Category Manager - IT

Cambium Learning Group; United States; On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Cambium Learning Group is seeking a Category Manager, IT to own the commercial strategy and execution for defined IT spend categories. You will lead renewals, sourcing events, vendor negotiations, and category planning across software, SaaS, cloud, endpoint, telecom, and related IT services.

Collaborate with Finance, Legal, and IT to deliver savings and reduce vendor risk. The role emphasizes hands-on execution, data‑driven decisions, and cross‑functional leadership in a remote-first

Qualifications

• 6+ years in strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, vendor management or related commercial role with IT/software/SaaS exposure.
• Experience leading vendor negotiations directly and driving measurable commercial improvements.
• Strong spend and data analysis skills; advanced Excel/Sheets; familiarity with BI or spend analytics tools.
• Proven cross-functional collaboration across Finance, Legal, IT and business units.

Responsibilities

• Own category strategy for IT spend areas including SaaS, cloud, endpoint, telecom and related services.
• Manage renewal pipelines, negotiate terms, and preserve leverage.
• Lead competitive sourcing events end to end (RFx, evaluation, award).
• Build and defend TCO models and multi‑year commitments.
• Coordinate with Legal on redlines and risk during contracting.

Skills

Negotiation

Data analysis

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Operations

Tools

Zip

Coupa

Ariba

Jira

Excel/BI tools

Job description

Job Overview: Cambium Learning Group is seeking an Category Manager, IT to own commercial strategy and execution for a defined set of technology spend categories. In this role, you will lead renewals, competitive sourcing events, vendor negotiations, and category planning across software, SaaS, cloud, endpoint, telecom, and related IT services. This is a hands‑on, high‑ownership role for someone who enjoys leading deals directly, building commercial leverage, and negotiating with vendors from a well‑prepared position. You will partner closely with Finance, Legal, Information Security, IT, and business unit stakeholders to deliver measurable savings, reduce vendor risk, and improve how technology sourcing is executed across Cambium.

Job Responsibilities

• Own category strategy for assigned IT spend areas, including SaaS and software, cloud infrastructure, end‑user computing and endpoint services, and telecom and network.
• Own the renewal pipeline for your categories: track upcoming expirations, assign clear ownership, build the strategy for each engagement, and execute early enough to preserve leverage and avoid surprise renewals.
• Maintain market and vendor intelligence, including pricing benchmarks, licensing model shifts, and viable competitive alternatives, and use it to shape category plans.
• Own the vendor framework for your categories, including preferred and strategic vendor designations, consolidation and rationalization targets, and the standards a vendor has to meet to stay in the portfolio.
• Negotiation and Commercial Execution: Own the pre‑negotiation phase for engagements in your categories: establish the spend baseline, set the savings target, identify leverage and alternatives, and build the business case before going to a vendor.
• Lead competitive sourcing events end to end, from business case and requirements through RFx, evaluation, shortlisting, and award.
• Negotiate directly on pricing, terms, escalators, termination and exit rights, SLAs and service credits, and liability, working from a total cost of ownership view rather than headline price.
• Build spend and TCO analysis that holds up under vendor scrutiny, including normalizing quotes, reconciling usage and license counts, and modeling multi‑year commitments.
• Validate and record the outcome of every engagement you run, including final savings and cost avoidance against the established baseline, so category‑level reporting, financial forecasting, and stakeholder communications are built on numbers you stand behind.
• Contracting, Risk, and Compliance: Drive contract execution in partnership with Legal, including redlines on commercial terms and coordination of the Information Security and data privacy reviews that gate a deal.
• Coordinate third‑party risk intake so security, privacy, and compliance reviews happen at the right point in the sourcing process rather than at signature.
• Maintain sourcing intake and pipeline hygiene in the team’s intake‑to‑procure platform, with disciplined documentation of status, decisions, and supporting evidence.
• Stakeholder Partnership and Knowledge Sharing: Own stakeholder alignment for engagements in your categories: gather requirements, set expectations on timing and tradeoffs, and secure agreement on the strategy before going to market rather than announcing the outcome after the fact.
• Act as an internal advisor to technology leaders and business units on vendor options, commercial structures, timing, and tradeoffs, building enough trust that stakeholders engage sourcing early because it makes their outcome better, not slower.
• Contribute to the team’s sourcing knowledge base by documenting lessons learned, vendor insights, benchmarks, and negotiation approaches that can be reused and improved by the broader sourcing team.

