Team Lead Supplier Performance Management

About VAT Group

At VAT, we change the world with vacuum solutions. As the world’s leading supplier of high-performance vacuum valves, we have been driving innovation for more than 60 years. With over 3,200 employees worldwide, we operate from our headquarters in Haag, Switzerland, with manufacturing sites in Switzerland, Malaysia and Romania, as well as sales and service hubs around the world. We are guided by our passions integrity, teamwork, customer centricity, and innovation – always working together as #oneVAT.

Joining us means becoming part of a passionate, international team where your voice is heard, your ideas matter, and your career growth is supported.

Purpose of the role:

• The Team Lead Supplier Performance Management is responsible for operational team coordination and for monitoring, analyzing, and improving the performance of Swiss suppliers, focusing on On Time Delivery (OTD), quality, responsiveness, and supply stability.
• The role is strictly focused on operational execution, monitoring, escalation, and corrective action follow up.
• This role does not have authority over strategic sourcing decisions, supplier selection, contract terms, commercial negotiations, or imposing binding commercial requirements on suppliers.
• All supplier performance frameworks, criteria, and escalation rules are defined in Switzerland.
• The role operates exclusively within these boundaries and functionally reports to the Swiss organization.
• The role supports analysis preparation, execution of corrective actions, and operational alignment with Supply Chain functions but does not define strategy and does not hold any final decision making power with commercial impact.
• The scope is strictly limited to Swiss suppliers.

Responsabilities:

• Provide daily team leadership and operational support
• Conduct regular 1:1 meetings, performance evaluations, and goal setting
• Coach and develop team members
• Foster a positive, collaborative, high performance team culture
• Plan and prioritize team activities
• Manage capacity, task distribution, and absence planning
• Ensure achievement of operational KPIs
• Optimize processes and workflows
• Monitor supplier KPIs (OTD, lead time adherence, quality PPM, responsiveness, etc.)
• Maintain dashboards and scorecards
• Conduct performance reviews with Swiss suppliers
• Identify performance gaps and risks
• Analyze root causes of delivery delays
• Coordinate recovery plans
• Follow up on 8D, CAPA, and corrective actions
• Escalate performance issues per Swiss escalation framework
• Collaborate with Supply Chain Planning, Supplier Quality, Logistics, and Strategic Sourcing
• Align demand with supplier capacity
• Support ramp up planning to avoid operational risks
• Identify and report supply risks
• Maintain supplier risk assessments
• Act as 2nd level escalation for plant planners
• Escalate timely to Strategic Sourcing in Switzerland
• Prepare materials for management escalations
• Operational Support: Prepare RFQ document packages and support operational activities for Category Management.

Experience Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Business, Engineering, or related field
• 3+ years in procurement, supply chain, or supplier management, ideally in the semiconductor industry
• Strong analytical skills (Excel, BI tools preferred)
• Experience with KPI dashboards and performance tracking
• Strong understanding of planning and advanced inventory management concepts, as well as material flow processes
• Knowledge of ERP systems (D365 preferred)
• Root cause analysis methodology (5 Why, Fishbone)
• Lean / Continuous Improvement mindset
• Strong communication skills with internal stakeholders and suppliers
• Ability to manage difficult supplier conversations
• Conflict management in a complex environment
• Structured approach to problem solving
• Data driven decision making
• Independent, resilient, and proactive personality with strong assertiveness, negotiation skills, and organizational talent; demonstrates a highly structured and process oriented working style
• Languages: Very good German and very good English skills (written and spoken)

Our commitment to inclusion, fairness and equal opportunities

We believe in meaningful careers, continuous learning, and equal opportunities for everyone to drive our innovation and success. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and respectful workplace. If you have concerns, our compliance channel is available at our website. All reports are handled with strict confidentiality and in accordance with our Code of Conduct.