Sean Carpenter

About Sean Carpenter

I am a procurement and supply chain leader with 10 years of experience delivering cost savings, supplier performance improvements, and cross-functional transformation at leading global companies like Tesla, International, and Axon. I have experience achieving results by influencing across organizations as well as directly managing a team of procurement professionals. I am energized by working in dynamic environments, where I can solve complex problems and drive operational change from the ground up. My core strengths lie in strategic sourcing, global supplier management, negotiation, and supply risk management.What sets me apart is my ability to bridge strategy and execution: aligning stakeholders across engineering, operations, and finance while delivering measurable results. With experience at both large organizations and agile startups environment, I’ve led complex direct material category strategies managing up to $120M in spend. I have used my skills to drive over $35M in cost savings through localization and supplier consolidation, and executed sourcing for fast-paced new product launches. I earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a double major in Economics and Classical Studies. This laid the foundation for my analytical, data-driven approach to procurement and operational problem-solving. Attending Penn also exposed me to diverse groups of classmates and future leaders from across the world and various industry. That background continues to inform my ability to lead cost transformation initiatives that stick.Skills & Competencies- Strategic Sourcing - Global Supplier Management- Negotiation- Risk Management- Financial Analysis- Supplier Industrialization / Development- Project Management- Cost Modeling- Cross Functional Team Leadership- People Management

Experience

1. Category Manager

   International

   Apr 2022 — Present · Chicago, IL, US

   Sourcing Category Manager and CMT co-lead for Steering Systems and Fifth Wheel. Responsible for managing ~$135M annual direct material spend including subcategories: steering gears, pitman arms, steering columns, steering pumps, i-shafts, drag links, fifth wheels, and other related components. Establishing multi year category sourcing strategy and executing cost reduction and improvement projects. negotiating to mitigate inflationary impacts, improve cash flow, and execute CSAs.

Education

• University of Pennsylvania

  Bachelor of Arts (BA), Economics

  2012 — 2015

Skills

• Cross-Functional Problem Solving
• Plm Tools
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Microsoft Excel
• Procurement
• Data Analysis
• Enterprise Resource Planning (Erp)
• Strategic Sourcing
• Complexity Reduction
• Cross Functional Team Building
• Management
• Procure-to-Pay
• Sap Products
• Competitive Intelligence
• Research
• Financial Analysis
• Cost Reduction
• Customer Service
• Continuous Improvement