VP, Global Procurement (REMOTE)
About The Position
We believe in the power and joy of learning. At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping learners around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education. Cengage, a global edtech company, supports learners, educators and institutions across more than 100 countries. With products serving nearly 16 million digital users across the Higher Education, School, Work and English Language Learning markets, we’ve built a learning ecosystem that connects education to employment. We combine trusted content, AI-powered insights and scalable digital platforms to power learning for every future and drive meaningful outcomes at every stage of the learning journey.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in operations management, Engineering, Business, or a technical field
- 10 or more years of strong progressive management experience in Sourcing or Supply Chain Operations role/function with Team leadership and Strategic Sourcing direction setting experience
- Experience across all types of vendor types such as software, T&E, Professional Services, and Contractors.
- Ability to develop and mentor others
- Comfort guiding and interpreting sophisticated spend analysis
- Decision-making and ability to drive strategic direction
- Ability to build collaborative relationships
- Proven negotiating skills with very strong Project Leadership experience
- Ability to identify and seek needed information/research skills
- Knowledge and experience with SAP preferred
- Ability to travel domestically and internationally, 10% of time
Responsibilities
- Establish a Group-wide sourcing support model that partners collaboratively with all function leaders to drive better vendor spend.
- Embed consistent practices across Cengage Group for vendor selection with category-specific criteria for vendor evaluation.
- Establish purchasing strategies across all Cengage Group spend categories, prioritizing categories based on opportunity (spend, maturity, strategic alignment), balancing cost objectives with other strategic business goals (supply reliability, quality, etc).
- Drive continuous improvement in Group-wide vendor spend by setting functional procurement targets, running periodic market reviews, tracking vendor spend performance across categories and using analytical insights.
- Partner with function leaders to help them find opportunities to hit and overachieve their procurement targets.
- Grow the share of spend from strategic vendors and eliminate duplication of spend.
- Develop relationships with major Cengage Group vendors to facilitate deeper partnering including facilitating quarterly business reviews with key suppliers.
- Lead on all aspects of vendor activities including selection with business partners, negotiations, and contracting.
- Report progress against initiatives to IT, Operations, Finance, and other stakeholders.
- Manage and modify (as needed) the Cengage Group procurement policy to ensure adequate visibility, appropriate controls and to encourage higher quality purchasing decisions.
- Ensure adherence to the policy.
- Collaborate cross-functionally, for example with the IT team to roadmap system configurations to improve the sourcing workflow in Cengage and Finance leadership to influence the transformation of Cengage’s overall procure-to-pay processes.
Benefits
- discretionary incentive bonus program
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Executive
