Global Category Procurement Operations Specialist

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Job Description:

Collaborate with Innovative 3Mers Around the World

Choosing where to start and grow your career has a major impact on your professional and personal life, so it’s equally important you know that the company you choose will support and guide you. With a wide variety of people, global locations, technologies, and products, 3M is a place where you can collaborate with other curious, creative 3Mers.

The Impact You’ll Make in this Role

The Global Category Procurement Operations Senior Specialist supports global category procurement teams by executing sourcing and operational procurement activities, managing supplier interactions, resolving issues, and ensuring responsive, compliant support across end-to-end procurement processes. This role acts as a key operational partner to category teams and stakeholders by handling requests, supporting transactional and tactical sourcing, facilitating supplier communication, maintaining fraud prevention and compliance controls, and identifying opportunities for process improvement. In a global environment, the position requires strong collaboration, analytical capability, customer service orientation, and a solid understanding of procurement operations to help drive procurement performance and operational efficiency. At more advanced levels, the role also includes leading supplier negotiations, developing negotiation strategies informed by category insights and data analysis, serving as a trusted advisor to category leaders, and mentoring less experienced team members. Your key responsibilities would be to:

• Support global category procurement teams in sourcing activities, supplier interactions, and stakeholder communication, including managing requests, escalations, and customer service issues.
• Conduct supplier negotiations for routine and tail-spend matters, and at advanced levels lead broader negotiations involving pricing, terms, and conditions.
• Ensure compliance with procurement controls, including bank verification and fraud prevention requirements, while maintaining responsive and reliable operational support.
• Contribute to procurement performance by developing negotiation strategies, supporting category goals such as cost savings and service quality, and identifying process improvement opportunities.
• Act as a trusted partner to category leaders by mentoring less experienced team members and leading or supporting assigned projects and initiatives.

Your Skills and Expertise 

To set you up for success in this role from day one, 3M requires (at a minimum) the following qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Supply Chain, Economics, or a related field.
• Overall 7+ years of professional experience, including 4–6 years of relevant experience in procurement, category support, supplier management, sourcing operations, or shared services.
• Experience supporting sourcing activities, supplier interactions, and supplier negotiations, with exposure to category collaboration and sourcing operations.
• Experience working in a global, cross-functional business environment, supporting procurement and supplier management activities.
• Experience supporting direct and/or indirect procurement categories.

Additional qualifications that could help you succeed even further in this role include:

• Strong knowledge of procurement systems, ERP, and e-sourcing tools such as SAP, Ariba, or equivalent platforms.
• Good communication, relationship management, and negotiation skills to work effectively with suppliers and stakeholders across global teams.
• Analytical and customer-focused approach with the ability to support decisions, manage priorities, and improve service quality.
• Ability to handle routine procurement support activities, resolve operational issues, escalate risks, and support process improvements.

Work Location: Hebbal, Bangalore (Karnataka), Hybrid Mode

Supporting Your Well-being

3M offers many programs to help you live your best life – both physically and financially. To ensure competitive pay and benefits, 3M regularly benchmarks with other companies that are comparable in size and scope.

Learn more about 3M’s creative solutions to the world’s problems at www.3M.com or on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @3M.

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Please note: your application may not be considered if you do not provide your education and work history, either by: 1) uploading a resume, or 2) entering the information into the application fields directly.

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