Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Baxter is a healthcare company focused on its mission to save and sustain lives through innovative products and efficient operations. The Supplier Excellence Lead will drive material and component cost reduction, supply resilience, and margin improvement through technical analysis, specification optimization, alternate sourcing, and cross-functional execution. The role partners with Procurement, R&D, Quality, Operations, Finance, and suppliers to validate and implement optimization initiatives while maintaining product performance, regulatory compliance, and supply continuity.
Responsibilities
- Identify and evaluate total cost optimization opportunities across materials, components, and processes across ITP sites with specific focus on insourcing, alternate sourcing and process & product value engineering. Ensure alignment to site and partner with Manufacturing Strategy to align to designed future state
- Perform structured should-cost, clean-sheet, and teardown analyses
- Support category strategies with fact-based cost drivers and benchmarks
- Facilitate cross functional Continuous Improvement, Kaizen and Cost Optimization events to generate and prioritize ideas
- Lead a cross functional technical team through the planning and execution of projects using various engineering and scientific techniques, procedures and criteria. This includes constructing detailed, accurate schedules, driving and collaborating with a core team, and guiding technical support groups
- Lead or support technical change execution including specification and material substitution
- Coordinate sample builds, trials, and testing
- Support change control processes, validation, and implementation (e.g., cut-in planning)
- Partner with Procurement, Quality, R&D, Operations, Strategy, and Finance among others
- Engage suppliers on process capability, readiness, and cost transparency
- Support dual qualification, risk mitigation, and capacity assessments
- Lead and track initiatives end-to-end from opportunity assessment, business case development, full execution and hand over of project and savings to operations
- Maintain documentation of assumptions, risks, and approvals
- Escalate quality, service, regulatory, cost or timeline risks
- Document and leverage best practices as part of the internal TCO center continuous improvement methodology
Skills
- 5-8+ years experience with Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Materials, Plastics, Chemicals, Packaging, or Manufacturing engineering or related field
- Proven experience delivering multi-million dollar value engineering savings
- Proven experience leading cross-functional projects end-to-end using structured project management methods
- Working knowledge of GMP, change control, deviation/CAPA concepts, and validation/qualification principles
- Strong analytical capability
- Strong communication skills and cross-functional influence skills
- Travel required, approximately 50%
- Applicants must be authorized to work for an employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time
- Experience in alternate sourcing and supplier qualification (APQP/PPAP) in regulated manufacturing, with end‑to‑end technical and procurement leadership delivering cost savings
- Experience translating technical changes into measurable business value, insourcing transitions and tech transfer activities
- Experience in value engineering and design for manufacturability
- Experience with cost modelling, should-costing or clean-sheet methodologies
- Lean / Six Sigma certification
Benefits
- Professional development
- Opportunities for further development
Company Overview