WHAT DOES A GLOBAL COMMODITY MANAGER DO?
Published: Apr 25, 2025 – The Global Commodity Manager develops and implements global category strategies to drive cost savings through detailed analysis, supplier consolidation, and strategic sourcing initiatives. This position collaborates across supply chain and project management functions to ensure execution, monitor market trends, and manage supplier performance for continuous improvement. The manager also establishes supplier partnerships, negotiates global agreements, and maintains competitive intelligence to support procurement objectives in quality, cost, and delivery.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Global Commodity Manager
1. Global Commodity Manager Essential Functions
- Supplier Relationship Management: Directly manage supplier relationships for assigned commodities in the Americas region
- Procurement Strategy Development: Develop and execute procurement strategies and optimize total supplier performance (cost, quality, delivery, and technology)
- Risk Management: Manage the risk associated with assigned commodities
- Cost Management: Drive productivity initiatives with suppliers to assure inflation mitigation and recovery
- Data Analysis: Manage and execute all data collection, validation, analysis, and negotiation activities related to assigned commodities
- Market Analysis: Perform competitive analysis, industry benchmark, and opportunity assessment for assigned commodities
- Continuous Improvement: Drive Value Added, Value Engineering (VAVE), and continuous improvement initiatives in the supply chain through assigned commodity management
- Contract Negotiation: Lead the negotiation and management of strategic supplier contracts, along with the approval/change process
- Compliance Monitoring: Monitor and report compliance with commodity contracts and strategy
- Supplier Evaluation: Structure ongoing supplier assessment and performance review meetings
- Strategy Evaluation: Monitor the effectiveness of the strategy, and adjust when appropriate
- Quality Audit Support: Support Global Supplier Quality management on audits and assessments of new and existing suppliers
2. Global Commodity Manager Additional Details
- Commodity Strategy Development: Define the global commodity strategy and develop a supply base to fill the supply base gap
- Team Management: Manage a team of experienced Global Commodity Segment Leaders
- Supply Chain Risk Management: Manage supply chain risks and align contracts, and review exception requests in line with procurement strategy
- Cost Reduction Responsibility: Be responsible for reaching the annual cost reduction based on the company's target
- Supplier Relationship Development: Develop long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with strategic suppliers and investigate risk-sharing aspects
- Cost Reduction Initiatives: Drive cost reduction activities to generate significant savings in the commodity
- Contract Negotiation Management: Manage and supervise negotiations of the main key commercial terms and contractual deals
- Global Coordination: Coordinate among different regional locations globally to ensure the sharing of the best supply-chain practices
- Supplier Performance Review: Conduct annual supplier performance review meetings or management review meetings with key suppliers in the commodity
- Project Support: Support new customer projects through quotes and Bill of Materials analysis
- Supplier Selection: Responsible for supplier selection on a commodity basis and working with the buyers to implement these sourcing decisions
- Concept Development Contribution: Use professional concepts to contribute to the development of company concepts and principles and to achieve objectives in creative and effective ways
3. Global Commodity Manager Details and Accountabilities
- Cross-Functional Alignment: Build multi-functional alignment with Hardware and Mechanical engineering
- Sourcing Strategy Identification: Identify commodity sourcing strategies with the supply base able to meet NVIDIA business segment requirements for Boards and System Supply Chain
- Supplier Relationship Management: Develop and lead supplier relationships and conduct business reviews that improve suppliers' value, performance, and account investments through aligned roadmaps
- Contract Negotiation: Negotiate Master Service Agreement, cost reduction strategies, and maintain lead-time, cost systems, and split of business decisions
- Supply Assurance Management: Accountable for component supply assurance and inventory flexibility programs that improve flexibility and minimize liabilities
- Risk Management: Deliver a supplier risk management system, BOM risk reduction solutions, materials risk mitigation strategies, and maintain data integrity to ensure supply resiliency
