At Armstrong Fluid Technology, we are at the forefront of innovation in fluid-flow technology. With more than 1,400 colleagues worldwide, eight manufacturing facilities, and operations spanning four continents, we are committed to engineering smarter solutions that improve building performance and help safeguard our planet.
We are looking for an experienced Sourcing Commodity Manager to lead strategic sourcing activities across our North American operations, with a focus on product and component commodities. Reporting to the Global Category Manager, you will play a key role in developing category strategies, optimizing supplier performance, driving cost competitiveness, and strengthening our regional and global supply chain.
What We Offer:
- Competitive Compensation: Annual salary range of $95,000–$105,000.
- Comprehensive Benefits: Access to a full employee benefits package.
- Retirement Savings: RRSP program to support your long-term financial goals.
- Strategic Influence: Drive sourcing strategies, supplier development, and cost optimization across key manufacturing categories.
- Global Collaboration: Work alongside international procurement, engineering, operations, finance, and supply chain teams.
- Professional Development: Expand your strategic sourcing, commercial negotiation, and cost-management expertise within a global engineering organization.
- Business Impact: Directly contribute to supply chain resilience, operational efficiency, and long-term business competitiveness.
The Opportunity: As the Sourcing Commodity Manager, you will lead strategic sourcing initiatives for North American operations, focusing on key product and component categories, including metal fabrication, castings, machining, pumps, fittings and valves, motors, drives, seals, plastics, and other engineered components. You will play a critical role in developing and executing category strategies, managing supplier relationships, and driving cost-reduction initiatives through advanced cost modeling, should-cost analysis, and fact-based commercial negotiations. Working closely with Engineering, Operations, Finance, Quality, Purchase and Planning Managers, and global sourcing stakeholders, you will identify cost-saving opportunities, strengthen supplier capabilities, mitigate supply chain risks, and ensure alignment with global sourcing strategies. A key focus of this role will be developing and maintaining robust cost models to establish competitive target pricing, improve supplier cost transparency, and support strategic sourcing decisions across our North American operations.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Sourcing & Category Management
- Lead sourcing activities for key Product & Components commodities, including metal fabrication, castings, machining, pumps, fittings and valves, pipes, motors, drives, seals, and plastics.
- Develop and execute category-specific sourcing strategies in collaboration with key cross-functional stakeholders.
- Evaluate supplier capabilities, capacity, competitiveness, cost structures, and overall market positioning to support strategic sourcing decisions.
- Manage end-to-end procurement activities for engineered components and manufacturing requirements.
- Develop sourcing strategies for outsourced machining and fabrication, ensuring quality, cost optimization, and timely delivery.
- Support make-versus-buy, localization, dual-sourcing, supplier consolidation, and regional/global sourcing decisions.
- Drive supplier consolidation initiatives to reduce supply chain complexity and improve overall procurement efficiency.
- Manage procurement of indirect materials supporting plant and operational requirements.
- Support new product development initiatives by evaluating potential suppliers, manufacturing processes, capabilities, and cost competitiveness.
Cost Modeling, Analytics & Commercial Negotiations
- Develop and maintain detailed should-cost, clean-sheet, and total-cost models for strategic categories and engineered components.
- Build bottom-up cost models using engineering drawings, bills of materials (BOMs), specifications, manufacturing processes, and production routings.
- Establish cost-driver databases and monitor relevant commodity and market indices, including raw materials, energy, labour, freight, and other major cost inputs.
- Analyze supplier quotations and validate cost breakdowns against internal cost models, historical pricing, market benchmarks, and manufacturing assumptions.
- Establish competitive target costs and negotiation ranges for new sourcing projects, RFQs, new product development, supplier transitions, and cost-reduction initiatives.
- Lead fact-based supplier negotiations using cost analysis to challenge pricing, validate cost increases, and achieve improved commercial outcomes.
- Identify cost-reduction opportunities through clean-sheet analysis, manufacturing efficiencies, material selection, productivity improvements, and supplier optimization.
- Conduct price variance and cost-driver analysis to distinguish legitimate market-driven cost changes from supplier inefficiencies and margin-related increases.
- Lead annual cost-reduction initiatives and conduct regular cost benchmarking to maintain market competitiveness.
- Develop standardized cost-modeling methodologies, tools, and templates to improve consistency, transparency, and governance across North American sourcing operations.
Supplier Management & Operational Excellence
- Manage supplier performance and collaborate with internal stakeholders to develop and implement supplier improvement initiatives.
- Partner with Engineering, Operations, Finance, Quality, and Supply Chain teams to validate technical specifications, manufacturing processes, productivity assumptions, and supplier cost structures.
- Conduct ongoing supplier, commodity, and procurement market risk assessments and develop appropriate risk-mitigation strategies.
- Support supply continuity and provide critical sourcing solutions in response to plant and operational requirements.
- Ensure compliance with company sourcing governance, procurement policies, supplier selection processes, and cost-change approval requirements.
- Support the implementation of sustainable supplier strategies that align with operational requirements and global sourcing objectives.
- Collaborate with global commodity and category managers to ensure alignment between regional sourcing activities and broader organizational strategies.
- Drive continuous improvement in procurement processes, supplier management practices, and cost-management methodologies.
What We're Looking For:
Education & Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant working experience.
- College diploma in Supply Chain Management is considered an asset.
- Minimum 5 years of experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, and category management within industrial or manufacturing environments.
- Demonstrated experience developing and implementing strategic sourcing and category management initiatives.
- Professional certification such as SCMP, ISM, or ASCM is considered a strong asset.
- Experience managing engineered components, manufacturing commodities, and supplier relationships within a multi-site or international supply chain environment.
Technical & Commercial Skills
- Demonstrated expertise in should-cost, clean-sheet, and bottom-up cost modeling for engineered and manufactured components.
- Strong understanding of manufacturing processes and cost structures, including casting, machining, fabrication, motor manufacturing, assembly, and metal processing.
- Ability to interpret engineering drawings, BOMs, technical specifications, and manufacturing routings to develop detailed cost models.
- Strong knowledge of raw material pricing, commodity indices, conversion costs, labour rates, machine-hour rates, tooling, yield/scrap, overhead allocation, logistics, and supplier margins.
- Experience analyzing supplier quotations, validating cost breakdowns, and identifying pricing discrepancies and cost-reduction opportunities.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including financial and cost analysis, scenario modeling, sensitivity analysis, data visualization, and working with large datasets.
- Strong understanding of ERP systems, preferably within an industrial manufacturing environment.
- Experience with procurement reporting, system-based categorization, and sourcing analytics.
- Knowledge of supplier management, procurement governance, and supply chain risk mitigation best practices.
Additional Requirements
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams across multiple sites and geographic regions.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and data interpretation capabilities.
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a fast-paced, time-sensitive environment.
- High-level proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite.
- Self-motivated, results-oriented, and committed to achieving annual goals and objectives.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence and negotiate effectively with internal and external stakeholders.
- Strong interpersonal skills and demonstrated leadership capabilities.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining a high level of accuracy, accountability, and attention to detail.
Location: Scarborough, ON.
Work Arrangement: In-Office, Monday to Friday.
