Sr Procurement Coordinator– Innovation & ODM Partnerships, Personal Care and Cost Optimization

ABOUT UNILEVER

With 3.4 billion people in over 190 countries using our products every day, Unilever is a business that makes a real impact on the world. Work on brands that are loved and improve the lives of our consumers and the communities around us. Our strategy begins with a purpose that places consumers at the heart of everything we do: Brighten everyday life for all. Our goal is to deliver best-in-class performance with market-making, unmissably superior brands. At the heart of what we do is our people – we believe that when our people work with purpose, we will create a better business and a better world. At Unilever, your career will be a unique journey, grounded in our collaborative, and flexible working environment. Our organizational ambition centers around creating workplaces that foster equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging across all aspects of our business.We don’t believe in the ‘one size fits all’ approach and instead we will equip you with the tools you need to shape your own future.

ABOUT PROCUREMENT

Part of the Supply Chain family, Procurement is responsible for over 30B Euro of material and services spend globally with more than 60,000 suppliers. Getting the right services and materials, sustainably sourced and ensuring responsible procurement is critical to ensuring our brands with purpose grow. Our teams work closely with the business to understand stakeholders needs, bring innovation to meet changing consumer, employees and customers needs, and drive financial value for Unilever through competitive buying. We’re at the forefront of digital procurement, bringing new tools and analytics to drive data-based decisions. Our strategy is ‘Procurement with Purpose’ and focuses on buying responsibly, buying better, and growing together with partners around the world. Our ambition is based on three key drivers: being Purpose-Led, Value-Driven, and Future-Fit.

Main Job Purpose

In a rapidly evolving beauty and personal care landscape, speed, creativity, and external collaboration are key to unlocking breakthrough innovation. This newly created role sits at the heart of our global innovation engine. As

Senior Procurement Coordinator– Innovation & ODM Partnerships, Personal Care and Cost Optimization, you will be a strategic contributor to shaping the future of our product portfolio by leading high-impact projects with Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs).

You will serve as a catalyst between R&D, Marketing, and Supply Chain to bring trend-led, co-created, and customized innovations to market at speed. You will also play a key role in building a resilient and agile external manufacturing ecosystem that delivers both value and competitive advantage.

In addition to your innovation responsibilities, you will lead the global quarterly price forecasting process, coordinate cross-functional efforts to identify and deliver cost and cash optimization opportunities, and run strategic benchmarks to ensure competitiveness across innovation platforms. Your contribution will help accelerate business performance by tightly connecting procurement innovation with financial value creation.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead ODM Supplier Collaboration
  Identify, evaluate, and onboard ODM partners aligned with our innovation strategy. Foster strategic, long-term partnerships to co-create high-value personal care formats.

• Drive End-to-End Project Management
  Orchestrate innovation projects from ideation through to commercialization, ensuring timely execution across functions and geographies. Own the externalproductdevelopment roadmap.

• Innovation Sourcing & Trend Scouting
  Track emerging beauty and personal care trends and translate them into actionable opportunities with ODMs. Lead marketscouting for breakthrough formats, ingredients, and technologies.

• Enable Speed to Market
  Design and implement agile supply models to reduce time-to-launch for innovation-led products. Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to accelerate readiness and reduce barriers.

• Deliver Strategic Value through Ecosystem Development
  Build and manage a dynamic portfolio of ODMs capable of delivering on premium, sustainable, and white-space innovation opportunities. Promote cross-sourcing and manufacturingflexibility.

• Support Value Creation & Resilience Initiatives
  Identify cost-competitive solutions, drive specification simplification, and co-develop sustainable innovation with ODM partners.

• Bring the Outside In
  Provide strategic market insights on category evolution, geopolitical risk, supply shifts, and innovation hotspots to shape internal decision-making and innovation pipelines.

Cost & Value Optimization

• Coordinate the Global Price Forecasting Process
  Lead the quarterly price forecasting process for CM portfolios, aligning with global stakeholders and leveraging market intelligence, commodity trends, and supplier insights.

• Identify & Capture Cost Savings Opportunities
  Partner with Finance and Supply Chain teams to proactively identify and quantify opportunities for cost savings, cash optimization, and value engineering across innovation projects.

• Lead Strategic Cost Discussions
  Facilitate regular cost and cash flow reviews with cross-functional teams and CMs, ensuring alignment with business goals and procurement KPIs.

• Benchmarking & Market Intelligence
  Develop and maintain a robust benchmarking framework for cost, quality, and speed-to-market metrics. Ensureexternal insights informnegotiationstrategies and innovation planning.

RequiredSkills & Experience

• Experience in Procurement, Sourcing, or Innovation project management, preferably in beauty, personal care, or FMCG sectors.

• Proven experience working with third-party manufacturers or ODMs in a fast-paced, innovation-driven environment.

• Strong understanding of product development processes and supplier engagement models.

• High learning agility and analytical capabilities, including business case development and cost modeling.

• Skilled in managing cross-functional stakeholders across R&D, Marketing, Finance, and Supply Chain.

• Experience in trend analysis, consumer insight translation, or upstream innovation sourcing is a plus.

• Strong financial acumen, with experience in forecasting, budgeting, and value optimization.

• Passion for driving change and creating products that consumers love.

Key Interfaces

• Internal:Procurement, R&D, Marketing, Global Supply Chain, Finance

• External: ODM Partners, Strategic Suppliers, Innovation Scouts, Industry Experts

Reporting Line

Reports to: Procurement Manager – BG CM Personal Care.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Unilever is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, or any other basis protected by applicable law, and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. 

Unilever embraces diversity and encourages applicants from all walks of life. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity