Strategic Procurement & Vendor Management Lead

RapidFort, Inc.; United States; Hybrid; USD 145,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

RapidFort is seeking a hands-on Procurement & Vendor Management Manager to build and scale our purchasing, vendor relationships, and financial controls in a hybrid Palo Alto/SF Bay Area setting. You will own the vendor lifecycle from sourcing to offboarding, partnering with IT, Security, Legal, and Accounting to maximize value and compliance.

You will lead strategic sourcing, negotiate SaaS and technology contracts, establish purchasing workflows, and implement renewal processes.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in procurement, strategic sourcing, vendor management, or related function.
• Experience negotiating SaaS, technology, or professional services.
• Strong vendor lifecycle, contract administration, and renewal management.
• Strong analytical and financial skills to evaluate pricing and spend trends.
• Excellent organisational skills and ability to manage multiple negotiations.
• Clear written and verbal communication.
• Experience partnering with Finance, IT, Security, Legal, and business leaders.
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced growing organisation.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Supply Chain, or related field, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Procurement & Strategic Sourcing: Manage purchasing across software, cloud infrastructure, services, and other operating needs.
• Define requirements with department leaders and evaluate vendor options.
• Lead competitive bids, RFPs, pricing comparisons, and vendor selection.
• Negotiate pricing, discounts, terms, renewal provisions, and termination rights.
• Identify opportunities to consolidate vendors and reduce spend.
• Establish and maintain a central vendor and contract registry.
• Maintain repository of agreements and related documentation.
• Monitor vendor performance and address issues.
• Coordinate vendor offboarding and contract termination.
• Own renewal calendar and 90/60/30-day review process.
• Review utilization, license counts, and spending before renewal.
• Renegotiate and coordinate reductions or cancellations.
• Prevent unintended renewals and meet notice deadlines.
• Partner with IT and Security on SaaS, cloud, tech purchasing.
• Build scalable purchasing workflow with approvals and reviews.
• Coordinate onboarding and collect contracts, tax forms, insurance.
• Ensure secure collection of banking information.
• Escalate purchasing exceptions to VP of Finance.
• Reconcile vendor records with accounting and AP.
• Provide agreements and payment schedules to Accounting.
• Forecast vendor spend and identify prepaid agreements.
• Coordinate between Procurement and Accounting.
• Set up customers in procurement portals and billing systems.
• Support customer portal access and issue resolution.
• Deliver procurement and spend reporting to leadership.
• Develop policies for purchasing, bidding, approvals, renewals.
• Build controls for sound financial decisions.
• Establish customer-setup and portal administration processes.

Skills

Procurement

Strategic sourcing

Vendor management

Purchasing

Contract administration

Renewal management

Analytical skills

Financial skills

Communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Independent work

Bachelor’s degree

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Supply Chain, or related field

Tools

Xero

Bill.com

Procurement platforms

Job description

RapidFort is seeking a hands-on Procurement & Vendor Management Manager to build and scale our purchasing, vendor relationships, and financial controls in a hybrid Palo Alto/SF Bay Area setting. You will own the vendor lifecycle from sourcing to offboarding, partnering with IT, Security, Legal, and Accounting to maximize value and compliance.

You will lead strategic sourcing, negotiate SaaS and technology contracts, establish purchasing workflows, and implement renewal processes.