Strategic Procurement Lead — AI-Driven, High-Impact

Perplexity; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity in San Francisco is seeking a Procurement Lead to design and run our procurement function. You will shape workflows, policies, vendor selection, and the structure of agreements that power our software and data needs.

This is a hands-on role central to keeping costs under control while enabling rapid growth. You will partner with Legal, Security, and Accounting, negotiate multi-million-dollar deals, and implement AI-powered procurement.

Qualifications

• 5-7+ years of experience in procurement or strategic sourcing at a high-growth tech company.
• Proven track record negotiating multi-million-dollar software, cloud, or data agreements.
• Experience building procurement processes, policies, and systems from scratch.
• Comfort using AI tools to accelerate workflows.

Responsibilities

• Lead our highest-impact vendor deals across software, cloud services, data, and professional services, from competitive alternatives through pricing, terms, and signature
• Structure committed-spend, usage-based, and multi-year agreements that scale with usage and preserve flexibility
• Own relationships with our most important vendors, including performance tracking, business reviews, and renewal negotiations
• Design an efficient procurement workflow, policies, and approval thresholds, and implement the tools and AI automation to run them
• Use AI workflows and agents to automate procurement, from intake and contract review to spend analysis and reporting
• Build visibility into vendor spend and contracts, and drive savings through consolidation, right-sizing, and renegotiation
• Partner with Legal, Security, and Accounting on contract terms, vendor risk reviews, and audit-ready controls

Skills

Vendor negotiations

Strategic sourcing

AI workflow

Contract terms

Cross-functional collab

Project juggling

Job description

Perplexity in San Francisco is seeking a Procurement Lead to design and run our procurement function. You will shape workflows, policies, vendor selection, and the structure of agreements that power our software and data needs.

This is a hands-on role central to keeping costs under control while enabling rapid growth. You will partner with Legal, Security, and Accounting, negotiate multi-million-dollar deals, and implement AI-powered procurement.