Principal - Supplier Management - Business Finance Organization (BFO) (all genders)

Join our dynamic Business Finance Organisation as a Principal - Supplier Management, contributing to the success of our Supplier Management (Negotiation) team and the broader Customer Propositions (Buying) organisation. In this role, you will play a crucial part in cultivating strong, long-term relationships with our suppliers, driving the company's commercial development and sustainable growth across the platform.

As a Principal - Supplier Management, you will be at the forefront of strategic projects aimed at enhancing both top and bottom-line performance. You will act as a financial co-pilot to our main stakeholders - Customer Propositions. You will utilise your commercial and financial skills and your negotiation experience to perform in-depth analysis of our suppliers' portfolio, identify commercial opportunities, perform financial planning and analytics, independently drive cross-functional projects and even actively collaborate in supplier negotiations. As a leader from within, you will work closely with key stakeholders, including those at senior leadership and executive levels across Finance, BFO and Customer Propositions, such as eg. Portfolio (Category) leaders and Supplier Captains, and you will have a direct impact on shaping the future of our commercial ventures.

If you think you have what it takes, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles!

At Zalando, our vision is to be the leading pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce – one that thrives on diversity and is truly inclusive by design. We believe that diverse teams fuel innovation and creativity, and we actively seek out talent from all backgrounds.

We actively seek to reduce bias in our hiring and employment processes, focusing on your qualifications, skills, and contributions. To support this, we kindly ask that you refrain from including personal details such as your photo, age, or marital status in your CV, ensuring a fair and equitable evaluation based solely on your abilities and potential.

We are committed to providing an exceptional and accessible candidate experience for everyone. If you require any accommodations to support you throughout the hiring process, please let us know – we are here to assist you.

Discover more about our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion

• Have an advanced understanding of the Fashion industry dynamics and commercial KPIs. Use it to independently perform quantitative analyses to identify opportunities for commercial improvement with our suppliers and partners, and maximise the value of negotiated agreements.

• Possess a curious, analytic mind paired with financial capabilities and be able to understand and process financial data and perform advanced analysis of the P&L waterfall and its drivers, cash flows and other financial parameters, and use findings to drive end-to-end improvements with cross-functional stakeholders.

• Leverage your commercial background and multi-year commercial negotiation experience to partner with Customer Propositions and support them in defining, shaping, and optimising their negotiation strategies and tactics, providing holistic support and peer-level leadership in developing win-win commercial relationships with suppliers. 

• Possess Project Management skills and be able to drive and successfully deliver on cross-functional projects by independently owning specific sub-workstreams, defining requirements, identifying and gathering the needed data, analysing information, and truly owning key projects. 

• Skillfully identify process gaps, dataset inconsistencies and broader improvement opportunities and proactively propose and drive solutions to implement these improvements, while demonstrating outstanding problem-solving skills, stakeholder management, collaboration, teamwork and willingness to learn.

• Possess seniority and proven leadership skills which enable you to be a “leader from within” and positively influence and lead team members, stakeholders and peers, including those at senior and executive leadership levels. 

• You have at least 7+ years of relevant working experience in one of the following areas: Finance or Banking, M&A, Consultancy, Planning, Buying/Merchandising, Controlling, Supplier Management, B2B Sales

• You have strong experience in the fashion industry and/or marketplace platform business models, and possess an analytical mind and problem-solving capabilities, complemented by an excellent understanding of commercial KPIs and financial parameters such as P&L and Cash Flow drivers 

• You demonstrate outstanding analytical skills and an ability to perform quantitative and qualitative financial analyses leveraging advanced modelling and data manipulation (ie. macros, pivots, etc.). Advanced knowledge of Excel and/or Google Sheets is a must, and some knowledge of SQL and/or Python is an advantage

• You are able to understand the strategic and financial impacts of the commercial data and business relationships analysed and you independently derive conclusions, and expose your findings in convincing verbal and written presentations. PPT and/or Google Slides advanced knowledge is required

• You possess seniority, strategic acumen, project and stakeholder management skills at a senior leadership level, and a self-starting, winning mentality, positive attitude, excellent communication, and demonstrated teamwork ability, paired with attention to detail

• You are fluent in English. 

Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.

• 27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees

• 2 paid volunteering days a year

• Hybrid working model with up to 60% remote per week, actual practice is up to each team to best support their collaboration

• Work from abroad for up to 30 working days a year

• Employee shares program

• 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners

• Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement)

• Family services, including counseling and support

• Health and wellbeing options (including Wellhub, formerly Gympass)

• Mental health support and coaching available

• Drive your development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review