Senior Specialist, Category Management

L3Harris is dedicated to recruiting and developing high-performing talent who are passionate about what they do. Our employees are unified in a shared dedication to our customers’ mission and quest for professional growth. L3Harris provides an inclusive, engaging environment designed to empower employees and promote work-life success. Fundamental to our culture is an unwavering focus on values, dedication to our communities, and commitment to excellence in everything we do. L3Harris is the Trusted Disruptor in defense tech. With customers’ mission-critical needs always in mind, our employees deliver end-to-end technology solutions connecting the space, air, land, sea and cyber domains in the interest of national security. Job Title: Senior Specialist, Category Management Job Code: 42373 Job Location: Rochester, NY or Melbourne, FL Job Schedule: 9/80: Employees work 9 out of every 14 days- totaling 80 hours worked- and have every other Friday off   Job Description:   We are seeking an experienced and strategic Senior Specialist, Category Management, to join our Communications and Spectrum Dominance Segment Category Management team. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for leading category strategy development and execution across a diverse range of products and services. Your expertise in market analysis, supplier management, and cost optimization will drive value creation and deliver competitive advantages for our organization. As a senior member of the team, you will leverage your deep understanding of category-specific trends and your ability to forge strong relationships with stakeholders to ensure alignment with business objectives. Strong business analytics and intelligence capabilities are essential—you excel at processing large, complex data sets and distilling insights into clear, concise executive summaries. As a strategic thinker with strong business acumen, you translate market intelligence, supplier performance data, and operational trends into actionable recommendations that inform leadership decisions across the segment. If you are a results-driven professional with a proven track record in transforming procurement processes and delivering substantial cost savings, we invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity.  Essential Functions: Ability to travel up to 25% Lead collaborative multi-region/plant/division, cross-functional teams to analyze spend, develop actionable commodity management strategies, implement spend management strategies and proactively manage the supply base within that given commodity Research and benchmark current commodity market conditions/trends, developing technologies, supply chain capacity/capability, product knowledge, customer requirements and supply/demand challenges Manage, analyze, take appropriate actions and create risk mitigation strategies Facilitate the segmentation, development, and management of Strategic Suppliers to meet commodity goals Communicate regularly with supply chain leadership and functional teams on category status, challenges, and opportunities Develop and implement spend management strategies including supplier assessments and rationalization, negotiation for best total cost of ownership, make vs. buy analyses, vendor managed inventories, inventory reduction programs, cycle time improvements, security of supply, supplier diversity, continuous improvement, commodity roadmaps, and procurement/stakeholder collaboration Partner with cross functional teams on negotiations (for best total cost of ownership, make vs. buy analyses, inventory reduction programs, security of supply, data analysis) and develop negotiation strategy (approach, fallback positions, acceptable terms and conditions, contracts) through to closure. Establish a strong network and foster collaboration with customers, suppliers, key stakeholders, and category team members. Manage supplier relationships of those commodities assigned, and assist in the development and