IT Category Manager – Strategic Sourcing & Vendor Management

Electric Reliability Council of Texas•Taylor, TX

About The Position

The IT Category Manager – Strategic Sourcing & Vendor Management develops and executes category, sourcing, contracting, and vendor management strategies across assigned Information Technology spend categories. The role serves as a strategic commercial partner to IT leadership, Procurement, the Vendor Management Office, Cybersecurity, Legal, Finance, Enterprise Architecture, Third-Party Risk Management, and other business stakeholders. It provides continuity across the supplier lifecycle, from category strategy, market analysis, competitive sourcing, and negotiation through contract execution, supplier governance, performance management, commercial optimization, risk management, renewal, and value realization. The position develops multi-year strategies for IT categories such as software and SaaS, cloud, infrastructure, hardware, cybersecurity, telecommunications, professional services, and emerging technology. It leads competitive sourcing and commercial negotiations, supports governance of strategic and critical suppliers, manages renewal planning, addresses supplier risks and resilience, and tracks measurable value. The role incorporates critical-infrastructure considerations into sourcing and reports on IT spend, sourcing activity, supplier performance, renewals, and commercial risk.

Requirements

Minimum 5 years of job-related work experience in excess of degree requirements.
Experience in IT strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, vendor management, or technology commercial management.
Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Supply Chain Management, or a related field, or a combination of education and experience providing equivalent knowledge.
The stated education requirement includes an MBA as preferred; the posting also describes equivalent education and experience as acceptable.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated experience negotiating complex enterprise technology agreements and managing strategic suppliers.
Working knowledge of software licensing, SaaS, cloud consumption, IT infrastructure, hardware, professional services, cybersecurity, and emerging technology commercial models.
Experience with supplier performance management, scorecards, KPIs, SLAs, governance, and executive business reviews.
Strong negotiation, stakeholder management, written communication, and executive presentation skills.
Experience in a regulated, critical-infrastructure, utility, ISO/RTO, or similarly complex operating environment.
MBA.
CPSM (Certified Professional in Supply Management).

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain multi-year sourcing and category strategies for assigned IT spend categories, informed by spend, supplier concentration, demand forecasts, market conditions, and sourcing opportunities.
Identify opportunities for supplier consolidation, competition, standardization, cost optimization, demand management, and reducing vendor lock-in.
Lead competitive sourcing activities, including RFPs, RFQs, and supplier and commercial evaluations, and develop negotiation strategies for significant technology purchases, renewals, expansions, and enterprise agreements.
Analyze proposals and commercial structures at SKU, product, service, rate-card, and total-cost levels.
Perform market benchmarking and comparative commercial analysis to establish negotiation targets and leverage, partnering with relevant internal stakeholders during sourcing and contracting.
Support governance of strategic and critical IT suppliers throughout the contract lifecycle, including scorecards, KPIs, SLAs, service performance measures, and contractual commitments.
Facilitate or support supplier business reviews, QBRs, and executive governance meetings; monitor supplier commitments, performance issues, corrective actions, and relationship health.
Maintain visibility into strategic supplier relationships across contracts, business units, platforms, and services, and identify dependencies, concentration risks, and potential vendor lock-in.
Maintain a forward-looking pipeline of significant IT contract renewals, expirations, and sourcing events, beginning renewal planning early enough to preserve competition and negotiating leverage.
Evaluate utilization, consumption, licensing, capacity, demand forecasts, and historical spend ahead of renewals; challenge unnecessary demand, unused licensing, and unfavorable pricing structures.
Evaluate supplier proposals against contractual protections, market benchmarks, and total cost of ownership, and coordinate competitive sourcing or market validation when appropriate.
Partner with Cybersecurity, TPRM, Legal, Compliance, Architecture, IT, and business owners to identify and address supplier financial, operational, cybersecurity, supply-chain, concentration, geographic, contractual, and continuity risks.
Incorporate critical-infrastructure considerations into technology sourcing, including supply-chain resilience, continuity of supply or service, and supplier incident response; support supplier due diligence and contractual controls for critical operations.
Escalate material supplier performance, resilience, or risk concerns to appropriate leadership.
Track and report negotiated savings, validated cost avoidance, and other measurable value; develop executive-level reporting on IT spend, sourcing pipeline, supplier performance, renewals, and commercial risk.
Use market intelligence and supplier performance data to support fact-based sourcing, renewal, and negotiation decisions, and promote accountability for supplier commitments through closure.