Director, Procurement

Cardinal Group Companies; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Vision insurance

Dental insurance

Pet insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Student loan assistance

Licensing support

Continuing education reimbursement

Parental leave

Housing allowance

Job summary

Cardinal Group Companies in Denver, CO, seeks a Director, Procurement to lead a newly created department focused on centralizing contract procurement and expense control. You will manage a team of procurement managers and analysts, leverage an AI-powered warehousing and bidding platform, and ensure contracts comply with Cardinal’s SOPs and risk controls.

This role aims to remove day-to-day procurement burden from site operators and deliver meaningful cost savings across the portfolio.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field and a minimum of 5 years of procurement and vendor relations experience.
• Proven leadership experience managing a team across a large portfolio.
• Familiarity with property management systems (Entrata, Yardi) and enterprise procurement/compliance platforms such as VendorPM and SIB.
• Strong change management skills with the ability to build consensus and address concerns from operations teams regarding centralized processes.
• Outstanding leadership, organizational, and customer service skills.
• Proficiency in Google Suite and Microsoft office software applications; project management applications preferred.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Capability to write interdepartmental memos.
• Effective facilitation of team and client meetings.
• Strong interpersonal skills and problem-solving ability.
• Ability to travel when needed to fulfill project responsibilities.
• Meet strict deadlines and prioritize.
• Excellent analytical skills, attention to detail and a strong work ethic.
• Ability to solve problems and think outside-of-the-box.
• Build and maintain strong relationships and establish strong interpersonal connections.
• Ability to embody the Cardinal Culture and Cardinal Core Values every day.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and manage the specialized procurement team, including procurement managers and analysts.
• Drive expense savings at Cardinal Group communities, with specific focus on service contract categories.
• Oversee the entire workflow for recurring contracts across the portfolio, from bid procurement to contract assembly, execution, and centralized warehousing.
• Utilize VendorPM to house all property-level and HQ MSA agreements, monitor contract expirations, solicit competitive bids, and securely collect signatures from appropriate parties.
• Partner with re-procurement providers to negotiate and drive savings in select, high-leverage categories (e.g., Telecom, Elevators, Waste, Security, Laundry and others).
• Leverage AI technology to audit invoices against contract terms, ensure billing accuracy, flag anomalies, and reduce accounts payable workload.
• Review community spend to identify "rogue" spending and correct on-site purchasing behaviors by enforcing the use of preferred vendors and standard agreements.
• Act as a strategic consultant to Ops and On-Site teams, monitoring the bid queue for one-time service scopes to ensure compliance while supporting site-level operations.
• Partner with Legal to ensure all executed contracts include Cardinal's standard terms, conditions, and risk mitigation language.
• Work to improve risk management metrics related to vendor compliance and credentialing.
• Support Due Diligence and Acquisitions efforts by providing hard benchmarking data, warehousing contracts for DD readiness, and aggressively underwriting lower in-place expenses.
• Lead change management initiatives across the organization, ensuring site teams understand the value of centralized procurement and incorporating operator feedback into service recommendations to prevent resentment.
• Drive continuous improvement of the Cardinal platform by testing and implementing new technologies and delivering "quick wins" by attacking outlier or loss-leader contracts.
• Maintain excellent relationships with all internal stakeholders, including Legal, Treasury, Accounting, FP&A, and Client Services.
• Champion the Cardinal Culture and Cardinal’s Core Values every day.
• Other tasks, as assigned by the Team Leader.

Skills

Leadership

Vendor management

Cost optimization

Cross-functional collaboration

Change management

Contract negotiation

Analytical skills

Communication

Travel flexibility

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a related field

Tools

Entrata

Yardi

VendorPM

SIB

Google Suite

Microsoft Office

Job description

POSITION: Director, Procurement (Full Time, Exempt)

COMPENSATION: Pursuant to Colorado regulations, if this job is performed in Colorado, the salary range is $140,000 - $160,000 plus bonus potential. Eligible to participate in the company benefits plan. We offer health, vision, dental, and pet insurance. We offer a 401(k) retirement plan, student loan assistance, licensing and continuing education reimbursement, parental leave, and housing allowances or gifts.