- Supplier Rationalization: Rationalize and reduce the number of components and suppliers to bring together alignments and reduce risk due to demand fluctuation
- Production Readiness Support: Resolve impediments to production readiness and support in execution during production
- Supplier Innovation Enablement: Enable early supplier involvement to bring innovation from the industry to deliver innovation on SOL (Speed of Light) project schedules
- NPI Acceleration: Concentrated effort in NPI to achieve industry-leading time-to-market, establishing supplier selection criteria, alternative suppliers, and qualifying new suppliers
- RFQ Management: Be responsible for the RFQ process and drive supplier selection in partnership with Engineering
- Site Supply Chain Support: Support Site Supply Chain to manage suppliers to ensure safety, quality, cost, and delivery timelines are achieved
4. Global Commodity Manager General Responsibilities
- Commodity Strategy Execution: Develop and execute a global commodity strategy that supports the needs of the business units and product categories
- Commodity Expertise Development: Develop an in-depth knowledge of assigned commodities, global supply markets, new technologies, supply landscape, and pricing trends
- Cost Reduction Project Management: Build and manage a pipeline of PPV/VAVE projects by conducting cross-functional workshops throughout Videojet Technologies Inc., and help execute them
- Working Capital Optimization: Develop and execute working capital turns improvement programs, including payment terms extension, inventory reduction, lead time reduction, consignment, and 3PL
- Contract Negotiation: Develop, negotiate, and execute contracts/agreements with suppliers that minimize TCO, improve quality, minimize supply risk, and assure on-time delivery
- RFQ Management: Prepare and conduct RFQ/RFQs and analyze quotes, including conducting e-auctions
- Cost Analysis: Conduct, analyze, and perform cost breakdown analysis to support negotiations, resulting in the best overall cost and commercial terms
- Supplier Performance Support: Provide support to manufacturing locations for supplier performance issues related to quality and delivery
- Volume Leverage: Work with domestic and international suppliers, leverage increasing purchase volumes by negotiating volume-based incentives, discounts, rebates, and commercial terms
- Risk Mitigation Strategy: Develop and execute global risk mitigation strategies
- Supply Base Consolidation: Take responsibility for driving supply base consolidation
- Performance Measurement: Deliver measurable and auditable results in policy deployment targets and key performance indicators
5. Global Commodity Manager Roles and Details
- Category Strategy Development: Develop a global category strategy to achieve material cost savings targets through detailed analysis of the category portfolio, including global consolidation of spend across all geographical areas
- Material Qualification Execution: Work closely with cross-functional teams in the development and execution of new material qualifications
- Strategic Advantage Pursuit: Aggressively pursue the strategy to ensure competitive advantage for TPI and to position TPI as a market leader
- Internal Strategy Communication: Communicate and promote the strategy internally to TPI management and key stakeholders
- Strategy Execution Collaboration: Ensure strategy execution through close collaboration with the global Supply Chain and Project Management community
- Strategy Evolution Management: Ensure that the Commodity strategy evolves to adequately address the changing market conditions
- Global Agreement Negotiation: Negotiate global supply agreements with strategic suppliers through the Request for Proposal process
- Market Intelligence Development: Establish intelligence and market knowledge to enable bid and project teams to make informed decisions
- Market Monitoring: Closely monitor the supply market concerning pricing, commodity trends, supplier capacity, supplier news, industry news, and new product developments
- Supplier Identification and Assessment: Identify new supplier entrants in current and developing best cost markets and assess their capabilities to offer TPI a competitive advantage over the existing supplier base
- KPI Reporting: Prepare and distribute monthly commodity key performance indicator reports
- Strategic Partnership Management: Develop and maintain a strategic partnership and leverage the supply base to meet the company’s procurement requirements related to quality, delivery, and cost
- Supplier Program Execution: Execute supplier management programs with suppliers, including the development of performance metrics
- Supplier Performance Monitoring: Monitor and report on supplier performance and compliance