Procurement Manager, Emerging Technology and Digital Innovation Procurement

International Rescue Committee; Oregon; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is seeking a Procurement Manager, Emerging Technology and Digital Innovation to support fast-moving technology sourcing across IRC. You will manage pilots, proofs of concept, and early-stage digital solutions, ensuring procurement discipline, vendor due diligence, and compliance.

This hands-on role requires translating technical needs into clear scopes of work, guiding requirements, and building processes for pilots and trials while ensuring proper

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on sourcing support for pilots, trials, proofs of concept, small-scale SaaS, emerging vendors, startup-style tools, and digital innovation requests across IRC.
• Execute sourcing activities in line with the IT category strategy under guidance of the Senior Category Manager, IT.
• Conduct early market scans and market intel for emerging tools, vendors, pricing models, and digital innovation categories.
• Support requirements gathering, supplier identification, RFI/RFQ/RFP prep, evaluation support, award recommendation, and contract finalization.

Skills

Procurement

Vendor management

RFP/RFQ/RFP

SaaS

Digital innovation

Job description

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

Background

Global Procurement, within the Global Supply Chain function, leads sourcing strategy, category management, and supplier management for the organization. As IRC continues to test and adopt new technology to support its mission, Global Procurement is establishing a dedicated Procurement Manager role to provide procurement capacity for emerging technology and digital innovation.

Position Overview

The Procurement Manager, Emerging Technology and Digital Innovation Procurement supports fast-moving technology sourcing needs across IRC, with a focus on early-stage digital innovation, pilots, proofs of concept, trials, and emerging tools. The role helps teams test and evaluate new technology quickly while maintaining procurement discipline, vendor due diligence, risk review, documentation, and compliance.

For this role, "digital innovation" refers to early-stage, small-scale, fast-moving technology initiatives where IRC teams are testing a new idea, tool, platform, vendor, or digital approach before deciding whether to scale. The portfolio covers AI and generative AI tools where applicable, SaaS and digital platforms, automation, data and analytics, migration and testing tools, cybersecurity tools, collaboration platforms, digital service delivery tools, field and mobile technology, low-code and no-code platforms, and other emerging digital solutions.

This role is an execution-focused, hands-on individual contributor role. It enables IRC to move quickly on emerging technology and digital innovation requests without bypassing procurement controls, vendor due diligence, information security, data protection, legal review, donor compliance, or documentation requirements. The Procurement Manager serves as the day-to-day procurement focal point for these requests.

Key Responsibilities

A. Emerging Technology and Digital Innovation Sourcing Execution

• Provide hands-on sourcing support for pilots, trials, proofs of concept, small-scale SaaS, emerging vendors, startup-style tools, and digital innovation requests across IRC.
• Execute sourcing activities in line with the IT category strategy and under the guidance of the Senior Category Manager, IT.
• Conduct early market scans and market intelligence for emerging tools, vendors, pricing models, and digital innovation categories.
• Support requirements gathering, supplier identification, RFI/RFQ/RFP preparation, evaluation support, award recommendation, and contract finalization.
• Build supplier visibility for innovation and emerging technology vendors, including startup and niche providers that may later become larger enterprise solutions.
• Help bring new tools into proper procurement channels, reducing shadow IT, credit-card purchasing, and unmanaged technology spend.
• Support SaaS rationalization, renewal planning, demand management, and license optimization at the innovation and pilot tier.
• Help business teams translate technical needs into clear scopes of work, evaluation criteria, and vendor questions.

B. Pilot, Trial, and Proof-of-Concept Procurement Frameworks

• Build and maintain a lightweight, repeatable procurement pathway for pilots, trials, and proofs of concept.
• Develop checklists, decision tools,