Senior Procurement Category Manager
About The Position
The Senior Procurement Category Manager is a strategic leader responsible for developing and executing category strategies across complex, high-value, and critical spend areas for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This role partners closely with executive leadership, cross-functional heads, and strategic suppliers to deliver best-in-class commercial outcomes, mitigate risk, and ensure procurement excellence in a highly dynamic, Games-time environment. The Senior Procurement Category Manager acts as a trusted business advisor—translating organizational priorities into sourcing strategies, guiding stakeholders through the full lifecycle of sourcing and contracting, and enabling the LA28 mission of innovation, inclusion, and operational excellence. This role requires an expert-level strategic sourcing practitioner capable of navigating a fast-paced, highly cross-functional, and rapidly evolving environment.
Requirements
- Minimum 7+ years of strategic sourcing, category management, or procurement leadership experience.
- Strong track record driving large-scale sourcing events and complex negotiations across diverse categories.
- Demonstrated experience partnering with senior stakeholders to influence decisions and solve strategic challenges.
- Excellent communication and executive-presenting skills; ability to translate complex information into clear recommendations.
- Proven analytical, strategic thinking, and problem-solving abilities.
- Proficiency with modern procurement technologies, including Workday Financials, Workday Strategic Sourcing, Agiloft CLM, Salesforce, and advanced Excel/Smartsheet and analytics tools.
- Ability to work on-site in an open office environment, based in Los Angeles, CA.
- Comfortable working in an open, highly collaborative environment with shifting priorities and accelerated timelines.
- Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, or a related field required, or equivalent work experience.
Nice To Haves
- Experience in large-scale events, sports/entertainment, media, or public-sector environments is a plus but not required.
- Preferred: Master’s degree in Supply Chain Management, MBA, CPSM, or equivalent professional certification.
Responsibilities
- Lead category strategy development across multiple high-impact categories, leveraging deep market insights, scenario planning, and spend analytics to support organizational objectives.
- Own the end-to-end sourcing lifecycle, from opportunity identification through RFx design, supplier evaluation, negotiation strategy, award recommendations, and contracting handoff.
- Drive high-level negotiations that deliver improved commercial terms, supplier performance commitments, cost optimization, sustainability impact, and risk mitigation.
- Advance the supplier ecosystem, identifying innovative, diverse, local, and mission-aligned partners to support the Games’ operational and community engagement goals.
- Collaborate with leadership across Finance, Legal, Sustainability, Technology, Operations, Impact, and Risk to ensure category strategies balance value, compliance, and organizational priorities.
- Establish and track category-level KPIs, including savings, total-cost-of-ownership improvements, supplier performance outcomes, contract compliance, and sourcing cycle efficiency.
- Improve sourcing governance and processes, identifying opportunities for automation, standardization, and cross-functional alignment.
- Mentor and guide junior procurement staff, providing coaching on best practices, sourcing techniques, and stakeholder engagement.
- Serve as an escalation point for complex supplier issues and high-risk negotiations.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Number of Employees
101-250 employees
