Associate Director Procurement - Consulting and Legal Services

NielsenIQ•Chicago, IL

14h•$114,800 - $145,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Together, we enable businesses to understand consumers and make better decisions. NielsenIQ is a leading global consumer intelligence company delivering the most complete understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to growth. By combining advanced analytics with comprehensive consumer purchase data, NielsenIQ helps manufacturers and retailers innovate, optimize performance, and succeed in highly competitive markets. Operating in more than 90 countries and covering most of the world’s population, NielsenIQ partners with many of the world’s leading consumer goods and retail organizations to translate data into actionable insights that drive growth and better business decisions. For more information, please visit http://www.niq.com/. Within this global environment, Procurement plays a critical role in enabling NIQ’s research operations, technology platforms, and professional services. The function partners closely with business and operational leaders to ensure access to the right capabilities, suppliers, and solutions while maintaining strong governance, risk management, and cost discipline. As NielsenIQ continues to scale its global operations and strengthen its operating model, the Procurement organization is focused on delivering strategic sourcing, supplier management, and value creation across key spend categories, supporting both operational excellence and long-term business growth. This position operates on a hybrid model for anyone currently living in the Unites States, requiring the ability to commute to one of our NIQ US office locations. The Procurement Associate Director leads the global category strategy and operations for consulting and legal services, directing a team to deliver sustained value and cost savings, stakeholder and supplier relationship, risk management, internal controls, and supplier-driven innovation. This role partners with senior business and functional leaders to ensure external advisory and legal services are engaged in a global and scalable value-focused way, balancing agility with governance, cost transparency and supplier performance to deliver measurable impact aligned with enterprise priorities. The work of the Procurement Associate Director falls into four broad areas: leadership, strategic thought and planning, supply market influence and stakeholder Management. This position is a key leadership role and directly impacts the Procurement mission to grow its capability to maximize value creation and leveraging of external suppliers and partnerships and become a highly trusted strategic partner for the business. This newly created position tackles a whitespace area – hence it requires a good understanding of the change management process and related soft skills to bring the senior leaders on board. This position builds and develops the Procurement Team through coaching, mentoring, training and skills development, as well as providing effective rewards and recognition and a healthy career path for the organization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Administration, Finance, Economics, Supply Chain, or a related field.
12 to 15 years of experience in strategic procurement or category management, with significant exposure to professional services categories, such as consulting, advisory services, or legal services in a global or multi-regional organization.
Demonstrated leadership ability to set direction, prioritize work, and drive execution in complex environments.
Strong experience partnering with senior business stakeholders on complex external advisory engagements.
Strong commercial judgment and negotiation experience in professional services environments.
Proven change agent
Experience working in matrix organizations and influencing stakeholders without direct authority.
Strong strategic thinking with the ability to translate business priorities into clear category approaches and supplier strategies.
Ability to operate effectively in a fast paced global environment.
Excellent communication and relationship management skills.
Strong understanding of procurement systems and digital tools supporting sourcing, contracting and spend management
Experience using procurement platforms and analytics tools to improve visibility and control of supplier spend
Ability to drive improvements in procurement processes through systems and digital enablement

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree such as MBA or relevant professional certification is a plus.
Procurement or Supply Chain professional certifications are a plus.

Responsibilities

Leads the development and deployment of global and/or regional Procurement strategies for the assigned categories.
Partner with business leaders to challenge and refine demand for external consulting and legal services, while ensuring appropriate governance and value delivery. Operate as a strategic advisor to business and functional leaders.
Ensure consulting and legal engagements have clear objectives, deliverables and measurable outcomes.
Establish clear visibility and transparency of consulting and legal spend across business units and functions.
Maintain a high-quality qualified supply base of advisory partners, including consulting firms, specialized boutiques and legal service suppliers.
Ensure access to the right expertise globally while avoiding unnecessary supplier proliferation.
Influence on supplier management to make strategic and operational interventions that link to NielsenIQ business needs, which could include cost, availability, innovation, reliability, etc.
Build effective business relationships with supplier management and link them to the right people in NielsenIQ, influencing business unit and functional leaders to productively leverage supplier competencies.
Oversee performance and commercial alignment of key advisory partners.
Define engagement structures and commercial frameworks appropriate for advisory services while ensuring fair market pricing and clear scope definitions for advisory work
Develop and improve organizational capability to deliver significant business results, through staffing/assignment planning, career planning and development, budgeting and coaching, under the values and principles of the organization. Lead the development of procurement processes and enabling systems.
Participate in ongoing training and professional development of the Procurement organization.