Lead, Category Management, Professional Services
About The Position
The Lead, Category Management, Professional Services handles end-to-end sourcing and contracting negotiations for projects within the Professional Services category. The role partners with business leaders to develop and execute category strategies that deliver value, foster innovation, identify savings opportunities, and mitigate risk. It leads high-visibility sourcing initiatives from requirements definition through supplier selection and contract negotiation, and builds trusted relationships across Finance, Legal, technology, and business teams. The position develops sourcing strategies for complex, high-value deals; supports supplier consolidation and supplier management; and advises senior leaders on supplier options, deal structure, duration, selection criteria, and supplier KPIs. It analyzes supplier proposals and commercial and legal terms, performs an initial contract review before matters go to Legal, and works directly with suppliers and internal business partners. The role is hybrid, with three days per week in the office in Hudson Yards, NYC, or Holmdel, NJ, and reports to the Head of Category Management, Professional Services.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in technology, finance, legal studies, business, or a related discipline.
- At least 10 years of experience in strategic sourcing, category management, and contract negotiations.
- Demonstrated knowledge of the end-to-end sourcing and contracting process, including RFPs, RFIs, supplier evaluation, and commercial negotiations.
- Experience leading professional services sourcing projects across technology and non-technology engagements.
- Strong contract review, redlining, and contract-language drafting skills.
- Ability to analyze supplier proposals, pricing, business terms, and legal terms, and redline contracts to reflect negotiated business requirements.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
Nice To Haves
- Experience negotiating large-volume consulting, technology implementation, managed services, outsourcing, or transformation contracts.
- Experience developing alternative commercial models, such as fixed-fee, milestone-based, outcome-based, consumption-based, or blended-rate structures, rather than relying solely on time-and-materials arrangements.
- Experience using should-cost analysis, benchmarking, rate-card analysis, and competitive market intelligence to develop negotiation positions.
- Experience managing strategic suppliers through supplier performance management, QBRs, KPIs, SLAs, and continuous improvement programs.
- MBA preferred.
Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end execution of complex, high-visibility RFPs, RFIs, vendor selection, and contract negotiations in the Professional Services category.
- Partner with the Head of Professional Services Category to develop and integrate category management strategies across business units.
- Drive consolidation of professional services suppliers used across different lines of business.
- Partner with Finance leadership to review category spend and identify savings opportunities.
- Develop strategic sourcing strategies for complex deals and influence senior-level leaders and their teams.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define requirements, evaluate proposals, and support timely decision-making.
- Research and advise senior leaders on supplier options, deal structures, deal duration, selection criteria, and supplier KPIs.
- Create evaluation sheets and perform qualitative and quantitative analyses to build consensus on supplier selection.
- Provide stakeholders with detailed analyses of supplier proposals, including pricing and business terms.
- Conduct initial contract reviews before matters are sent to Legal, including interfacing directly with suppliers and internal business partners.
- Become familiar with Guardian’s contract landscape and supplier base, and manage key suppliers.
- Engage business partners early in sourcing to understand requirements and propose category management ideas and cost-saving opportunities.
- Manage and prioritize multiple complex, high-value contracts and sourcing projects simultaneously.
- Build trusted relationships with IT, Legal, Finance, and business leaders.
- Demonstrate strong organization, attention to detail, multitasking, and priority-management skills.
Benefits
- Contemporary, supportive, flexible, and inclusive benefits and resources for eligible full-time employees.
- Skill-building and leadership development opportunities.
- Philanthropic opportunities.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
