Senior Manager, Procurement and Vendor Management

DAT•Portland, OR

15h•$154,536 - $196,039•Hybrid

About The Position

DAT Freight & Analytics (“DAT”) is the backbone of the transportation industry. Currently a $500M powerhouse on a rapid trajectory to $1B, we have acquired four companies in the past 18 months and are scaling our infrastructure to match our ambition. We are seeking a Senior Manager of Procurement and Vendor Management to own the entire “Procure to Pay” (P2P) function across DAT. DAT currently manages a portfolio of >$30M of commercial contracts, and this is a build role: you will have executive sponsorship and a clear mandate to design and stand up modern procurement infrastructure and governance from the ground up over your first 18 months.

Requirements

6–8 years in Procurement or Strategic Sourcing, specifically within a high-growth SaaS or software environment.
Proven experience leading a CLM implementation and partnering on major ERP/P2P system design.
Comfortable reading and negotiating complex commercial contract language independently — SaaS, MSA, and DPA terms — and performing an initial risk read (a red-flags first pass) before formal legal review.
Exceptional ability to translate complex financial and legal requirements into actionable business strategies for stakeholders at all levels.
Experience participating in or advising cross-functional AI governance or procurement councils, with a point of view on vendor risk specific to AI-powered SaaS — selection, data handling, and contract terms.
A "builder" mindset with the ability to work independently, make high-stakes decisions, and own the department's roadmap.
Seek to understand the “why”. Bring innovation of thought to solving problems for the long term.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with Tropic and NetSuite is highly preferred.

Responsibilities

Build and lead the center of excellence for procurement and vendor management.
Lead your team of a Procurement Ops Manager and Procurement Specialist to streamline day-to-day operations and controls while you focus on high-level strategy and integration.
Partner with FP&A, Accounting, and our NetSuite admin to operationalize the Procure-to-Pay workflow inside our NetSuite ERP, including establishing Tropic as our system of record for spend tracking.
Drive world-class negotiations with technology and indirect spend vendors.
Utilize Tropic and other benchmarking data to ensure optimal commercial terms and service levels.
Lead the integration of a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform with our Tropic workflow, in close collaboration with DAT's Legal/Contracts team.
Personally review and negotiate key commercial contract terms across DAT's vendor portfolio (SaaS agreements, MSAs, DPAs), performing a first-pass red-flags analysis — indemnification, Artificial Intelligence clauses, liability, data protection, termination, auto-renewal — before handing contracts to the Legal/Contracts team, so review cycles move faster and risk is caught earlier, not later.
Direct the procurement integration for our four recent acquisitions, identifying immediate cost synergies and migrating legacy contracts into the DAT ecosystem.
Act as a key advisor to department heads, providing spend visibility and ensuring procurement is viewed as a strategic partner rather than a hurdle.
Partner closely with the Technology team to audit and rationalize the software stack across all business units and acquired entities, identifying vendor consolidation opportunities created by our four acquisitions over the past 18 months, eliminating redundancies and capturing immediate EBITDA improvements.
Serve as procurement's representative on DAT's AI Council, partnering with Architecture and InfoSec to govern the selection, onboarding, and ongoing review of third-party AI tools and platforms — and bring procurement's recommendation on vendor selection, contract terms, and risk for AI-related spend, which is growing faster than DAT's current governance can track.
Partner with Engineering and DevOps to manage Cloud infrastructure spend (AWS/Azure), driving transparency and cost-efficiency in our primary COGS drivers.
Refine and manage a robust Vendor Risk Management (VRM) program in collaboration with Security and Legal to ensure all third-party partners meet DAT’s rigorous data privacy and security standards.