Head of Procurement

TRACTIAN; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive Salary

Premium Medical, Dental, Vision

PTO 15 Days

401(k)

Wellhub Gym Membership

Sports Incentive

Long-Term Travel Benefit

Job summary

TRACTIAN is seeking its first Head of Procurement to design and own the sourcing function from zero. You’ll own indirect spend, SaaS, software, and services, build processes, negotiate deals, and establish vendor risk programs.

You’ll expand into direct procurement, electronics, contract manufacturing, and logistics, shaping how TRACTIAN sources everything it buys, moving fast and aligning with business goals across stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Built procurement function from scratch in a fast-moving company.
• Own outcomes and measure results, not activities.
• Experience in hypergrowth and starting from zero.
• Commercial mindset focused on business outcomes.
• Self-starter capable of working solo in early stage.
• Comfort with ambiguity and no playbook.
• Strong negotiator with proven savings and favorable terms.
• Collaborates well with stakeholders to accelerate spending.

Responsibilities

• Build the procurement function from scratch: process, policy, and tooling.
• Partner with business stakeholders to understand needs and negotiate optimal solutions.
• Own end-to-end sourcing across direct and indirect spend.
• Drive savings and favorable terms without slowing the business.
• Set up vendor due-diligence and risk program.
• Develop contracting processes used by legal, finance, and teams.
• Consolidate vendors and optimize the supplier base.
• Select and roll out scalable procurement tooling.
• Collaborate with Engineering and Hardware on sourcing and continuity.

Skills

Procurement strategy

Negotiation

Vendor management

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Finance at TRACTIAN

Finance at TRACTIAN is lean, commercial, and built to be a competitive advantage — not a back office. We move at startup speed, treat every dollar like our own, and partner with the business instead of policing it.

Finance at TRACTIAN is lean, commercial, and built to be a competitive advantage — not a back office. We move at startup speed, treat every dollar like our own, and partner with the business instead of policing it.

The Role

We're hiring our first Head of Procurement to build the function from zero. Reporting directly to the CFO, you'll start with a blank page and a fast-growing company that needs someone to own how it spends, no inherited playbooks, no team to manage on day one. You'll start by owning indirect spend, SaaS, software, and services, designing the process, negotiating the deals, managing vendor risk, and driving real savings. From there, you'll expand into direct procurement, electronics, contract manufacturing, and logistics, and own how we source everything we buy, all while making the business faster, not slower. This is for someone who's done it before and loved it. Commercial, pragmatic, and allergic to bureaucracy, someone who knows procurement's job is to help the business win, not to be the team that makes everything hard. You'll work hand‑in‑hand with business stakeholders across the company, get to the root of what they actually need, and negotiate the most effective, efficient solution to solve it.

What You'll Do

• Build the procurement function from scratch, process, policy, and tooling.
• Partner with business stakeholders to understand what they truly need, then negotiate the most effective and efficient solution to meet it.
• Own end‑to‑end sourcing across direct and indirect spend, from intake to negotiation to contract.
• Negotiate hard and well, drive meaningful savings and better terms without slowing the business.
• Stand up a vendor due‑diligence and risk program fit for a company handling customer data and real supply chains.
• Build a contracting process legal, finance, and stakeholders actually want to use.
• Consolidate the vendor base; renegotiate or cut low‑value relationships.
• Choose and roll out procurement tooling that scales.
• Partner with Engineering and Hardware on component sourcing and supply continuity as we scale production.

What We Need

• A builder, someone who's stood up procurement inside a fast‑moving company and wants to do it again.
• You own outcomes, not tasks. You measure yourself by the result, not the activity, and you drive to it.
• Built from zero. You've created a procurement or sourcing function from scratch, ideally during hypergrowth.
• Commercial. You think like an owner and optimize for the best business outcome, not for control.
• Self‑starter. You spot what's missing and build it, comfortable as the first and only person in the function.
• Comfortable with ambiguity. No playbook, shifting priorities, undefined problems, that's your happy place.
• A real negotiator. You've driven measurable savings and better terms, and you win without burning relationships.
• Easy to work with. People want you in the room because you make spending faster, not harder.
• Not a gatekeeper. We don't want friction, red tape, or process for its own sake, we want someone who makes the company more effective.

Requirements

• 6+ years in procurement, strategic sourcing, or vendor management, including building or rebuilding a function hands‑on.
• Track record of standing up procurement processes that delivered measurable savings and reduced risk.
• Demonstrated negotiation wins across multiple spend categories.
• Experience managing the full contract lifecycle across a large, diverse vendor base.
• Experience selecting and implementing procurement or vendor‑management tooling.
• High‑growth startup or scaleup experience strongly preferred; exposure to hardware/direct supply chains (electronics, contract manufacturing, logistics) a big plus.
• Excellent cross‑functional communication, you partner well with Engineering, Ops, Legal, and Finance.
• Strong network of professionals who gives you a sense of where market is.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive Salary
• Premium Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage
• Paid Time Off (PTO): 15 Days
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Wellhub Membership - Access a wide range of gyms and training programs.
• Sports Incentive - Receive a monthly bonus when you regularly participate in physical activities.
• Long‑Term Benefit - After four years of service, earn a fully funded trip anywhere in the world.