Category Analyst

Summary

Reporting to the Category Manager, the Category Analyst supports the Category Management team through spend analysis, supplier evaluation, market research, and sourcing support. This role helps drive category strategy, operational improvements, and cost-saving initiatives across procurement activities.

The ideal candidate has a strong analytical background in engineering, finance, economics, analytics, or data analysis and is comfortable working with large datasets to identify trends, cost drivers, and sourcing opportunities.

Work Schedule: Onsite 4 days per week

Responsibilities

Spend & Category Analysis

• Analyze spend data and support category sourcing initiatives
• Conduct category, market, benchmark, and supplier analysis
• Perform spend criticality analysis across categories and enterprise-wide spend
• Identify market trends, cost drivers, industry benchmarks, and sourcing opportunities
• Analyze off-contract and non-compliant spend activity

Supplier & Sourcing Support

• Develop sourcing evaluation models, negotiation models, and supplier scorecards
• Build total cost of ownership (TCO) models and identify savings opportunities
• Monitor supplier performance metrics, KPIs, and service levels
• Research new suppliers, substitute products/services, and emerging market participants
• Support sourcing strategies and category initiatives in collaboration with stakeholders

Process Improvement & Collaboration

• Develop and maintain supplier and category databases
• Support procurement process improvements and future-state process documentation
• Collaborate cross-functionally with procurement teams and business stakeholders

Required Skills & Experience

• 3 5 years of experience in:
  • Category Management
  • Spend Analysis
  • Procurement Analytics
  • Supply Chain Analytics
  • Data Analysis

• Experience with analytics and visualization tools such as:
  • Power BI
  • Tableau
  • Python
  • QlikView
  • Alteryx
  • SQL

• Strong experience with:
  • Spend analysis and reporting
  • Supplier performance metrics and KPI tracking
  • Market analysis and sourcing support
  • Strategic sourcing methodologies
  • Procurement processes and contract support
  • Data-driven decision making

• Core Competencies
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Strong organizational and project management abilities
  • Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
  • Financial acumen and business awareness

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience within the rail industry or similar large-scale supply chain environments
• Experience supporting strategic sourcing and supplier negotiations
• Project Management or Supply Chain certifications

Education

Bachelor's degree preferred in one of the following:

• Engineering
• Computer Science
• Finance
• Economics
• Business
• Related technical discipline