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Principal, Procurement Category Management

SALARY: $155k-$182k max w/25% bonus

LOCATION: CHICAGO, IL

Hybrid, 3 days in office

Mandatory Five day in office from Aug 4th-Sept 26th, 2025

Looking for a candidate to manage strategic vendor relationships. You will be developing strategies to reduce costs. IT vendor management, sourcing and procurement, evaluating support agreements, IT asset management, IT procurement Global IT scorecard analysis. You will be doing vendor selection negotiation issue resolution.

Responsibilities:

• Implement sourcing strategies and define procurement plans for IT Hardware and other categories aligned to technology and business unit objectives and regulatory requirements.
• Promote/communicate procurement plans to internal stakeholders and to vendors, ensuring that it is well socialized and supported.
• Keep abreast of industry trends that have an impact on the IT sourcing strategy, through external advisory services, and good working relationships with existing and emerging strategic vendors used by the enterprise.
• Maintain and present market analysis to IT and business leaders regarding innovative product, solution and service opportunities.
• Work closely with stakeholders (IT, business, vendor management) to lead major sourcing programs.
• Drive the IT sourcing and procurement strategies for products, services and solutions.
• Identify cost-optimization opportunities across the company/globe and present a concise business case/plan to stakeholders.
• Create acquisition plans for large deals involving multiple vendors and internal stakeholders.
• Manage acquisition plans and RFx's escalating as required to adhere to timelines and effectively communicating changes in plan to internal and external stakeholders.
• Proactively seek ways to drive down the total cost of ownership through competition and vendor relationships.
• Identify and evaluate the best options for solutions, which may include acquisition of IT products, outsourcing or insourcing.
• Understand and adopt agile, pragmatic and fast-track principles into IT sourcing and procurement practices.
• Manage a comprehensive list of best-in-class vendors for bid processes developed by analysing industry trends and competitive positioning to ensure engagement and leverage of the most effective supply base.
• Negotiate contractual agreements with consistent commercial terms satisfying regulatory requirements per OCC policy
• Regularly interact with IT and business stakeholders to balance cost, risk and speed to ensure that the business can realize its objectives.
• Lead the negotiation strategy and negotiation team for IT contracts.
• Maintain an inventory of vendor spend by category (software, hardware, telecom, staff augmentation, services, etc.).
• Manage purchase order process to ensure timely delivery of all required IT items.
• Continuously update department policy and procedures, training guides and introduce process improvements

Qualifications:

• Expert negotiation skills.
• Current knowledge of the global IT product and service market and trends.
• Successful track record in a mature procurement organization
• Advanced ability to influence and negotiate outcomes with stakeholders and vendors and to maintain collaborative relationships with them.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong problem-solving and conflict resolution skills in vendor and internal customer relationship environments.
• Proven ability to discern when and how to escalate issues for resolution.
• Working knowledge of regulatory guidance pertaining to the financial services industry.
• Demonstrates integrity through actions.

Technical Skills:

• Proficiency in MS Office, Sharepoint, ERP tools such as Oracle Fusion, Ariba or Coupa

Minimum 10 years' experience in the following:

• Managing strategic vendor relationships and developing strategies that look to reduce overall cost or risk.
• IT vendor management and/or sourcing and procurement.
• Evaluating support agreements and the yearly true-up and demand management requirements.
• Leading IT negotiations

Minimum 5 years' experience in the following:

• IT Asset management
• IT Hardware Procurement