Strategic Category & Procurement Specialist

CFA Institute; Virginia; On-site; USD 83,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual discretionary bonus

Pension with 12% employer contribution

Comprehensive medical benefits

Job summary

CFA Institute is seeking an Associate Category Manager in the United States (Virginia) to own the procurement lifecycle for a spend category. You will partner with stakeholders to understand needs, develop sourcing approaches, negotiate with vendors and manage supplier relationships end-to-end.

Bring proven experience in procurement, sourcing, category management or contract management, with a track record of leading negotiations and managing vendor performance.

Qualifications

• Strong, demonstrable experience across procurement, strategic sourcing, category management or contract management.
• Proven experience managing the procurement lifecycle, including sourcing, commercial negotiation and vendor management.
• Experience within services procurement and understanding of procurement environments beyond goods and manufacturing.
• Evidence of leading or contributing significantly to vendor negotiations and competitive sourcing activity.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and ability to influence new ways of working.
• Knowledge of contracts and key commercial terms through their lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Manage activity across the procurement lifecycle, including sourcing, vendor evaluation, negotiation, contracting and ongoing vendor management.
• Partner with business stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into effective sourcing strategies and category plans.
• Lead or support competitive sourcing activity, including RFI, RFP and RFQ processes, vendor evaluation and award recommendations.
• Negotiate with vendors to secure strong commercial outcomes while balancing cost, quality, risk and business requirements.
• Manage contracts across their lifecycle, including renewals, amendments and expiration tracking, working with Legal as appropriate.
• Monitor vendor performance against SLAs and KPIs and address performance gaps as needed.
• Use market research, spend analysis and supplier insight to identify opportunities like vendor rationalisation and tail spend management.
• Support evolving procurement processes and help stakeholders understand requirements clearly.
• Track category performance, savings and compliance metrics and contribute to improving procurement processes, templates and playbooks.

Skills

Procurement lifecycle

Sourcing & negotiation

Vendor management

Category management

Stakeholder management

Contract management

Spend analysis

Job description

CFA Institute is seeking an Associate Category Manager in the United States (Virginia) to own the procurement lifecycle for a spend category. You will partner with stakeholders to understand needs, develop sourcing approaches, negotiate with vendors and manage supplier relationships end-to-end.

Bring proven experience in procurement, sourcing, category management or contract management, with a track record of leading negotiations and managing vendor performance.