Manager, Procurement Operations

BMO•Chicago, IL

3d•$74,000 - $138,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Manager, Procurement Operations is a key leadership role responsible for overseeing procurement operations and payment processing across BMO's North American legal entities. This position combines people leadership, supplier oversight, financial controls, and operational excellence within a fast-paced, high-volume environment. The successful candidate will lead a small internal team while managing the performance of an outsourced operations team, ensuring service levels, accuracy, and compliance standards are consistently met. This role requires strong analytical capabilities, a solid understanding of accounts payable and financial principles, and the ability to navigate a highly regulated and audit-intensive environment. In addition to supporting daily operations, the individual will play a key role in ongoing transformation and automation initiatives aimed at improving efficiency and reducing manual processes. The ideal candidate brings experience in procurement operations, accounts payable, financial controls, or banking operations, along with strong stakeholder management skills, attention to detail, and a proven ability to lead through change while maintaining operational excellence.

Requirements

Typically between 5 - 7 years of relevant experience and post-secondary degree in related field of study or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
PC skills (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint) – In-depth.
Knowledge related to operations specialty – In-depth.
Knowledge of the business/group processes/procedures.
Knowledge of applicable risk and regulatory requirements and the impact on the business/group.
Project management/program management skills – In-depth.
Deep knowledge and technical proficiency gained through extensive education and business experience.
Verbal & written communication skills - In-depth.
Collaboration & team skills - In-depth.
Analytical and problem solving skills - In-depth.
Influence skills - In-depth.
Data driven decision making - In-depth.

Nice To Haves

Experience in procurement operations, accounts payable, financial controls, or banking operations
Strong stakeholder management skills
Attention to detail
Proven ability to lead through change while maintaining operational excellence

Responsibilities

Fosters a culture aligned to BMO purpose, values and strategy and role models BMO values and behaviours in all that they do.
Ensures alignment between values and behaviour that fosters diversity and inclusion.
Regularly connects work to BMO's purpose, sets inspirational goals, defines clear expected outcomes, and ensures clear accountability for follow through.
Builds interdependent teams that collaborate across functional and operating groups to create the highest value for all stakeholders.
Attracts, retains, and enables the career development of top talent.
Improves team performance, recognizes and rewards performance, coaches employees, supports their development, and manages poor performance.
Acts as the day to day subject matter expert for the Procurement specialty and provides advice/support as required to meet program run and build requirements.
Acts as a trusted advisor to assigned business/group.
Recommends and implements solutions based on analysis of issues and implications for the business.
Helps determine business priorities and best sequence for execution of business/group strategy.
Conducts independent analysis and assessment to resolve strategic issues.
Supports the execution of strategic initiatives in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.
Assists in the development of strategic plans.
Builds effective relationships with internal/external stakeholders.
Ensures alignment between stakeholders.
Designs and produces regular and ad-hoc reports, and dashboards.
Breaks down strategic problems, and analyses data and information to provide insights and recommendations.
Monitors and tracks performance, and addresses any issues.
Builds change management plans of varying scope and type; leads or participates in a variety of change management activities including readiness assessments, planning, stakeholder management, execution, evaluation and sustainment of initiatives.
Leads in defining the communication plan designed to positively influence or change behaviour; develops tailored messaging; and identifies appropriate distribution channels.
Develops and manages a business/group program.
Directs the planning & implementation of programs & solutions and executes within required service level agreements and standards.
Leads the execution of programs; assesses and adapts as needed to ensure quality of execution.
Reviews the program for effectiveness, considers industry trends and recommends enhancements; makes changes as required.
Integrates information from multiple sources to enable more efficient processes, enhanced analysis and/or streamlined reporting.
Employs systems (e.g. customized exception reports, tracking reports etc.) to manage information.
Leads recruiting, resource planning, onboarding and off boarding activities.
Leads the design, implementation and management of core business/group processes.
Identifies business needs, leads the design/development of tools and training programs; may include delivery of training to audiences.
Supports day to day operational processes, program management activities and administrative tasks for the Procurement specialty to achieve business results and deliver the intended employee experience.
Collaborates with internal and external stakeholders in order to deliver on business objectives.
Executes routine tasks such as service requests, transactions, queries etc. within relevant service level agreements.
Communicates and reinforces principles, programs, process, and standards.
Supports the development of tailored messaging, which may include writing, editing and distributing communications.
Participates in the design, development, implementation, and management of core business processes.
Analyzes data and information to provide insights and recommendations.
Gathers and formats data into regular and ad-hoc reports, and dashboards.
Supports the development of tools and delivery of training focused on delivering business results.
Coordinates and executes specific activities for the implementation of strategic initiatives; includes tracking metrics and milestones.
Supports change management of varying scope and type; tasks typically focused on execution and sustainment activities.
Develops knowledge related to operations specialty.
Organizes work information to ensure accuracy and completeness.
Focus is primarily on business/group within BMO; may have broader, enterprise-wide focus.
Provides specialized consulting, analytical and technical support.
Exercises judgment to identify, diagnose, and solve problems within given rules.
Works independently and regularly handles non-routine situations.
Broader work or accountabilities may be assigned as needed.
Take measured risks while protecting the bank by applying our Risk Management Framework in the execution of your role, in line with our Risk Culture and within our approved Risk Appetite, making sound and risk informed decisions that align to business strategy, protect assets, and adhere to applicable policy documents (Frameworks, Policies, Standards, Procedures and Supporting documents), laws and regulations.