Senior Contract Manufacturing Manager

Job Description

Life at Elvie; Meaningful work, Exceptional People

We're Elvie. We create smart products, new solutions, and a fair few taboo-busting conversations while we’re at it. Founded by Tania Boler in 2013, we develop extraordinary innovations designed to improve women’s lives. It's a fascinating and challenging area that requires us to solve problems that no one else has ever tackled before.

At Elvie, you’ll be surrounded by people who want to improve everything and everyone around them. People who are passionate about our mission. People who are driven to solve problems and constantly consider the best ways to improve the health and wellbeing of women.

Find out more about life at Elvie here.

We're deeply proud of our values, which are intrinsic to the way we behave every day. We take them seriously because we want our culture to thrive:

• We make an impact: We’re mission-driven and not afraid to break boundaries. We relentlessly focus on going the extra mile to solve problems.
• We’re fearless innovators: We are passionate, curious, and data-driven. We continuously embrace change and innovation.
• We’re in it together: we fail and learn fast — always as one team — and have fun along the way. We stay authentic and embrace our differences.

About the role:

Okay, we’ve waffled long enough. So let’s get to the good bit: You.

As Senior Contract Manufacturing Manager your role sits as part of the Procurement team within the Value Chain business unit. This role will be instrumental in shaping our global manufacturing strategy and you will lead the CM change programme. You will set the standard for best in class contract manufacturing management within Elvie by creating a blueprint that ensures we are an Intelligent Client of our CM partners, maximising cost, quality and supply chain agility competitive advantages vs our competitors.

You will own a category of Elvie products (Pumping, Nursery, Women’s Health etc) including cradle to grave NPD procurement leadership, strategic sourcing of critical components for products, supplier management of Tier 1 (CMs) and Tier 2 (key component manufacturers) relationships and delivering a continuous improvement programme targeted at optimising our Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

We are passionate about making a positive difference within Elvie and this role will lead the Procurement ESG agenda, initially focussing on localising supply chains, implementing a new packaging strategy, and ensuring sustainability is embedded into our NPD procurement activity.

You will also have a small team who are responsible for our cost engineering and packaging activity.

Location: Hybrid working; a mix of working from our London or Bristol office & working remotely

Employment type: Permanent (please note, you must have the right to work in the UK)

What you’ll be doing at Elvie:

• Lead the creation and execution of our Contract Manufacturing strategy covering a 1-5 year horizon where our business scale and demands will change significantly
• Own the supplier relationship and performance of our global manufacturing operations for a given product category (1-2 critical suppliers), setting and leading QBRs and other strategic supplier meetings
• Execute effective contract management maximising value realisation in terms of quality, risk management, cost efficiency and continuous improvement
• Ensure our CMs are appropriately equipped and ready to meet our demand, managing this on a day to day basis and also with longer term planning and investment
• Lead a Margin Improvement Programme for your category of products, working hand in glove with our suppliers to achieve ongoing cost efficiencies
• Own the ‘Intelligent Client’ agenda within Elvie for our approach to supplier management, consisting of:-
• Streamlined and clear engagement structures between us and them
• Effective reporting of key data
• Meaningful senior relationships
• A pipeline of agreed and delivered cost reduction initiatives
• Establishing Elvie as a Customer of Choice
• Educating internal stakeholders as to the benefits of this approach
• Design Elvie’s Procurement and Manufacturing ESG blueprint, to include crafting a compelling narrative and winning plan that will drive meaningful positive change in how we approach and deliver on ESG issues
• Lead cradle to grave NPD procurement activity within your product category, acting as a member of the Project Leadership Team. Be Elvie’s single point of truth for product related cost across current and in development products, owning the cost narrative for business case reviews
• Develop and execute new product cost strategies to meet target unit costs, represent procurement in debating cost/quality/risk trade-offs through the product development lifecycle
• Ensure strategic should cost analysis and competitor cost teardown activity is conducted to support NPD and continuous improvement programmes
• Line manage 1 direct report in the role of Cost and Packaging Engineer, providing guidance and development and overseeing cost engineering and packaging related matters

Requirements

What we are looking for:

• Demonstrable expertise in either (i) direct procurement within a manufacturing environment, or (ii) consumer goods operations leadership experience coupled with a commercial mindset
• A strategic mindset, the capability to seamlessly achieve both day to day execution focused results (e.g. Contract Management) and effective strategy development and deployment (e.g. our 5 year CM Network Strategy)
• A sharp commercial mind that seeks out commercial opportunities, and acts clinically at pace to realise them
• Proven senior stakeholder engagement capabilities, able to influence in different situations using multiple skills/techniques
• Excellent personal leadership skills that make you a leader among peers and teams without formal authority
• An effective set of negotiation skills that help you balance driving excellent commercial value with appropriate win:win results with supply partners
• The skills to get the best out of direct reports but it’s not essential that you have line management experience
• Subject matter expertise in relevant fields e.g. manufacturing, consumer electronics, sourcing or work experience in The Americas, multi-lingual skills, commodity expertise (electronics, textiles, plastics, packaging)
• An authentic desire and enthusiasm to work within a social purpose led scale up organisation committed to bettering the lives of women

Benefits

The benefits you’ll get:

We're on an exceptional journey. And we can offer you a genuinely purpose-led career with a culture built on trust, autonomy, and flexibility. In addition, we'll give you:

• Lots of flexibility: whether it’s working from home, doing the school run, or life admin, we understand that flexibility is essential, and we trust you to do the right thing for you and us
• Share options: we want everyone to have a stake in our success
• An annual discretionary bonus scheme
• 25 days’ annual leave, plus bank holidays
• 3 additional Elvie “in it together” bank holidays for 2022
• 8 extra life leave days; getting married, moving house, menopause or just things that you can’t put a label on that matter to you
• 5=10 leave: 10 days’ additional leave on your 5th and 10th years of service!
• £100 contribution to your home working set up to spend as you see fit
• An annual personal development allowance of £200 and unlimited access to our learning and development platform, Learnerbly
• Generous parental leave policies; maternity & adoption (16 weeks at full pay, then 8 weeks paid at 75% followed by 15 weeks at SMP rate.), paternity/partner (6 weeks at full pay to take at any point during the first year of your child’s life), shared parental leave
• Healthcare plans, life insurance, and an employee assistance program for you and your family
• A tax-efficient group pension scheme
• Group income protection; protect your salary if you get sick
• A free Elvie trainer for you to keep or give away when you join
• Generous employee and friends & family discounts on Elvie products
• Wellbeing support from YuLife and access to SmartHealth app with unlimited GP appointments for you and your family, plus various well-being initiatives throughout the year
• Lovely offices in great locations, with drinks and snacks provided, along with fun social events

What you can expect after you’ve applied:

A member of our recruitment team will reach out to you after they have reviewed your application. You must ensure your application is completed correctly, and we strongly encourage you to add a cover letter or note to let us know why Elvie’s the right fit for you.

We would like to get to know you through your background, attitude, experience and understand your motivation to work with us. Our interview process varies depending on the position, but it typically looks like this:

• 20-minute video call with one of our recruiters
• 30-45 minute video call with the Head of Project Management
• 45-60 minute video interview with the team
• For some positions, there may be an additional interview with one of our senior leadership team

This is undoubtedly a great time to join Elvie. You’ll have a voice, make an impact, and have the opportunity to mould your role. So be ready to learn, have fun, and be inspired by our passionate, talented team — and having a sense of humour helps too. 😉

We can’t wait to hear from you!