Business Partner and Lead Buyer (m/f/d)

SGL Business Services (SBS), located in Alhos Vedros, Portugal, is a key Shared Services Center of the SGL Carbon Group.

Since 2016, SBS has been delivering high-quality support in Finance, Procurement and IT to multiple global sites.

Driven by a collaborative and dedicated team, SBS is committed to excellence, continuous improvement, and creating value across the SGL Carbon network.

SGL Business Services is offering an exciting opportunity as a

Business Partner and Lead Buyer (m/f/d)

We are looking for a Business Partner and Lead Buyer to define and drive our purchasing strategy, ensure compliance, and manage the effective and efficient procurement of direct spend categories in line with overall business and purchasing objectives.

Your Responsibilities:

• Manage suppliers within your designated categories and areas of responsibility
• Develop strategies for categories and serve as the subject-matter expert on key goods and services
• Create and execute action plans to meet targets for cost, quality, and delivery
• Negotiate prices, terms, and conditions of agreements and execute contracts with suppliers
• Evaluate industry trends to assess potential impacts and initiate actions for supply chain continuity
• Build and maintain domestic and international long-term relationships with suppliers
• Manage purchases of goods and services for sites, completing transactions in SAP
• Act as the interface between sites and suppliers to resolve issues promptly
• Research discrepancies between invoices and purchase orders, and approve invoices for accounts payable
• Conduct TCO bid analysis and negotiate beneficial agreements
• Track performance of closed contracts and validate local contracts
• Provide coaching and leadership to develop team skills in a collaborative environment
• Create and maintain SAP Master Data
• Act as a strategic and operational partner to the Business Unit's Management Committee, facilitating projects, optimizing processes, and interacting across departments to achieve business goals

Your Profile:

• Relevant degree in Supply Chain, Business, or related field with proven expertise in strategic procurement, supplier management, and category strategy development
• Strong negotiation skills with experience in TCO analysis, contract execution, and cost/quality/delivery optimization
• Hands-on experience with SAP for purchasing, invoicing, Master Data maintenance, and transaction processing
• Ability to analyze industry trends, mitigate supply chain risks, and build global supplier relationships.
• Collaborative leadership style with coaching experience in team-based environments
• Strategic mindset as a facilitator for business optimization, projects, and cross-departmental collaboration
• English is mandatory; German or other languages are an advantage