The Area Pricing Leader will be the primary local employee ensuring that pricing procedures in the Area are aligned with divisional policies and practices. The Area Pricing Leader will work in concert with both Regional Pricing Leaders and Areas Sales Leaders to ensure that the Area generates appropriate top-line and bottom-line growth for the organization. This role encompasses several facets, including becoming a market pricing expert in the area of the country where the Area Pricing Leader resides. They are also the subject matter expert of local systems to ensure that there are controls in place to ensure data accuracy in the estimating system and will coordinate timely updates as needed to ensure the estimating system reflects current costs across various costing owners. Furthermore, the Area Pricing Leader ensures that Senior Analysts are following appropriate pricing policies. Additionally, the Area Pricing Leader continuously uncovers and coordinates margin improvement opportunities related to Soft and Hard savings within an Area to drive improved profitability for Smurfit Westrock.
Principal duties include:
Area Market Pricing ExpertiseFull comprehension of the market-based pricing policies of Smurfit Westrock.Develop awareness of Smurfit Westrock's unique value propositions that can be utilized to ensure the organizatoin is maximizing its pricing power on a case-by-case basis.Familiarity with the technical capabilities of plants of the Area and how they compare to competitors’ capabilities.Understanding of current pricing and profitability of customers currently in the Area’s customer portfolio.Awareness of the competitive landscape of the Area, and coordinate with Sales to price in a manner that facilitates the best way to attack new business opportunities.Track successes and failures of pricing activities and communicate with Commercial (Sales and Pricing) leadership on the outcome of various pricing decisions made within the Area.Control Point of Pricing Processes and Estimating System AccuracyManage the local process for all customer requests for quote and ensure policies and procedures are being followed within the Area.Coordinates price maintenance process and price record updates for Area.Ensure that costs are accurately reflected in the quoting process and facilitate the update of the estimating system when necessary with appropriate parties.Ensure that customer costs to serve by account are accurately reflected in the estimating system and facilitate the update of the estimating system when necessary with appropriate parties.Coordinate the education of Area Sales team on Smurfit Westrock pricing policies and procedures.Act as primary point of contact for Area when working with Regional / Division / Corporate Pricing leadership.Local Margin Improvement Team MemberResponsible for the identifying and/or executing of Pricing specific margin enhancement projects to meet or exceed monetary goals for each Pricing team member within the Area.Collaborate with Sales and Customer Service to identify and execute additional margin improvement opportunities. Coordinating activities of Senior Analysists in the AreaWill serve in "People Leader" role for Area Senior Analysts to manage work loads thus in turn helping ensure speed to market goals are met. Will be the primary point of contact between Regional Pricing Leads and Area Senior Analysts.What you need to succeed:
Continuous Learning / Continuous Improvement Mindset3+ years of experience in some combination of Pricing, Finance, Customer Service, and/or Operations.Understanding of the corrugated box manufacturing process.Familiarity with Smurfit Westrock's unique value propositions in the Area.Knowledge of various pricing practices (for example, Value Based vs. Transactional) and ability to identify when to apply the appropriate practice to a situation.Ability to collaborate across various levels of the organization.Understanding of KIWI, Amtech, etc. depending on Area estimating systems. Experience with the Qlik reporting platform.Extensive experience and knowledge level of Microsoft Office with emphasis on Excel. Candidates are required to undergo a drug screening after receiving a conditional job offer, but before starting employment.