How You'll Help Us Keep Climbing (Overview & Key Responsibilities)
We are establishing a dedicated Procurement Cost Intelligence function to advance our category management maturity through rigorous cost modeling and analysis. We seek an accomplished, strategic leader to build and lead this new discipline, closing critical gaps in cost visibility and driving a culture of cost transparency and savings across the enterprise. Reporting to the Managing Director – Supply Chain CoE, the General Manager will oversee a team with three direct reports and partner closely with Procurement, Finance, Operations, and CoE Analytics teams. You will develop and deploy robust cost models, should-cost methodologies, and bill-of-materials (BOM) analyses that inform sourcing strategy, supplier negotiations, and value realization in our most important spend categories.
This role will also lead a targeted “Tiger Team” internal consulting model to deliver measurable cost savings through process efficiency and operating model improvements in priority categories.
The ideal candidate is a hands-on strategist who has personally built sophisticated cost models in real business settings and can both chart the vision and dive into the details as needed.
Key Responsibilities
- Build Cost Intelligence Capability & Frameworks: Establish and own standardized cost modeling frameworks, tools, and governance for the enterprise. Create methodologies for cost estimating, cost driver analysis, and cost reporting that can be applied across categories to ensure consistency and high quality of all cost insights. Define best practices for service cost modeling (e.g. labor rate models, utilization assumptions) and product cost breakdowns.
- Activity-Based Costing (ABC) & Should‑Cost Excellence: Lead the development of Activity-Based Costing (ABC) “should‑cost” models, aligning cost drivers to actual operational activities. Build and maintain should‑cost vs. actual cost analytics to identify gaps, leakage, inefficiencies, and realization risks. Apply Bill of Materials (BOM) and service cost breakdown methodologies where applicable, including: Labor-intensive service BOMs (roles, hours, productivity, overhead, margin), Product and consumables BOMs (materials, ingredients, packaging, logistics). Partner with Finance and Operations to reconcile model outputs with actuals and ensure alignment with financial reporting.
- Enterprise Cost Visibility & Analytics: Ensure that the cost base and key cost drivers for each major spend area are rigorously analyzed, tracked, and clearly understood by business leaders. Drive the conversion of raw cost data (rates, supplier quotes, operational metrics, G&A allocations) into actionable intelligence and insights that inform budgeting, forecasting, and investment decisions. Proactively highlight cost trends, outliers, and opportunities for efficiency across the organization.
- G&A Cost Transparency: Drive greater transparency into General & Administrative (G&A) costs and other support function expenses (e.g. IT & Digital Services, HR Services, Corporate Services like Marketing, Consulting). Develop models to break down and monitor these costs (such as labor vs. non-labor components, rate cards, utilization of services) and identify opportunities to optimize service levels and unit costs.
- Lead “Tiger Team” Internal Consulting for Cost Savings: Deploy a 2 person team on targeted, high-impact initiatives to drive cost savings through process efficiency improvements, operating model redesign, and demand and consumption optimization. Partner across Procurement, Finance, Operations, and functional leaders to identify opportunities, execute diagnostics, and deliver measurable savings. Ensure insights and solutions are scaled and institutionalized, not one-off fixes.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration & Influence: Serve as the enterprise’s subject matter expert and advisor on third-party cost intelligence. Work closely with Procurement category leaders to embed cost analysis into category planning and supplier management processes. Collaborate with Finance (FP&A and accounting) to reconcile procurement-driven savings with financial results and to improve cost allocation models.
- Leadership & Talent Development: Lead and develop a high-performing cost intelligence team. Directly manage three cost analysts. Foster a culture of curiosity, continuous improvement, and proactive cost leadership within the team and across the broader organization.
What You Need To Succeed (Minimum Qualifications)
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, or related field required.
- 5+ years of experience in roles focused on cost analysis, cost engineering, or strategic procurement. A track record of personally developing and applying cost models to drive business decisions is essential.
- Mastery of cost modeling techniques and tools. This includes advanced proficiency with Excel/spreadsheet modeling, scenario analysis, and potentially specialized cost modeling software or statistical tools. Strong understanding of cost accounting and financial analysis concepts (e.g. fixed vs variable costs, allocations, overhead, depreciation) and how they relate to operational processes. Experience with building or analyzing Bill of Materials (BOMs) and cost breakdowns for products or complex services. Familiarity with should-cost analysis and methodologies for service cost estimation and product teardowns.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to effectively communicate complex data analysis and insights to stakeholders at all levels.
- Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment and influence others to achieve common goals.
- Experience in a leadership or managerial role is preferred.
- Consistently prioritizes safety and security of self, others, and personal data.
- Embraces diverse people, thinking, and styles.
- Possesses a high school diploma, GED, or high school equivalency.
- Is at least 18 years of age and has authorization to work in the United States.
What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (Preferred Qualifications)
- MBA or relevant master’s degree is highly valued.
- Experience in or supporting category management, strategic sourcing, or finance in a large, complex organization (e.g. Fortune 500 or global industrial/manufacturing environment) is highly desired.
- Comfortable working with large datasets; experience leveraging BI tools or analytics platforms to automate and visualize cost data is a plus.
Benefits And Perks To Help You Keep Climbing
Our culture is rooted in a shared dedication to living our values – Care, Integrity, Resilience, Servant Leadership, and Teamwork – every day, in everything we do. At Delta, our people are our success. At the heart of what we offer is our focus on Sharing Success with Delta employees. Exploring a career at Delta gives you a chance to see the world while earning great compensation and benefits to help you keep climbing along the way:
- Competitive salary, industry-leading profit sharing program, and performance incentives
- 401(k) with generous company contributions up to 9%
- Paid time off including vacation, holidays, paid personal time, maternity and parental leave
- Comprehensive health benefits including medical, dental, vision, short/long term disability and life benefits
- Family care assistance through fertility support, surrogacy and adoption assistance, lactation support, subsidized back-up care, and programs that help with loved ones in all stages
- Holistic Wellbeing programs to support physical, emotional, social, and financial health, including access to an employee assistance program offering support for you and anyone in your household, free financial coaching, and extensive resources supporting mental health
- Domestic and International space-available flight privileges for employees and eligible family members
- Career development programs to achieve your long-term career goals
- World-wide partnerships to engage in community service and innovative goals created to focus on sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint
- Business Resource Groups created to connect employees with common interests to promote inclusion, provide perspective and help implement strategies
- Recognition rewards and awards through the platform Unstoppable Together
- Access to over 500 discounts, specialty savings and voluntary benefits through Deltaperks such as car and hotel rentals and auto, home, and pet insurance, legal services, and childcare
