Senior Manager Sourcing and Category Management Technology

Heidrick & Struggles; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Heidrick & Struggles is seeking an experienced procurement leader in Chicago to drive technology spend strategy. You will move from reactive purchasing to proactive category leadership, delivering value and strong supplier governance across IT, Security, Finance, Legal, and business owners.

You will own major renewals, negotiate complex technology contracts, and build tools to track savings, performance, and contract risk.

Qualifications

• 8–12+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, vendor management, or supplier management, with significant experience in Technology spend.
• Experience negotiating complex technology agreements (software/SaaS, cloud, IT services, telecom, hardware, or enterprise platforms).
• Strong ability to partner with IT, Security, Finance, Legal, and senior stakeholders in a matrixed environment.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute multi-year category strategies for Technology spend.
• Own end-to-end sourcing events, including market analysis, RFP/RFQ strategy, supplier evaluation, and contract handoff.
• Lead renewals and enterprise agreements with cost control and price protections.
• Partner across IT, Security, Finance, Legal, and business owners to translate roadmaps into sourcing strategies.
• Build category tools, dashboards, and renewal calendars; track savings and governance.

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Vendor management

Category management

Negotiation

Stakeholder management

Sourcing analytics

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain, finance, engineering, technology, or related field

Tools

RFP/RFQ design & execution

Spend analytics

Contract management systems

Job description

Technology spend is one of Heidrick’s most strategically important and risk-sensitive procurement areas, encompassing enterprise software, cloud platforms, infrastructure services, telecom, hardware, and strategic IT vendors. This role will help move Heidrick from reactive purchasing and renewal management to proactive category leadership, stronger supplier governance, disciplined sourcing, and measurable value delivery.

Success in this role is measured by the ability to deliver savings and value against validated baselines, increase the percentage of addressable Technology spend under Procurement management, and provide visibility into the renewal pipeline 120 to 90 days before contract expiration. The role is also expected to reduce unmanaged renewals, late-stage negotiations, and supplier fragmentation, while strengthening supplier performance governance for strategic Technology vendors and driving strong stakeholder satisfaction across IT, Security, Finance, Legal, and business owners. In addition, success includes improving contract compliance, metadata quality, and sourcing documentation.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute multi-year category strategies for Technology spend, including software, cloud, IT services, hardware, telecom, security tools, and enterprise platforms.
• Own end-to-end sourcing events, including market analysis, stakeholder alignment, RFP/RFQ strategy, supplier evaluation, negotiation, award recommendation, and contract handoff.
• Lead major renewals and enterprise agreements, with emphasis on cost control, usage optimization, scope discipline, price increase mitigation, and commercial flexibility.
• Partner with IT, Security, Finance, Legal, and business owners to translate technology roadmaps, security requirements, platform dependencies, usage trends, and business needs into sourcing strategies.
• Build and maintain category tools, including supplier segmentation, renewal calendars, negotiation playbooks, category plans, savings pipeline, contract risk views, and executive-ready reporting.
• Manage strategic supplier relationships and governance, including QBRs, KPI tracking, escalation management, performance improvement plans, and executive-level supplier engagement.
• Drive savings and value realization through competitive sourcing, demand management, vendor consolidation, commercial restructuring, license optimization, payment-term improvements, and TCO reduction.
• Ensure Procurement and Legal review for technology contracts involving data, PII, security, privacy, IP, regulatory, non-standard terms, or other elevated risk.
• Identify and mitigate supplier, renewal, commercial, operational, and contract risks, especially for auto-renewals, expired contracts, legacy suppliers, and high-dependency platforms.
• Partner with Finance to validate savings against credible baselines and ensure savings are tracked from identified to confirmed and realized.
• Improve Procurement operating discipline by strengthening intake, documentation, approval routing, supplier onboarding, contract metadata, and renewal visibility.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders by presenting clear deal narratives, options, risks, financial impact, tradeoffs, and recommendations.

Required Qualifications:

• 8-12+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, vendor management, or supplier management, with significant experience in Technology spend.
• Demonstrated experience negotiating complex technology agreements, including software/SaaS, cloud, IT services, telecom, infrastructure, security, hardware, or enterprise platform contracts.
• Strong commercial judgment across enterprise licensing, usage-based models, renewals, multi-year commitments, price protections, service levels, and contractual risk.
• Proven ability to partner with IT, Security, Finance, Legal, and senior business stakeholders in a matrixed environment.
• Strong sourcing toolkit, including category strategy, market analysis, RFP design, supplier evaluation, negotiation strategy, contracting support, and supplier governance.
• Ability to analyze spend, contracts, supplier performance, usage data, and renewal pipelines to identify risks and value opportunities.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to summarize complex commercial issues into clear recommendations.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, supply chain, finance, engineering, technology, or related field preferred.
• Experience supporting a global, professional services, technology, consulting, or knowledge-based enterprise.
• Experience with major enterprise suppliers such as Salesforce, Microsoft, Workday, Oracle, AWS, Box, HCL, Verizon, Zoom, or similar providers.
• Experience building category management practices, supplier governance routines, sourcing playbooks, dashboards, or renewal management processes.
• Familiarity with procurement platforms, CLM tools, contract repositories, ERP/P2P systems, and spend analytics.
• Experience managing or mentoring sourcing professionals is preferred but not required if the role is scoped as an individual contributor senior manager.