Senior Strategic Sourcing Specialist

Job ID: 10461

Employment Type: Existing Role

Work Environment: We offer a hybrid work environment that offers flexibility to our employees in balancing in-office (2 days per week OR 15 hours per week in a Wawanesa office) and remote work. You may work from any of the following locations: Winnipeg, MB; Calgary, AB; Toronto (North York), ON.

Working Business Language: English. This role is considered a head-office role and will be required to communicate with internal stakeholders across Canada where the primary business language utilized is English.

Salary: At Wawanesa, salary is only one component of a holistic, comprehensive and competitive offering that we provide to our employees. In addition to salary, full-time and part-time permanent employees are eligible for an annual bonus plan, leave of absence top-up programs and provided with generous vacation time, personal days, premium free benefits and pension plan.

The salary offered for this role is determined with consideration to various factors, including but not limited to: your work location, local labour market conditions, external market salary data, internal pay equity and the knowledge, skills, experience and anticipated proficiency in the role. The salary offered is estimated to be within the following range: $95,000- $115,000. Candidates with salary expectations outside of the range are still encouraged to apply.

About The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company
Founded in 1896, The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company is one of Canada’s largest mutual insurers, fully owned by its more than 1.8 million members. Headquartered in Winnipeg, Wawanesa is the parent company of WSI™, a specialty insurer delivering tailored solutions built around unique needs; Wawanesa Life, a provider of life insurance products; and Western Financial Group, a leading national distributor of personal and commercial insurance.

Wawanesa is committed to helping communities thrive in a changing world. The company invests more than $4 million annually in charitable initiatives, including $2.5 million each year to support people and communities on the front lines of climate change. Learn more at wawanesa.com.

We are currently seeking dedicated, driven, and enthusiastic individuals who thrive in a dynamic environment, embrace change, and are eager to gain diverse experience while advancing their careers as part of a growing team.

Job Overview

Working under limited supervision, the Senior Strategic Sourcing Specialist is responsible for assisting Strategic Sourcing Managers by helping to manage vendor category management, independently managing assigned vendor categories, and overseeing day to day operational third-party risk management within their team. This includes sourcing, evaluation, negotiation, contract management, and third-party risk assessment activities as well as contributing to internal communication mediums and material. This role contributes to the Strategic Sourcing team success by collaborating and providing a high level of customer service, mentorship, and guidance to the internal team, internal stakeholders, and vendors. They are a team player and skilled multi-tasker who is detail oriented, organized, and comfortable with managing a large volume of work and tight deadlines.

Job Responsibilities

• Adheres to and supports existing Strategic Sourcing processes while working with relevant stakeholders.
• Builds and maintains excellent relationships with internal stakeholders, colleagues, and external vendors.
• Provides input to and independently promotes and completes continual service improvement activities for Strategic Sourcing.
• Independently executes or contributes to vendor sourcing, evaluation, selection, contract reviews and negotiation activities in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
• Keep current on market research, industry trends and practices, and supply chain disruption.
• Manages assigned vendor categories including negotiations, and contract development and execution as well as overall category management.
• Contributes to the definition and development of strategy for supplier programs based on business need.
• Contributes to the operation and continuous improvement of the Strategic Sourcing Center of Excellence.
• Provides training, mentorship for junior team members.
• Manages applicable sourcing record and contract entry in enterprise third party management platform.
• Manages applicable intake process and queue assignments.
• Produces sourcing activity and category spend reports.
• Develops and delivers training material and training for the enterprise on the third-party management platform where applicable.
• Adhere to and support the Wawanesa Procurement policy.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Post-secondary education and a minimum of 7 years experience in a procurement, vendor management or sourcing related role. A combination of education and experience will be considered.
• Proven contract management experience related to a variety of agreements including but not limited to resource, technical (software, SaaS, hardware), technical and non technical professional service, and master services agreements.
• Strong customer service and communication skills with the ability to effectively deal with both internal stakeholders and external vendors verbally and in writing, in a persuasive and business friendly manner.
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage large amounts of complex information in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent attention to detail and capable of conducting comprehensive information reviews.
• SCMP or related procurement, vendor management, or sourcing education or certification is considered an asset.
• Knowledge of the P&C insurance industry is considered an asset including any related certifications.
• Knowledge of IT terminology and concepts is considered an asset.
• Experience with Wawanesa s specific methodologies and technologies is considered an asset.
• Experience with Microsoft PowerBI is considered an asset.
• Strong demonstrated skills with MS Office (Excel and Word).

Diversity Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

At Wawanesa, we are committed to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) and believe that our strength lies in the diversity of our people – this is supported by having a representative workforce.

We welcome applications from all qualified candidates, including racialized persons, women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, gender-diverse and neurodiverse individuals, and anyone who can contribute to the further diversification of thought and ideas.

We aim to ensure our recruitment process is accessible to all candidates. If you require accommodations during any stage of the recruitment process, please reach out in confidence to [email protected].

All Wawanesa job applicants are subject to Wawanesa's Privacy Policy.

Please note that the recruitment process for this position may involve the use of AI tools to screen, assess, or select applicants. All final decisions are taken or reviewed by human recruiters and human hiring leaders in compliance with all applicable legislation.