Senior Procurement Manager

SENIOR MANAGER - INDIRECT PROCUREMENT (EUROPE)

Our story goes back more than 150 years, to the chilly southern coast of Scandinavia. From our early success in Sweden and Denmark, we’ve grown into the world’s leading specialist producer of plant-based oils, employing more than 4,000 people across the globe.

We work with our customers to make the products you love even better. The oils we produce go into making your chocolate extra-creamy or putting the crunch into your croissant. And it’s not just food — we work across industries to make products that are higher quality, healthier and better for the planet.

Everything we do is about Making Better Happen™.

AAK Locations
This position is based in our offices in Aarhus (#LI-Hybrid)

About the role
As Senior Manager, you hold overall responsibility for European indirect spend, including MRO and CapEx, driving value creation across multiple categories and business units. You lead a distributed European team of 8, with 5 direct reports, providing strategic direction while actively coaching and sparring with team members on priorities, challenges, and category strategies.
You combine hands-on category ownership with people leadership, working closely with stakeholders across sites and functions to optimize sourcing solutions with a strong focus on total cost of ownership, quality, sustainability, and supplier performance. A key part of the role is building and maintaining a comprehensive supplier and spend overview across all indirect categories, enabling transparency and informed decision-making.
Together with your team, you define and prioritize sourcing initiatives that deliver harmonization and measurable value, leveraging structured category and supplier strategies and leading commercial negotiations at European level. You act as the driving force behind value optimization, ensuring execution across both directly and indirectly managed categories.
You secure cross-functional alignment, provide clarity and governance, and foster engagement across the organization. The ultimate objective is a harmonized and standardized European indirect procurement model that delivers lower costs, improved quality, and enhanced service levels.
In addition, you play a key role in the ongoing development of the European procurement function, contributing to its strategic maturity and long-term success.

Responsibilities
-Develop and implement European category strategies and business plans
-Lead European spend analysis and ongoing category and supplier risk assessments
-Develop and manage the European supplier base in line with quality, cost, and delivery requirements
-Build and maintain strategic supplier relationships; lead commercial negotiations
-Collaborate closely with plants, regions, and business stakeholders across Europe
-Monitor supplier performance and define corrective improvement actions
-Lead and participate in RFPs, tenders, bid evaluations, and cost analyses
-Drive cross-functional projects to deliver category and strategic objectives
-Provide strategic input on group supplier management and risk mitigation
-Drive value creation, harmonization, and continuous improvement across indirect categories

About you
-Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience
-Strong procurement background with ability to manage multiple sourcing projects simultaneously
-Strong analytical skills, including advanced Excel and procurement tools
-Ability to apply theoretical knowledge and experience to practical, value-driven execution
-Experience with should-cost analysis and cost-driver understanding (advantage)
-Solid understanding of procurement processes, methods, and data-driven decision-making
-Expertise in supplier selection, evaluation, and certification; ability to develop and improve tools and documentation
-Proven capability to drive project implementation, training, and follow-up
-Experience in international procurement with strong stakeholder communication skills
-Strong negotiation skills at all organizational levels
-Ability to guide stakeholders in contract management
-Proven leadership and people management skills

Contact and information
Please apply through our career portal. For further information about the position, please contact Sr Talent Acquisition Specialist: Valerija Usova: valerija.usova@aak.com


About AAK
Everything AAK does is about Making Better Happen™. We specialize in plant-based oils that are the value-adding ingredients in many of the products people love to consume. We make these products better tasting, healthier, and more sustainable. At the heart of AAK’s offer is Customer Co-Development, combining our desire to understand what better means for each customer, with the unique flexibility of our production assets, and deep knowledge of many products and industries, including Chocolate and confectionery, Bakery, Dairy, Plant-based Foods, Special Nutrition, Foodservice and Personal Care. Our 4,000 employees support our close collaboration with customers through 25 regional sales offices, 15 dedicated Customer Innovation Centers, and the support of more than 20 production facilities. Listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and with our headquarters in Malmö, Sweden, AAK has been Making Better Happen™ for more than 150 years.

AAK prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, religion, veteran status, and any other class of individuals protected from discrimination under state or federal law in any aspect of the access to, admission, or treatment of students in its programs and activities, or employment and application for employment.

#LI-AAK

Är du nyfiken och gillar du att förbättra och utveckla? Vill du arbete i en internationell organisation som tar ansvar för en hållbar framtid? Då är AAK rätt väg för dig då du kan bli en del av vårt globala team där du utvecklar både dig själv och våra kunders verksamheter.