Global Category Manager – Engineering & Equipment

At Nijhuis Saur Industries (NSI), part of the Saur Group, you help shape the future of water. As a global leader in sustainable solutions, we transform, reuse, protect water and give it the value it deserves.

Drive Global Category Management for Industrial Water Projects

We are looking for a strategic and hands-on Category Manager – Engineering & Equipment to strengthen our Global Supply Chain team.

In this role, you will drive strategic sourcing and category management across materials, components, and services supporting industrial water projects—from engineering and manufacturing to lifecycle services. You will ensure a resilient, digitally enabled supply base aligned with business goals and ESG priorities.

By leveraging market insights, supplier partnerships, and digital tools, you will optimize cost, quality, and innovation—delivering measurable value across the end-to-end supply chain while collaborating closely with global and regional stakeholders.

This role is preferably based in Doetinchem (Headquarter in the Netherlands), with flexibility across the Netherlands or other European locations. We offer a hybrid working model with regular on-site collaboration.

Reporting directly to the Global Supply Chain Director with close collaboration with international teams across NSI.

Key responsibilities:

Category strategy & management

• Develop and execute category strategies across engineered systems, industrial solutions, manufacturing, and life cycle services.

• Perform market analysis, benchmarking, and risk assessments to drive cost optimization, supplier innovation, and resilience.

• Align category strategies with engineering, operations, project execution, and life cycle service requirements.

• Analyze market trends to develop category strategies and influence sourcing decisions.

Supplier relationship & development

• Source, Select, develop, and monitor suppliers for quality, performance, innovation, and sustainability.

• Foster strategic partnerships to enable circular economy initiatives, water reuse solutions, and advanced technology adoption.

• Lead contract negotiations, contract management and regular Supplier Performance Evaluation sessions using performance KPI’s, to enhance supplier performances.

Digital & data-driven procurement

• Utilize digital procurement platforms (ERP, SRM, AI analytics, Market Intelligence) for strategy setting, spend visibility, demand forecasting, and risk mitigation.

• Drive data-informed decisions and predictive insights to optimize category performance.

Cost optimization & financial management

• Deliver measurable and sustained cost savings across direct spend categories (mechanical process equipment, electrical, instrumentation, chemicals and filtration equipment) and meet or exceed annual savings targets.

• Apply Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) principles for sustainable cost reductions.

• Identify and execute cost reduction initiatives such as supplier sourcing, supplier consolidation, volume bundling, contract renegotiation, and process standardization.

• Lead strategic sourcing initiatives to unlock competitive pricing and improved commercial terms.

Compliance, QHSE & ESG

• Ensure supplier adherence to NSI’s QHSE standards and ethical sourcing policies.

• Integrate sustainability and ESG principles in sourcing decisions, including CO₂ footprint evaluation, local sourcing, and circular economy practices.

Collaboration & cross-functional influence

• Serve as the category expert across regions, influencing engineering, operations, manufacturing, project management, and life cycle services teams.

• Provide insights, best practices, and recommendations to regional and global supply chain leadership.

Key requirements:

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in supply chain, engineering, or business administration.

• 5–8 years of procurement/category management experience in industrial, engineered solutions, or water sectors.

• Proven experience in supplier development, strategic sourcing, and cross-functional collaboration.

• Strong understanding of equipment and technical categories (e.g. pumps, valves, instrumentation)

• Proven experience delivering cost savings and negotiating supplier contracts

• Knowledge of digital procurement tools, supply chain analytics, QHSE standards, and sustainability practices.

• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills

• Hands-on, practical, and results-driven approach

• Fluent in English; additional European languages are an advantage

Why Join Us?

• Work on impactful global water projects

• Shape and build global category strategies

• High visibility and influence across the business

• International and collaborative environment

Compensation & Contract

Salary range: €80,000 – €95,000 gross per year, plus comprehensive benefits, offered on a permanent contract.

Additional Information

This job description represents only the primary areas of responsibility; specific position assignments will vary depending on the needs of the department. Performs other duties of similar nature and level assigned.

To perform the job successfully, an individual must be able to execute each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable adjustments may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Are you a recruiter?

Please refrain from calling or emailing us unless we have contacted you first. We intend to find our new colleagues ourselves, therefore agency support is not required. Any Profiles and resumes sent unsolicited by agencies, even if sent directly to a hiring manager, will be treated as direct applications from the candidate.

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