change across an indirect, matrixed and geographically diverse functional organization.
• The role will continue the Company's evolution in best practice supply chain capabilities and organizational development to better leverage our global scale as well as sponsoring, supporting and driving identification and evolution of best practices for: procurement, material planning, warehousing, and transportation/logistics. This includes driving towards a standard job architecture, role specific training, and process standardization (where applicable), development of toolkits to deliver a lower cost to serve and higher consistency of outcomes and shaping a digital strategy enabling resource optimization and a strategic focus across the function. Consistent with obligations and the needs of the various businesses, sourcing strategies should adopt a more global or regional perspective to enhance our leverage with major suppliers and to improve the overall effectiveness of the Company's supply chain. Working collaboratively with operations and business unit leadership, the role will support engagements with strategic suppliers in key markets, bringing deep experience and outstanding negotiations skills to help the wider enterprise achieve its business objectives, enhance existing best practices, and adapt to new best practices and capabilities.

Functional Strategy:

• Implement the strategic framework and play a key role in influencing functional priorities for the Inc. Supply Chain function. Responsible for building the Inc. five-year functional roadmap in collaboration with the sectors and aligned with other home markets to ensure alignment of priorities and investments to fulfill business requirements and ensure sustainability within the extended supply chain.
• Deliver functional goals and objectives as agreed upon annually and in support of the five-year roadmap. Examples include year over year savings, supplier performance, working capital, and industrialization/offset.
• Provides people leadership for a direct team of six supply chain leaders and their extended teams as well as matrixed leadership of four sector supply chain leaders.

Functional Excellence:

• Lead through influence across the enterprise and gain sector support to drive supply chain initiatives
• Collaborate with sector leadership to establish a supply chain technology roadmap, propose investments supported by a sound business case, and secure funding for deployment.
• Develop, enhance and share best-practice process frameworks to foster increased efficiency across the Supply Chain, including supplier accreditation, material planning, inbound transportation, and warehousing.
• Develop and implement functional training programs to enhance the skills, knowledge, and competency of the supply chain function personnel, including training development and knowledge management capabilities, leveraging internally and externally available content, aligned wherever agreed with a broader group approach to further leverage investments, delivering a differentiated career development experience for Supply Chain personnel across BAE Systems.
• Sponsor and continuously advance the cultivation of supply chain leadership by lifting the current and rising supply chain leadership talent across the enterprise through well-established leadership development programs.
• Ensure resource optimization and efficiency through harmonized processes and the deployment of advanced technologies
• Effectively aggregate data and drive data integrity measures to empower sector leadership and the enterprise with informed decision making
• Support and deliver Group-level cost reduction opportunities, especially with global strategic suppliers
• Identify potential supply chain risks and support mitigation initiatives, including development of alternative sources, and the effective deployment of digital supply chain risk management tools
• Facilitate collaboration across sectors to leverage strategic relationships, where appropriate, to maximize potential cost savings
• Assess the health and performance of the Supply Chain sub-functions against agreed industry benchmarks and scorecards
• Identify areas for functional continuous improvement, including internal customer satisfaction further advancement of supply chain principles (example: supplier development, supplier performance, and supplier relationship management)
• Raise the profile of the Supply Chain function across the enterprise through effective and proven value contribution

Required Education, Experience, & Skills

BUSINESS EXPERTISE:

• Awareness of and ability to handle organizational structure and to lead through influence
• Experience and demonstrated success of fostering change across an indirect, matrixed and geographically diverse functional organization
• Proven senior leader with a deep procurement and Supply Chain functional background having led large team(s) with both strategic and operational execution within their accountabilities.
• Ability to lead initiatives across the enterprise or in support of sector initiatives and flex ideas/concepts appropriately depending on business needs.
• Ability to work with and influence a broad range of people with diverse backgrounds and expertise across key functional areas.
• Ability to think innovatively in developing and enhancing best practice process and digital tool frameworks that comply with applicable security obligations
• Experience influencing across organizations at the senior management level and team level.
• Strong team building, leadership and mentoring skills showing evidence of building a deep bench of talent.
• Experience with explaining complicated details in a clear manner and with a strong executive presence.
• Experience with effectively presenting information to top management, public groups and boards of directors.
• Strong facilitation, project management and presentation skills.
• Significant experience in industrial defense settings and across a global landscape
• Experience in commercial market verticals desirable

FUNCTIONAL KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED:

• Proven ability to achieve significant cost savings across multiple categories of spend and processes
• Extensive knowledge of contractual terms and conditions; contract law and latest trends within a supply chain setting
• In-depth knowledge of Supply Chain, with emphasis on Sourcing and procurement principles, as well as best practices in planning and other key supply chain areas.
• Experience with source-to-pay digital toolsets, enterprise resource planning systems, supply chain risk management principles and tools, and contract life cycle management.
• Familiarity with relevant legislative and regulatory requirements within an aerospace and defense environment to enable and ensure compliance Bachelor's degree in supply chain, business management, or economics/finance and 20 years of leadership experience in supply chain management, economics, finance, operations, engineering or a related area, with a Master's degree in a related field preferred.
• Role requires travel of at least 25% of the working year
• M&A functional integration experience desired
• Superior communication skills both written and oral
• Strong working knowledge of digital applications with an emphasis on the Microsoft Office Suite

LEADERSHIP: PEOPLE MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS:

• Driving strategy execution and shareholder value creation - understanding how decisions and actions drive BAE Systems' strategic actions and impact shareholder value
• Communicating an inspiring vision - communicating a clear vision for the future and inspiring commitment to the long-term goals of the supply chain function and BAE Systems, including strengthening the supply chain function's capability to meet future challenges and successfully support the sector goals and objectives.
• Fostering long-term partnerships - creating successful partnerships that balance the long-term relationship with strategic financial outcomes
• Company-wide influencing - Building coalitions both internally and externally, drawing on a broad and diverse range of senior stakeholders. Understanding and using group dynamics to achieve specific outcomes for the greater good of the Company
• Developing Company-wide talent - Making balanced and objective assessments of people's leadership capability and development needs of teams. Creating a clear picture of the senior talent pipeline, looking both inside the business and externally to obtain the capabilities required to deliver the strategy

About BAE Systems, Inc.
BAE Systems, Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of BAE Systems plc, an international defense, aerospace and security company which delivers a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, security, information technology solutions and customer support services. Improving the future and protecting lives is an ambitious mission, but it's what we do at BAE Systems. Working here means using your passion and ingenuity where it counts - defending national security with breakthrough technology, superior products, and intelligence solutions. As you develop the latest technology and defend national security, you will continually hone your skills on a team-making a big impact on a global scale. At BAE Systems, you'll find a rewarding career that truly makes a difference.

This position will be posted for at least 5 calendar days. The posting will remain active until the position is filled, or a qualified pool of candidates is identified.