Career opportunities: Global Category Manager

The EPO's Principal Directorate Procurement and Vendor Management plays an instrumental role in the day-to-day functioning of the organisation, influencing long-term financial sustainability by ensuring value-for-money spending on services and products. Effective procurement operations are critical to ensure compliance with relevant policies and regulatory requirements in view of the EPO's role as a leading European public service institution.

In Procurement and Vendor Management, we partner with our internal and external stakeholders via business-focused teams around three global categories: information and communication technology, facility management / real estate, professional services. We work in close partnership with colleagues across the organisation, combining expertise and continuous improvement to deliver high-quality outcomes.

In addition to supporting the strategic direction of the EPO, we also play a key role in a major transformation programme known as Finance 360 that aims to strengthen our role as a business partner for the entire organisation by optimising existing processes, technology and organisational matters. In that context, we are responsible for delivering a range of projects in the area of source-to-pay to support the overall goal of increasing effectiveness, efficiency and transparency.

You will help to deepen our team's category-management approach and to strengthen and further develop how we approach procurement. Your profound market knowledge and background will enhance our critical skills. Your sound contract-management skills and procurement-process knowledge will help us to provide the EPO with better value in the acquisition of goods and services.

In this role, you will contribute to delivering efficient, transparent and high-quality procurement solutions that support the EPO’s mission.

With us you will:

• work together with the business unit(s) in your assigned global category (facility management / real estate) to develop and implement a procurement plan aligned with the category management strategy


• help the business unit(s) to define their functional requirements


• advise on, execute and follow up on complex procurement dossiers focused on your assigned categories, in addition to providing support in other categories as needed


• negotiate the most advantageous commercial agreements for the EPO


• develop cost models to identify improvement opportunities with associated risk analysis


• assess and evaluate suppliers by implementing performance reviews to ensure contract
  compliance, and adopt a professional approach to supplier relationship management


• manage interaction with internal stakeholders in a timely and proactive manner


• deliver high-quality reports and documents on award decisions and compliance requirements


• manage KPIs, monitor the efficiency of procurement service levels and promote the use of standard e-procurement tools and processes


• act as a change agent for Procurement and Vendor Management's roadmap, and represent Procurement and Vendor Management at meetings with EPO governing bodies


• ensure and actively promote cross-team communication among purchasing and vendor management teams


• coach colleagues in your assigned global category and share subject-matter experience with them


• support Procurement and Vendor Management in process optimisation

Apply if you have:

• several years' experience as a global category manager / lead buyer or similar role


• knowledge of category management for facility management / real estate and the ability to use this knowledge in day-to-day business to optimise the performance of the category


• an understanding of supplier performance management (facility management / real estate market with respect to procurement activities and architectural considerations)


• an understanding of supplier management with respect to IT and/or professional services (or any other categories) would be an asset


• an understanding of the business requirements in the facility management / real estate category


• knowledge of compliance regulations in Munich, Berlin or The Hague and an understanding of processes and documents linked to tender procedures; the ability to execute (public) tender procedures and to draft and check functional requirements


• the ability to perform bid analysis in a structured manner


• an understanding of the different contract types in an international organisational setting and the respective legal consequences for procurement


• an understanding of risk management and its relevance for procurement, and the ability to manage and mitigate procurement-related risks


• the ability to process and execute sourcing requests in line with the EPO's Financial Regulations


• the ability to evaluate commercial offers in a structured manner


• experience in the use of MS Office applications (Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) in day-to-day business


• experience in P2P and proficiency in using the Ivalua tool (would be a distinct asset)


• the ability to use ERP systems (iValua in our case)


• the ability to build and maintain professional internal and external relationships

Our minimum requirements for this post

• Diploma of completed studies at master's level or – in exceptional cases – equivalent professional experience


• Generally, an excellent knowledge (at least C1) of one official language (English, French and German) and ability to understand the other two; alternatively, excellent knowledge (at least C1) of at least one official language (in such cases, the willingness to learn the missing language(s) and to reach level B2 within a set time frame would be required)


• Citizenship of one of the member states of the European Patent Organisation

Process

Candidates are kindly asked to upload an updated CV and outline their motivation in the designated application field (character limit 4000). If so wished, the motivation letter can also be uploaded as a Word or pdf attachment under "Application document" in SuccessFactors. In this case, please indicate in the designated field "Please refer to attached motivation letter".

The successful candidate will be selected on the basis of qualifications, competencies, professional experience and language knowledge, supplemented as appropriate by interviews, tests and/or a personality questionnaire.

A reserve list may be constituted, should more candidates than required at this time be considered suitable following the selection procedure. Such reserve lists are valid for 18 months and reserve list candidates may be contacted, should a vacancy with substantially the same profile arise during that period.

More information on how we recruit can be found on our EPO jobs and careers site.

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Key information

Job group: 4

Grade: G7 to G10 (net (basic) monthly salary* for this vacancy: EUR 6 375 to 10 164, depending on experience and location) 

Duration of appointment: Five years, with the possibility of extension

Career path: Technical 

Location: Office-wide 

Application deadline: 07.07.2026

Interviews planned for: between 15 to 17 July 2026 

* after deduction of EPO-internal tax and before deduction of staff contributions to the social security and pension schemes.