Company Description
Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions (VWTS) is a worldwide leader in water recovery, treatment, and reuse. We design and supply a range of water systems, from food and beverage applications, to municipal water, to microelectronics ultrapure water and heavy industrial wastewater treatment. We serve more than 50,000 customers worldwide and treat more than 11 million cubic meters of water every day. We simply aim to be the benchmark company for ecological transformation across the world.
At WTS, we realize diverse teams make smarter decisions, deliver better results, and build stronger communities. We are an organization that champions diversity and inclusion at every rung of the ladder and are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We offer challenging and meaningful careers, with competitive benefits and flexible work arrangements.
Job Description
Summary of the Job
The Audit & Contract Compliance Leader is a replacement position, which will report to the Director of Procurement Compliance and Governance. This position will work to assemble the various leaders as well as prepare for audits, including the preparations and assembly of support materials / topics anticipated to be covered, whether internal / external financial, internal / external quality, or internal Veolia Group audits. This leader will not only serve as the Procurement host during such audits, but also help track any findings or observations, and help ensure that they get properly assigned and tracked all the way through to satisfactory closure. Another major role for this position would be supporting in Global Contract Management activities for Supplier Contracts including but not limited to preparing and maintaining standard templates, policies and procedures for Contract Management and supporting Category teams by reviewing the contracts for any potential contractual risks and suggesting risk mitigation strategies. .
Key Characteristics
- Excellent verbal/written communication and interpersonal skills, capable of developing presentations and comfortable interacting with internal/external stakeholders and WTS senior management.
- Accountable, organized, strategic thinker/planner, proactive and self-motivated.
- Taking direction from counterparts at the parent company (i.e., compliance with parent company policies, procedures, and periodic reporting requirements)
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Develop and maintain standardized templates for Contracts, Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) for global and regional supplier contracts, as well as other types of agreements.
- Formulate and update comprehensive contract management policies and procedures to govern the lifecycle of supplier contracts, ensuring compliance with legal and organizational requirements.
- Collaborate closely with Category teams to draft and review supplier contracts, identifying potential contractual risks, and proposing effective risk mitigation strategies to safeguard the organization's interests.
- Provide subject matter expertise and guidance to stakeholders on contract interpretation, negotiation strategies, and best practices in contract management.
- Oversee and maintain contract management tools, databases, and repositories, ensuring accurate data entry, version control, and easy retrieval of contractual documents.
- Conduct periodic audits and assessments of existing contracts to ensure adherence to established policies, procedures, and legal obligations, recommending corrective actions where necessary.
- Serve as a central point of contact for contract-related inquiries, escalations, and issue resolution, fostering effective communication and collaboration across cross-functional teams.
- Stay abreast of industry trends, regulatory changes, and best practices in contract management, procurement, and legal domains, and implement process improvements as needed.
- Plan, prepare, and manage the preparations for various planned & unplanned procurement reviews /audits
- Collaborate with Internal Auditors and External Auditors when they seek information on Procurement Data and Processes.
- Present action plans for improving processes and remediating gaps to business process/control owners.
- Develop a process for monitoring and reporting progress of audit findings, ensuring that all actions get closed on or before their committed due date.
- Collaborate closely with the Procurement Operations Excellence Staff, Procurement Leadership Team, as well as Global Process Owners (GPOs) to help ensure that the policies and procedures are properly referenced, and if need be new ones completed.
- Develop Delegation of Authority Strategy as well as Controls, ensuring such is properly set-up and reflected in SAP.
- Conduct spot audits of certain Procurement compliance parameters, e.g. segregation of duty violations, Delegation of Authority gaps, and publish findings
- Promote an awareness of procurement policies and procedures and their importance.
- Compose/develop risk and control matrices - ID gaps in processes and deficiencies in procurement processes.
Qualifications
Hard Skills:
- Experience in developing and writing procedures and/or work instructions.
- Proven track record of analytical, interpersonal, and leadership skills.
- Ability to work with multiple global cross-functional teams to drive process standardization and improvement and lead digital transformation, specifically in P2P and AP Domains.
- Good Understanding of Contracts Management principles, Procurement methods, technologies, and processes.
- Good understanding of SAP - MM, P2P, AP Modules.
- Strategic Mindset, with hands-on approach to the day-day business, while understanding the bigger picture.
Soft Skills:
- Expert: Demonstrate subject matter expertise in the field.
- Strategic: Gets the big game. Understands long term. Respects short term but doesn't get hung up in the noise.
- Inspirational: Ability to inspire/ motivate others.
- Curious: Ability to pose high impact questions, seeing opportunities in areas where others see problems.
- Courageous: Champions ideas and helps transform them into actions.
- Humble: Respectful towards peers, team members, leadership, and stakeholders.
- Holistic: Think customer and Company first.
- Accountable: Demonstrates responsibility ownership and commitment. Taking responsibility for making tough calls when necessary.
- Ambitious: Identifies underlying truths and comes up with ideas that change the way we conceptualize issues, depicts a vision of the future that rallies teams to compete in new ways.
- Must be resilient, positive, collaborative approach to problem solving.
Education & Experience Required:
- Bachelor's degree (or international equivalent) in an applicable or related field to Business Administration/Sourcing/Procurement/Supply Chain
- 8+ years of experience in Procurement or Contracts or closely related function
- Experience in Contract Management / Category Management, Procurement operations or hosting/conducting audits, whether internal/external, financial/ ISO, etc..
Preferred:
- Master's degree in Supply Chain / Procurement / Business law preferable. A global certification in Procurement / Contracts domain is preferable.
- Working Knowledge of SAP with familiarity of procurement module / transaction.
- Experience working with global & distributed teams
- Experience in development of written policy and procedures in a global environment
Additional Information
Working Conditions
• Hybrid or Remote working condition, depending on location
• Minimal travel required <10%
As an inclusive company, Veolia is committed to diversity and gives equal consideration to all applications, without discrimination.