Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Brilliant® is seeking a Category Director to own vendor strategy and product-cost performance across two operating entities. The role focuses on hands-on supplier negotiations, cost modeling, quantified cost reduction, category expansion, private-label development, and international sourcing for a $150–200M annual spend portfolio.
Responsibilities
• Own the full portfolio of supplier relationships and commercial agreements across GM and DDP
• Lead all vendor negotiations including pricing, rebates, program terms, payment terms, and freight
• Define structured methods to evaluate spend and suppliers (i.e. should-cost / cost-plus modeling, competitive bidding via RFP/RFQ/RFI, multi-bid comparison)
• Structure and manage contracts, rebate agreements, and vendor programs; monitor supplier performance against defined KPIs and hold suppliers accountable to commitments
• Own a quantified cost reduction agenda across the purchased goods base; identify, model, and execute savings without compromising product quality or supply continuity
• Analyze supplier cost structures, landed cost, and total cost of ownership to target margin and pricing opportunities
• Partner with Finance to validate savings and tie them to measurable P&L impact
• Identify, evaluate, and launch new product categories, managing the full lifecycle from opportunity assessment through supplier selection, onboarding, and go-to-market
• Use market, sales, and margin data to guide assortment and category-expansion decisions
• Build the company's private label program from the ground up including category selection, supplier identification and qualification, product specification, cost modeling, and launch
• Manage the private label product lifecycle from development through delivery, coordinating quality, packaging, and regulatory requirements with internal and external stakeholders
• Identify, qualify, audit, and develop international suppliers (primarily for private label and cost-advantaged categories)
• Manage the end-to-end import process including negotiating FOB/landed-cost terms, coordinating with freight forwarders and customs brokers, and managing duties, tariffs, and international lead times
Skills
• Job Location:
1. United States
• The Category Director owns vendor strategy and product-cost performance across 2 operating entities. We need someone who personally lives in the data, can build cost models and analytics themselves and use them to go hard at our clients existing suppliers on price. We need a hands-on negotiator with the spreadsheet open, not a director pointing a team at the problem. This person will have one report to but will need to be as comfortable being a doer as they are a strategist
• • Minimum 8+ years of experience in the medical supply distribution, healthcare, or wholesale Only
• • Demonstrated track record of successful vendor negotiations and delivered, quantified cost reduction
• • Proven expertise in cost modeling (should-cost, cost-plus) and competitive bidding
• • Strong analytical capability with the ability to build the models and business cases behind sourcing decisions personally, not delegate them
• • Travel ~20% Dom & Int
• Preference will be given to ET or CT candidates
Benefits
• Bonus
• Possible equity
Company Overview
• About Brilliant® Brilliant is an award-winning staffing and recruiting firm that provides direct-hire and contract staffing services in accounting, finance, technology, and business operations serving businesses across the continental U.S. It was founded in 2009, and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, USA, with a workforce of 51-200 employees. Its website is http://brilliantfs.com.