Purchasing Manager

Lantern•Vancouver, BC

25d•Hybrid

About The Position

Lantern is looking for a Purchasing Manager to join our fast-growing team. This is a first-of-its-kind role at Lantern — the company’s first dedicated procurement hire — and an opportunity to build a procurement function from the ground up. You will own vendor strategy, contract governance, and savings capture across $57.8M in addressable non-personnel spend. A third-party evaluation has already identified $7.7M in annualized savings opportunities and built an 18-month roadmap to capture them. You will report directly to the Chief Accounting Officer (one of Lantern’s top five most tenured leaders) and partner daily with our CFO, a former McKinsey procurement expert. Lantern is PE-backed, growing at approximately 50% per year, and completed the $75M acquisition of Surgical Management Solutions (SMS) in January 2026, creating immediate consolidation opportunities.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred
2–5 years at a top-tier consulting firm (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, Accenture, or specialist procurement advisory)
At least one in-house procurement, strategic sourcing, or vendor management role with accountability for real savings and real contracts
Negotiating experience across 3+ categories: SaaS/technology, marketing/agency, professional services, facilities, or HR/benefits
Proven ability to build procurement processes from scratch (vendor panels, contract registers, policy frameworks) without pre-existing infrastructure
Strong financial modeling skills; ability to build and present savings waterfalls and ROI reports to C-suite

Nice To Haves

Have meaningful hands-on experience using Claude or comparable AI tools (ChatGPT, Gemini) to accelerate procurement work: contract analysis, spend classification, RFP drafting, and savings modeling — this is a major differentiator
Demonstrate a builder’s mindset: thrive in ambiguity, create structure where none exists, and treat the absence of process as an opportunity
Show executive presence and the ability to influence senior stakeholders without formal authority
Have experience with post-acquisition vendor rationalization or M&A integration PMO work
Be familiar with NetSuite for AP/PO workflows, vendor management, or spend reporting (nice to have; trainable)
Be energized by the speed and urgency of a high-growth, PE-backed company

Responsibilities

Execute the 18-month procurement savings roadmap, targeting $7.7M in annualized savings (mid-case) across Sales & Marketing ($23M), SaaS/Software ($12.5M, 80+ vendors), Professional Services ($6.9M), Facilities ($3.1M), and SMS post-acquisition spend
Lead Wave 1 quick wins (Mar–Aug 2026): 90-day SMS vendor rationalization, advertising AOR competitive rebid across $16.8M in direct mail/digital spend, cloud infrastructure right-sizing
Lead Wave 2 (Sep–Dec 2026): full SaaS license audit; consolidate Salesforce (15 depts), DocuSign (17 depts), monday.com (14 depts), Gong (5 teams) into enterprise agreements; standardize outside counsel rate cards; consolidate $1.37M in recruiting fees
Build procurement infrastructure: contract register in NetSuite, preferred vendor panels, procurement policy, and annual renewal calendar
Standardize vendor contract terms, payment conditions, and rate cards across all categories
Report monthly savings progress to CFO; maintain spend analytics and benchmarking dashboard
Manage cross-functional relationships with VP Marketing, VP Engineering, VP People, General Counsel, and Finance
Lead Wave 3 provider network contract standardization and credentialing vendor consolidation (Jan–Apr 2027)
Evaluate and potentially hire first procurement team member(s) as the company scales