Job Requirements

6+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, vendor management, or a related commercial role, including experience with IT, software, SaaS, or technology services categories. Proven ability to lead vendor negotiations directly, develop leverage‑based negotiation strategies, challenge supplier assumptions, and secure measurable commercial improvements across pricing, terms, risk, and flexibility. Working knowledge of commercial contract terms and comfort partnering with Legal on redlines, negotiation positions, and contract risk tradeoffs. Strong spend and data analysis skills, including building and defending TCO and multi‑year commitment models. Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and/or Google Sheets; experience with BI, reporting, or spend analytics tools is a plus. Strong cross‑functional collaboration skills and the ability to align Finance, Legal, Information Security, IT, and business stakeholders around a sourcing strategy. Organized, systems‑minded work habits and comfort managing work through a procurement intake, sourcing, or work management platform such as Zip, Coupa, Ariba, or Jira. Exceptional written and verbal communication, especially the ability to make a data‑dense recommendation easy to act on.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Operations, or related field
• Background in SaaS, Tech, K–12, EdTech, or another software‑heavy environment
• Experience in a private equity‑backed, high‑growth, or matrixed organization where sourcing spans multiple operating brands
• Familiarity with major technology vendors and agreement structures such as cloud enterprise agreements, SaaS estates, and endpoint or device services
• Experience standing up or maturing a sourcing function, process, or playbook rather than only operating an established one
• Familiarity with Zip or another procurement orchestration platform used to manage intake, approvals, sourcing workflows, and supplier engagement.
• Relevant certifications such as CPSM, CIPS, or PMP

Remote First Work Environment

Our Remote First approach gives employees the flexibility and trust they need to effectively balance work with life. It creates a culture in which all employees are valued and where success is measured in results. It allows us to work collaboratively, inclusively and for greater positive impact, regardless of our individual locations. If you will be working remotely, either occasionally or on a permanent basis, you must have a reliable internet connection through a cable or fiber‑optic broadband service with minimum speeds of 10 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload. The successful candidate will be expected to actively participate in video‑based interviews during the recruiting process and ongoing virtual meetings with their camera on, as part of their role. To maintain confidentiality and ensure a fair evaluation process, the use of note‑taking tools, reference materials, or AI‑powered tools (including generative AI, language models, or similar technologies) during interviews or other selection activities is prohibited unless prior written approval has been obtained from the People Experience team. If you require an exception for medical, accessibility, or other reasons, please contact your Talent Acquisition team member to discuss accommodations in advance. As part of our Remote‑First benefits, Cambium offers reimbursement to help cover the cost of setting up your home or remote office.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

We are dedicated to fostering a culture that celebrates unique backgrounds, ideas, and experiences. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender, gender identity/expression, or sexual orientation), national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or genetic information (including family medical history). We will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. You may request an accommodation during the recruiting process with your Talent Acquisition team member.

Cambium Learning® Group is the education essentials company. With an intentionally curated portfolio of respected global brands, Cambium serves as a leader in the education space, helping millions of educators and students feel more universally valued each and every day. In everything we do and across all our brands, we focus on the elements that are most essential to the success of education.

Our family of companies includes: Cambium Assessment Lexia® Learning Learning A‑Z® Voyager Sopris Learning® ExploreLearning® Time4Learning® Kurzweil Education®. To learn more about the Cambium organization and our other career opportunities, visit www.cambiumlearning.com/about‑us/careers.

As a group, we value: Simplicity - Across all our teams and all areas of our business, we create simplicity, making things easier and more clear for all those we work with. Certainty - We continually strive to eliminate doubt, delivering solutions, services and communications that our customers know they can count on. Now - We understand the need to make a difference not only for the future, but for today, and our people are committed to making the most of each moment we spend serving our customers.