REPORTS TO: VP, Strategy and Offerings

Summary

As the Director, Procurement, you are primarily responsible for leading a strategic plan and vision to centralize core operational functions—specifically contract procurement and expense control—inside a newly created department. You will manage specialized personnel and leverage enterprise platforms, including an AI-powered contract warehousing and bidding platform and an invoice auditing and re-procurement tool. The primary desired outcomes of this role are to remove the administrative burden of procurement from our on-site operators and to drive significant expense savings for Cardinal's owned and managed portfolio. You will ensure that all new contracts are negotiated appropriately, housed centrally, and fully compliant with Cardinal’s standard operating procedures and legal protections.

RESPONSIBILITIES (Including but not limited to)

Lead, mentor, and manage the specialized procurement team, including procurement managers and analysts.

• Drive expense savings at Cardinal Group communities, with specific focus on service contract categories.
• Oversee the entire workflow for recurring contracts across the portfolio, from bid procurement to contract assembly, execution, and centralized warehousing.
• Utilize VendorPM to house all property-level and HQ MSA agreements, monitor contract expirations, solicit competitive bids, and securely collect signatures from appropriate parties.
• Partner with re-procurement providers to negotiate and drive savings in select, high-leverage categories (e.g., Telecom, Elevators, Waste, Security, Laundry and others).
• Leverage AI technology to audit invoices against contract terms, ensure billing accuracy, flag anomalies, and reduce accounts payable workload.
• Review community spend to identify "rogue" spending and correct on-site purchasing behaviors by enforcing the use of preferred vendors and standard agreements.
• Act as a strategic consultant to Ops and On-Site teams, monitoring the bid queue for one-time service scopes to ensure compliance while supporting site-level operations.
• Partner with Legal to ensure all executed contracts include Cardinal's standard terms, conditions, and risk mitigation language.
• Work to improve risk management metrics related to vendor compliance and credentialing.
• Support Due Diligence and Acquisitions efforts by providing hard benchmarking data, warehousing contracts for DD readiness, and aggressively underwriting lower in-place expenses.
• Lead change management initiatives across the organization, ensuring site teams understand the value of centralized procurement and incorporating operator feedback into service recommendations to prevent resentment.
• Drive continuous improvement of the Cardinal platform by testing and implementing new technologies and delivering "quick wins" by attacking outlier or loss-leader contracts.
• Maintain excellent relationships with all internal stakeholders, including Legal, Treasury, Accounting, FP&A, and Client Services.
• Champion the Cardinal Culture and Cardinal’s Core Values every day.
• Other tasks, as assigned by the Team Leader.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field and/or a minimum of 5 years of experience managing contract procurement, vendor relations, and expense control, ideally within multifamily or student housing.
• Proven leadership experience managing a team (e.g., managers and analysts) across a large portfolio.
• Familiarity with property management systems (e.g., Entrata, Yardi) and enterprise procurement/compliance platforms such as VendorPM and SIB.
• Strong change management skills with the ability to build consensus and address concerns from operations teams regarding centralized processes.
• Outstanding leadership, organizational, and customer service skills.
• Proficiency in Google Suite and Microsoft office software applications; project management applications preferred.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Capability to write interdepartmental memos.
• Effective facilitation of team and client meetings.
• Strong interpersonal skills and problem-solving ability.
• Ability to travel when needed to fulfill project responsibilities.
• Meet strict deadlines and prioritize.
• Excellent analytical skills, attention to detail and a strong work ethic.
• Ability to solve problems and think outside-of-the-box.
• Build and maintain strong relationships and establish strong interpersonal connections.
• Ability to embody the Cardinal Culture and Cardinal Core Values every day.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

Work environment characteristics described here are representative of those a Team Member encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Incumbents work in an office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the Team Member is regularly required to use hands to finger, type, handle, or feel and talk or hear. The Team Member is frequently required to stand; walk; reach with hands and arms, and stoop, or squat. The Team Member is often required to sit. The Team Member must be able to push, pull, lift, carry, or maneuver office products and supplies of up to twenty (20) pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions, and perform any other related duties, as assigned by their Team Leader.