Director of Procurement and Sourcing

Akebia Therapeutics•Cambridge, MA

7h•$207,935 - $256,861•Hybrid

About The Position

This position is currently based in our Cambridge, MA office. Please note that our offices will be relocating to Waltham, MA later this year, and this role will transition accordingly. We follow a flexible, “magnet not mandate” approach to in-office work, encouraging collaboration and onsite engagement while supporting hybrid flexibility based on role and business needs. Nearly 37 million Americans are currently affected by Chronic Kidney Disease. 37 million. At Akebia we take that number very seriously and every day we come to work, with the purpose of bettering the lives of each person impacted by kidney disease and the renal community that serves them. Our tenacious, passionate employees’ challenge the status quo and work to develop unique therapeutics that have the potential to set new standards of care for people living with kidney disease. This is life-changing work, and we are all in, are you? DIRECTOR OF PROCUREMENT AND SOURCING Job Summary: Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, this role is responsible for leading, enhancing, and overseeing all aspects of the requisition-to-pay processes and sourcing. The role will support Akebia’s research activities, including on-going clinical trial activities, as well as ongoing commercialization of the company’s two approved products. This includes managing Akebia’s global contracting process and negotiating contracts, including vendor purchase agreements, MSAs, SOWs, license agreements and NDAs. The role will entail overseeing the continued enhancement and execution of tools and systems to support all functions with sourcing, negotiating, reviewing, and executing contracts and procurement transactions to meet the needs of the organization and drive continuous improvement. He/she will lead the organizational evolution by addressing gaps in core capabilities and associated process and technology/systems upgrades, as appropriate. The leader will work closely with departments across the organization.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in procurement related activities in the life science industry and
10+ years of experience in strategic sourcing and supplier management.
This is a lead negotiator role.
Must possess demonstrated prior experience in process development, strong collaboration skills to partner with internal and external stakeholders, ability in organizing, analyzing and reporting complex information.
Requires a BA/BS with an MBA preferred.
Excellent knowledge of Procurement Operations and Sourcing
Understands comprehensive global pharmaceutical regulatory requirements (e.g. cGMP, GDP, and GCP).
Possess excellent analytical, communication, decision making, interpersonal and organizational skills.
Comprehensive knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and other normal office software.
Understands comprehensive Sarbanes-Oxley regulatory requirements.
Team player who can handle multiple tasks simultaneously in a fast-growing company, good time management skills, and willingness to exert extra effort as required.

Nice To Haves

Strategic Vision – Ability to recognize, forecast and communicate events, which may impact the business.
Leadership – Ability to guide a team in the day-to-day and long-term related activities.
Communication – ability to communicate ideas and data both verbally and written, in a persuasive, organized and appropriate manner, including running meetings and preparing presentation for internal and external groups. Ability to communicate effectively with Senior Management. Ability to “push back” in a respectful manner and to present “unpopular” ideas and messages when necessary.
Analytical – ability to determine methods and types of analyses to be performed to address a business question. Ability to interpret and question data inputs to financial models and support alternative recommendations as necessary.
Management – ability to set priorities for a team and meet specific deadlines in a changing environment. Ability to be flexible, accommodating, and deal with change effectively.
Customer Service Orientation – Ability to gain trust of executives and contribute to their success from information gained through networking and an understanding of the business.
Teamwork – Ability to foster good working relationships among team members and work effectively in and contribute to a team environment.
Entrepreneurial – Ability and desire to take ownership of activities and projects, desire to shape the organization, consistent “out-of-the-box” thinking.
Ability to attract best I class Procurement resources to the company.

Responsibilities

Lead the Procurement and Sourcing organizational structure to support the current and future needs of the company.
Work with ET/LT to improve and enhance procurement function
Draft, review, revise and negotiate a wide variety of contracts with customers and suppliers.
Lead contract negotiations, liaising with relevant department leaders as appropriate; support and advise internal clients.
Analyze contract risk – highlight and communicate business and financial risks/considerations during contract negotiation process.
Maintain tracking systems to provide stratus report on pending contracts; track and report various requisition-to-pay turnaround times.
Enhance and streamline current procurement processes, in collaboration with Finance and Legal departments.
In collaboration with Finance, ensure the execution of a seamless and efficient Requisition-to-Pay process in support of corporate financial reporting activities.
Set the strategic and tactical direction for Strategic Sourcing and Procurement, aligned with the company’s goals and company policy.
As a business partner, support all internal functions that have requirements to identify new and the most appropriate sources of supply.
Drive the GMP Strategic Sourcing initiatives by engaging CMC and Supply Chain functions in addressing current and future needs; ensure compliance with GxP and regulatory requirements.
Establish and execute category supply strategies, lead cross-functional sourcing and contract negotiations; examine and re-evaluate existing contracts, where appropriate.
Leverage functional departments and oversee centralization of RFP and supplier selection process, driving the team towards timely decisions.
Ensure appropriate communication, issues resolution, and involvement across functions, programs, and providers to create an atmosphere of joint accountability for cost control, quality delivery, and business relationships.
Lead the supplier business review process and participate in the creation and implementation of Master Service Agreements driving best-in-class cost models and pricing.
Lead cross-functional vendor management initiatives to drive improvement in the overall supplier performance.
Work extensively with the Clinical Development and CMC functions in securing and managing preferred CRO’s and CMO’s, including dual manufacturers at competitive pricing.
Develop and implement appropriate KPI’s to measure both supplier and functional effectiveness.
Review and execute procurement transactions on behalf of all functions, including obtaining all necessary internal approvals to necessitate the issuance of a purchase order.
Maintain Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, supporting processes and documentation.
Train and support functional departments on all related processes and policies.
Serve as the key escalation point and issue resolution contact for all business supplier related issues.
Develop processes that are aligned with Akebia’s information systems environment.
Drive process efficiencies and maturity through effective enhancement and utilization of IT business solutions.
Utilize and manage spend and transactional data to build critical support processes and identify areas for improvement, streamlining, spend consolidation, savings, etc.
Support the internal and external quarterly and year-end audits