Senior Director, IT/Tech Procurement

NielsenIQ•New York, NY

7d•Remote

About The Position

This position develops and executes global Technology and IT Procurement strategies in partnership with the Head of Procurement, CTO and CTO leadership team, Finance, Legal, Security, and other stakeholders. It oversees category and sub-category strategies across areas such as enterprise software and SaaS, cloud and infrastructure, IT professional services, telecommunications, hardware, data and analytics, and emerging technologies including AI. The role leads complex global sourcing and negotiation initiatives, optimizes technology spend and commercial models, and builds strategic relationships with critical suppliers. In partnership with Technology leadership, it also addresses demand management, license and consumption optimization, supplier consolidation, application rationalization, commercial model optimization, and technology roadmap decisions. The position establishes value-creation targets, supplier performance measures, and governance for strategic partners, while identifying opportunities to reduce cost, mitigate risk, improve contractual flexibility, and enable innovation.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Business, Technology, Supply Chain, Finance, or a related field, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
10+ years of progressive procurement experience, including significant Technology/IT procurement experience within a complex global organization.
Demonstrated experience managing and negotiating large, complex technology agreements.
Strong knowledge of several major technology categories, ideally including enterprise software/SaaS, cloud infrastructure, IT services, data and analytics, hardware/networking, and emerging technology/AI.
Strong understanding of technology commercial and licensing models, including subscription, consumption-based, enterprise licensing, and professional services models.
Ability to analyze technology spend, usage, licensing, and supplier economics to identify optimization opportunities.
Experience leading complex competitive sourcing initiatives and executive-level supplier negotiations.
Strong financial acumen, including developing business cases, evaluating total cost of ownership, and translating commercial structures into financial impact.
Strong understanding of sourcing processes, contract structures, and key commercial and legal considerations for technology agreements.
Ability to influence and challenge senior Technology and business stakeholders while maintaining collaborative relationships.
Change-management and stakeholder-management capabilities in a global matrixed organization.
Strong executive communication and presentation skills.
Fluent in English.

Nice To Haves

Professional procurement qualification.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute global category and sub-category strategies across the Technology and IT portfolio.
Understand technology spend, demand, supplier landscape, contractual commitments, and future technology requirements.
Align sourcing strategies with the technology roadmap and business priorities in partnership with the CTO organization and senior technology leaders.
Identify opportunities for supplier consolidation, application rationalization, license optimization, demand management, and alternative technology solutions.
Analyze market trends, supplier economics, commercial models, and industry benchmarks to inform sourcing and negotiation strategies.
Challenge specifications, consumption levels, licensing models, and supplier relationships to improve value.
Develop and present category strategies and business cases to senior executive stakeholders.
Lead competitive sourcing processes, including RFIs, RFPs, and complex global technology negotiations.
Develop multi-year sourcing strategies for strategic and high-spend technology suppliers, and communicate commercial options, risks, trade-offs, and recommendations to executives.
Develop negotiation strategies for major technology agreements and renewals.
Evaluate supplier pricing models, discount structures, consumption commitments, renewal protections, and commercial benchmarks.
Negotiate contractual flexibility, including volume adjustments, true-down rights, price protections, and termination provisions.
Partner with Legal, Finance, Security, Privacy, and Technology teams to ensure commercial and contractual protections, and comply with corporate approval and signing authorities.
Establish strategic supplier management programs for critical technology partners and conduct executive business reviews.
Develop supplier scorecards and KPIs covering commercial performance, service delivery, innovation, risk, and continuous improvement.
Establish value-creation and continuous-improvement plans with strategic suppliers.
Develop alternative suppliers and competitive options to reduce dependency and strengthen commercial leverage.
Partner with Technology leadership to assess emerging suppliers, technologies, and commercial models.
Understand technology spend, contracts, consumption, and demand drivers; identify and deliver measurable savings, cost avoidance, and other commercial value.
Optimize software licenses, cloud consumption, subscription quantities, and contracted services with technology owners.
Identify redundant technology, supplier-consolidation opportunities, and ways to improve purchasing leverage.
Establish mechanisms for measuring realized value against negotiated value.
Support budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning for major technology categories and strategic supplier commitments.
Ensure technology agreements comply with corporate controls, including financial, security, privacy, sanctions, restricted-party, and other compliance requirements.
Monitor contractual obligations, renewal dates, consumption commitments, and commercial milestones; ensure governance and adherence to global technology agreements.
Identify and mitigate supplier concentration, financial, commercial, operational, and contractual risks.
Proactively manage renewals to avoid unnecessary auto-renewals or unfavorable commercial commitments.
Serve as a trusted procurement advisor to the CTO organization and senior business leaders, building relationships across Technology, Finance, Legal, Security, Privacy, and business functions.
Communicate complex commercial issues and recommendations to executive stakeholders and lead cross-functional teams through strategic sourcing and supplier initiatives.
Organize and deploy resources across global projects and priorities.
Coach and develop procurement team members, build procurement capabilities, and promote a fact-based, collaborative, commercially challenging culture.