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Novolex is a leading manufacturer of food, beverage, and specialty packaging that supports multiple industries including foodservice, restaurant delivery and carryout, food processing, grocery and retail, and industrial sectors. Novolex manufacturing and sourcing expertise spans a diverse range of substrates including resin, paper, molded fiber, aluminum and more. We provide customers a broad array of stock and customized solutions with 120 product categories, 250 brands and over 39,000 SKUs.

The Novolex sustainability vision is built upon three pillars: our products, our operations and our people. Each is critically important to our growth and future as a business. These pillars form the foundation of our company-wide commitment to sustainability, helping us achieve our ambitious goals through our wide-ranging initiatives.

This is a hybrid position with 3 days a week in our Lake Forest, IL office.

Position Summary

Novolex is seeking a highly analytical, strategic, and results-driven Procurement Analyst to join the Procurement Center of Excellence (COE) Analytical Team. This role will serve as a critical business partner across Procurement, Finance, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, IT, HR, and plant leadership to drive sourcing discipline, cost optimization, and compliance across enterprise spend categories.

The ideal candidate will combine strong customer focus, financial acumen, data analytics expertise, sourcing knowledge, and project coordination capability to develop actionable insights, support competitive bidding events, improve total cost of ownership, and strengthen supplier performance.

 This position will play a key role in building scalable procurement analytics, supporting annual operating plan (AOP) development, enabling capital project procurement governance, and accelerating value creation.

Key Responsibilities

Spend Analytics

• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve spend analytics across key spend categories.
• Build total cost of ownership models that evaluate supplier pricing, service levels, implementation costs, freight, maintenance, warranty exposure, and ongoing operating impacts.
• Support monthly, quarterly, and annual forecasting processes for spend, including budget tracking and variance analysis versus AOP.
• Provide analytical support to category leaders and business stakeholders through dashboards, scorecards, and executive-ready reporting.

Strategic Sourcing & Competitive Event Support

• Support development, execution, and analysis of RFIs, RFPs, and RFQs across procurement categories.
• Normalize supplier proposals and perform commercial analysis on pricing, payment terms, service levels, warranty provisions, and implementation timelines.
• Track sourcing pipelines, savings delivery, contract milestones, and project implementation status across assigned categories.
• Support negotiation preparation through market benchmarking, scenario modeling, and supplier fact-based analysis.

AOP & Spend Governance

• Support Procurement, Finance, and business teams in AOP development by modeling spend assumptions and capital investment plans.
• Maintain reporting that measures savings, cost avoidance, compliance, and spend performance versus budget and forecast.
• Support leadership reporting for monthly business reviews, quarterly business reviews, and executive updates.
• Help enforce sourcing governance, approval workflows, and documentation standards for procurement activities.

Supplier Performance, Risk & Contract Governance

• Support supplier scorecards, service-level performance reviews, and contract compliance tracking across procurement suppliers.
• Monitor supplier risk related to financial health, operational capability, geographic exposure, safety performance, quality trends, and continuity of supply.
• Maintain sourcing files, bid summaries, contracts, and supporting documentation to ensure audit readiness and policy compliance.

Data Systems, Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Build dashboards, scorecards, and analytics tools using ERP, Coupa, Power BI, Excel, and other procurement systems to improve decision-making and visibility.
• Improve data quality, reporting automation, and master data discipline across procurement operations and capital project tracking.
• Support procurement process improvement, standard work, and COE capability development across sourcing and procure-to-pay activities.
• Help establish scalable best practices, templates, and governance tools that strengthen procurement execution.

Qualifications

Required

• 3–7 years of experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, supply chain analytics, finance, or operations analysis.
• Strong financial modeling, spend analysis, and cost management experience.
• Advanced Excel capabilities, including complex formulas, pivot tables, data analysis, and scenario modeling.
• Experience with ERP systems, procurement platforms, or business intelligence tools (e.g., SAP, Tableau, Coupa, Power BI).
• Working knowledge of strategic sourcing, contract management, and procure-to-pay processes for procurement categories.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, work cross-functionally, and communicate effectively in a fast-paced environment.

Preferred

• Experience in manufacturing, packaging, industrial operations, or a multi-site environment.
• Experience supporting RFx events, supplier negotiations, contract analysis, and savings tracking.
• Knowledge of capital approval processes, project procurement, or lifecycle cost analysis.
• Power BI, SQL, or other advanced analytics and reporting tools.

With safety as our top priority and a commitment to employee well-being an important focus, we offer comprehensive and competitive benefits that include medical, dental and vision insurance as well as a variety of other well-being resources focused on mental, physical and financial health. Specific benefits and well-being programs may vary depending on where you work.

At Novolex, giving back to the local communities that support us is important. Our Focused Giving Program prioritizes support for organizations whose missions promote sustainability initiatives or address food and hunger needs. We also encourage facility level support of activities in the communities where our employees live and work.

We offer constant opportunities for advancement. From skills development to advanced education programs, training and development programs and courses are available through MyLearning. Programs include company and industry training curricula, support for formal education through the Tuition Reimbursement Program (Non-Union), and a Learning Management System that supports and enhances employee skills at all levels of the organization.

Novolex is committed to providing equal employment opportunity in all employment practices, including but not limited to selection, hiring, promotion, transfer, and compensation to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to age, race, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, handicap or disability, genetics, citizenship status, service member or veteran status, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local law. Any individual who, because of his or her disability, needs an accommodation in connection with an aspect of the Company's application process should contact myHRservices@novolex.com.

Formerly Pactiv Evergreen