Strategic Procurement Lead — AI-Driven Vendor Strategy

Candidate; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Perplexity is seeking a Procurement Lead to build and scale its procurement function, overseeing vendor relationships, agreements, and spend governance. This role is based in San Francisco with in-person work 2-3 days per week.

The successful candidate will partner with Legal, Security, and Accounting to craft contracts that maximize value and enable fast, flexible growth. You will design workflows, implement AI automation, and drive measurable savings across the organization.

Qualifications

• 5-7+ years of procurement or strategic sourcing at a high-growth technology company.
• Track record of negotiating multi-million dollar software/cloud/data agreements and delivering savings.
• Experience building procurement processes, policies, and systems from scratch.

Responsibilities

• Lead high-impact vendor deals across software, cloud services, data, and professional services.
• Structure and negotiate across committed-spend, usage-based, and multi-year agreements.
• Own relationships with key vendors, including performance tracking and renewals.

Skills

Vendor negotiation

Strategic sourcing

Contract management

Stakeholder management

AI-enabled procurement

Tools

AI procurement tools

Job description

Perplexity is seeking a Procurement Lead to build and scale its procurement function, overseeing vendor relationships, agreements, and spend governance. This role is based in San Francisco with in-person work 2-3 days per week.

The successful candidate will partner with Legal, Security, and Accounting to craft contracts that maximize value and enable fast, flexible growth. You will design workflows, implement AI automation, and drive measurable savings across the organization.