Procurement Category Associate Manager, Technology - Software, IT Professional Services and Man[...]

Accenture; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Procurement Category Associate Manager to drive strategic sourcing initiatives across technology spend areas. In this dynamic role, you will collaborate with clients to develop sourcing strategies for software and IT services, leveraging your expertise to enhance procurement functions. You will lead sourcing projects, mentor teams on best practices, and engage with senior stakeholders to optimize client investments. This is a fantastic opportunity to join a forward-thinking company that values innovation and continuous improvement, offering a collaborative environment where your contributions will make a significant impact.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in strategic sourcing/category management focused on Software and IT Services.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to lead sourcing efforts.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with clients to develop sourcing strategies across Technology spend areas.
• Lead end-to-end sourcing projects to drive client value and efficiency.

Skills

Strategic Sourcing

Category Management

Procurement Advisory

Negotiation

Analytical Skills

Project Management

Cloud Services

IT Services

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Job description

We Are:

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent and innovation led company with 738,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Accenture Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients succeed and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com .

You Are:

Accenture is seeking a Procurement Category Associate Manager, Technology to collaborate with external clients to develop sourcing strategies across Technology spend areas including: Software, IT Professional Services and Managed Services. You will work with clients to support business goals, drive value and achieve optimal commercial structure, quality and service levels. In this capacity, you will have substantial involvement in supporting sales and solution design for prospective new client accounts and in helping procurement organizations expand their involvement and control of non-traditional spend areas.

The Work:

1. Work collaboratively with global client organizations, practice leadership, market leading technology providers, and client stakeholders to identify project pipelines, create category plans and execute continuous value, process and service improvement projects across a wide array of clients and industries.
2. Lead end to end sourcing projects to drive client value, including all key steps such as strategy development, supplier negotiation, award recommendations, business case presentations and supplier contract execution, leveraging an Agile approach to drive efficiency in execution.
3. Leverage industry and supplier research, market intelligence (both internal and externally sourced) to perform financial and commercial analyses of IT contracts to advise clients in optimizing their IT Investments aligned to market leading strategies.
4. Support development of market insights from cross-client sourcing activities and collaborate with Technology Practice advisors to develop content that enables knowledge sharing across the organization and published thought leadership for clients.
5. Pursue and develop senior level stakeholder relationships at priority client accounts, support account stakeholder relationship plans.
6. Lead Category Strategy development for specified clients to identify project opportunities that achieve client goals and mature their procurement function.
7. Mentor sourcing team on technology sourcing best practices with a special emphasis on technology market trends and insights, commercial structure assessment, negotiation strategies and contracting best practice.
8. Lead advisory and sourcing execution delivery as a team leader, with focus on client satisfaction and delivery financials.
9. Engage with prospective clients during business development pursuits through support of contract assessments, client due diligence calls, and presenting the practice delivery approach and case studies.

Here’s What You Need:

1. Minimum of 5 years of experience in strategic sourcing/category management, procurement advisory/consulting, focused on Software and IT Services categories:

• Software: including SaaS, ELAs with major vendors, maintenance renewals, security, and Platform-as-a-Service.
• Services: services related software, application or cloud professional services including systems integration, cloud managed services, and application services, including requirements development and commercial.

Bonus points if:

• Bachelor’s degree.
• Ability to effectively lead formal strategic sourcing efforts and client procurement advisory related to Software and Cloud as primary accountability, with awareness of Infrastructure, Managed Services, and Telecom, and strong interest in expanding expertise across all technology categories as part of long-term growth.
• Interest in leading development of market intelligence, industry trends, and thought leadership, with a goal of establishing yourself as a trusted advisor to clients and subject-matter expert.
• Strong critical thinker, self-starter who can take initiative with high-level direction and deliver client work with minimal supervision.
• Passion for continuous self-learning within the technology industry (i.e., cloud, consulting and services, infrastructure, software and telecommunications).
• Proven analytical skills in terms of numeric (e.g. spreadsheets) and text based (e.g. reading terms and conditions) analysis, converting information into tangible recommendations to clients, offering point-of-view and advisory recommendations.
• Process oriented team leader with the ability to identify process efficiencies and opportunities to apply transformative technology such as Gen AI to improve service delivery.
• Ability to act independently and can interface with customers and suppliers via strong written and verbal communications skills.
• Strong ability to effectively manage in a matrix organizational structure working with multiple internal and client stakeholders.
• Ability to self-manage multiple priorities and operate effectively in a shared service delivery model.
• Strong analytical, organization/time management and problem-solving skills.
• Interest in developing solution oriented selling skills to prospective clients.
• Ability to drive transformational change.
• Solid multi-phase project management skills.
• Ability to adapt to the varied corporate cultures and organizational structures of our customers.

Travel:

This position may require travel up to 50% to multiple customer locations.

Compensation at Accenture varies depending on a wide array of factors, which may include but are not limited to the specific office location, role, skill set, and level of experience.

We accept applications on an on-going basis and there is no fixed deadline to apply.

What We Believe:

We have an unwavering commitment to diversity with the aim that every one of our people has a full sense of belonging within our organization. As a business imperative, every person at Accenture has the responsibility to create and sustain an inclusive environment.

Inclusion and diversity are fundamental to our culture and core values. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

Accenture is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences, such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, religion or sexual orientation.

Accenture is committed to providing veteran employment opportunities to our service men and women.

Requesting An Accommodation:

Accenture is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities or religious observances, including reasonable accommodation when needed.

Other Employment Statements:

Applicants for employment in the US must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United States.