Manager Procurement Center of Excellence (m/f/d)

Join the world leader in advanced energy storage solutions and be part of the success story of VARTA®!

Power Your Future with Clarios and explore your endless possibilities with us. As part of our team in Hannover, our Headquarters location, you will contribute to shaping the future of sustainable mobility.

Your contribution

• The Manager Procurement Center of Excellence (CoE) is a strategic role within Clarios EMEA Procurement, responsible for driving procurement process excellence and continuous improvement. The role leads the analysis, design, development, implementation, and monitoring of end‑to‑end procurement processes to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and automation, in alignment with Clarios’ cross‑divisional business strategy and global process objectives.

• Acting as a central liaison between project teams, stakeholders, and internal customers, the role ensures strong collaboration, clear communication, and alignment of initiatives across multiple workstreams. It supports the development and rollout of procurement policies and process standards and ensures that initiatives are consistently governed, scalable, and business‑focused.

• As the owner of the strategic transformation pillar “Process” within the Clarios EMEA Procurement Transformation Strategy, the role defines the process roadmap, prioritizes initiatives based on business impact, and ensures alignment with global process frameworks. It coordinates cross‑functional stakeholders, ensures appropriate resource and capability planning, and oversees procurement‑related projects including systems, automation, and process‑driven CAPEX initiatives. Through this role, the Manager Procurement CoE ensures sustainable execution of the transformation agenda and contributes to building a future‑ready, high‑performing procurement organization.

What you will do

• Identifies, together with internal stakeholders, opportunities to improve procurement processes with the objective to increase efficiency, transparency, and automation across Clarios EMEA.

• Leads the analysis, design, development, implementation, execution, and continuous monitoring of procurement processes to enhance overall process effectiveness and efficiency, in alignment with Clarios’ cross divisional business strategy and global standards.

• Owns and safeguards end to end procurement process excellence within the region, ensuring consistent application of best practices, policies, and governance frameworks.

• Drives and embeds a strong customer centric mindset within Clarios EMEA Procurement by fostering close collaboration with internal customers and stakeholders and ensuring procurement processes are aligned with business needs.

• Leads the strategic transformation pillar “Process” within the Clarios EMEA Procurement Transformation Strategy, working in close collaboration with the respective pillar stakeholders and cross functional partners.

• Ensures appropriate resource planning, capacity management, and qualification of teams involved in process related initiatives and transformation projects.

• Oversees procurement related CAPEX initiatives connected to processes, systems, and automation, including business case support, prioritization, governance, and execution oversight.

• Defines, maintains, and enforces procurement process KPIs and PPIs to measure performance, drive continuous improvement, and ensure transparency of process outcomes.

• Ensures integrity, consistency, and compliance of procurement process designs with the Global Business Process Template and supports regional and global process harmonization initiatives (e.g., Unity).

• Acts as key interface between Procurement, IT, and transformation teams to deliver sustainable, automated, and scalable process solutions.

• Reviews and audits procurement process designs and performance against defined standards, performance targets, and compliance requirements, including support of internal and external audits.

• Reports process and project status, risks, and improvement opportunities to procurement leadership and escalates deviations or challenges as required.

• Provides subject matter expertise on existing and future procurement processes, evaluates external best practices, and assesses feasibility of potential process enhancements.

• Supports governance processes by contributing to gate reviews, providing sign off recommendations, and managing change requests related to procurement processes.

• Performs additional tasks and responsibilities related to procurement process excellence and transformation as assigned.

What makes you a good fit
Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

• Professional certification in project or process management (e.g., PMP, Lean, Six Sigma) is preferred.

Professional Experience

• Solid years of professional experience (preferable in Procurement or Supply Chain), with a strong focus on process excellence, transformation, and strategic initiatives.

• Proven experience in a manufacturing environment, preferably within automotive or industrial manufacturing.

• Profound knowledge of end‑to‑end procurement processes and their integration within relevant Clarios functional process areas.

Technical / Hard Skills

• Demonstrated experience in process analysis, redesign, and optimization using structured methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, or comparable continuous improvement frameworks.

• Strong analytical capabilities with a clear process and data orientation, including the ability to translate business requirements into scalable process and system solutions.

• Strong experience with ERP and procurement systems (e.g., SAP) from a key‑user / process owner perspective.

• High proficiency in MS Office and project‑related tools, including the ability to leverage Microsoft Copilot, Power Automate, and effective prompting techniques to support automation, process optimization, reporting, and efficiency improvements.

Soft Skills

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across different hierarchical levels, functions, and regions.

• Strong customer‑centric mindset, with the ability to recognize, anticipate, and respond to internal customer expectations with a sense of urgency.

• Proven ability to take ownership, make decisions, and drive initiatives to completion within defined timelines.

• Very good negotiation, influencing, and presentation skills.

Language Requirements
Confident command of English and German, both written and verbal.
 

What we offer you

As a technology leader with strong brand (i.e. VARTA® and OPTIMA®), Clarios notably lives on the creativity, capability and satisfaction of its employees. Therefore, we offer people with drive and power many good reasons to join us: 

• Exciting professional tasks and challenges in a diverse international environment with strong commitment to integrity, values, social engagement and sustainability.

• Arrange your working hours and breaks flexible via our flexible and trust-based working hours model and combine your professional and private life even better according to our mobile work policy and company kindergarten.

• A competitive remuneration package, including additional payments such as holiday, Christmas as well as company pension scheme.

• Your well-being is very important to us: Take advantage of our preventive health care offers such as fitness center, physiotherapist, modern office environment, healthy canteen, team and company events or hobby clubs.

• Stay fit whilst at the same time positively contributing to our environment: Lease your company bike.

• Our well-advanced onboarding process and buddy program supports you to quickly grow into the position and team. By using the offering in our Internal Learning Academy, LinkedIn Learning and EMEA Mentoring Program you will be able to further grow professionally and personally.

• Last, but not least we support you in relocating and finding a flat in location surrounding if appliable and depending on individual factors.

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About Clarios:

Clarios is the global leader in advanced, low-voltage battery technologies for mobility. Our batteries and smart solutions power nearly every type of vehicle and are found in 1 of 3 cars on the road today. With around 18,000 employees in over 100 countries, we bring deep expertise to our Aftermarket and OEM partners, and reliability, safety and comfort to everyday lives. We answer to the planet with a rigorous sustainability focus – advancing best-in-class sustainability practices and advocating for them across our industry. We work to ensure 100% of our products sold are recyclable, and we recycle 8,000 batteries an hour in our network. You can find more information here (PDF). 

To all recruitment agencies: Clarios does not accept unsolicited agency resumes/CVs. Please do not forward resumes/CVs to our careers email addresses, Clarios employees or any other company location. Clarios is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes/CVs.

Clarios, LLC is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, status as a qualified individual with a disability, or any other characteristic protected by law. For more information, please view EEO is the Law, EEO is the Law (supplement), and Pay Transparency Non-discrimination. If you are an individual with a disability and you require an accommodation during the application process, please email Special.Accommodations@Clarios.com.

A Note to Job Applicants: please be aware of scams being perpetrated through the Internet and social media platforms. Clarios will never require a job applicant to pay money as part of the application or hiring process.