Position Overview:

The Manager of Procurement Excellence plays a critical influencing role, acting as a change agent in bringing about improvements to end-to-end processes. These processes include but may not be limited to procurement intake, source to contract, purchase to pay and supplier relationship management.

Develop and implement strategies to drive procurement operations transformation. Responsible for driving procurement excellence and elevating the function’s value proposition. Oversee the procurement systems roadmap, administration coordination, automation opportunities, integrations, and user adoption strategies.

The role involves focusing on areas, including:

• Policy and process improvement (simplification, standardization, scaling)
• Digital transformation, system design and administration
• Performance measurement
• Cross-functional operating models
• Governance and compliance
• Oversight of buyer activities
• Quality assurance & data integrity/reliability
• Template creation & management (RFx, SRM, Project Mgmt., Value Tracking)
• Organizational Procurement reporting (spend, contracts, KPI/performance)

Key performance areas

This role’s focus reaches into operational scalability, workflow governance, and overall enterprise process optimization.

Capability improvement strategy: Developing and documenting plans to improve procurement capabilities, processes, systems, and policies to enable procurement delivery and governance.

Integration strategy and execution: Identifying and executing on strategies targeting enterprise procurement digital and process capability improvement and performance efficiency.

Leadership: Dotted and/or solid-line leadership and people enablement. Cross-functional enablement that shapes/influences operating models.

Business management and coordination: Leading cross-functional initiatives and developing business partnerships with key governance and process areas.

Qualifications

• Minimum: A bachelor’s degree in supply chain, finance, or related area. An advanced degree in business or finance degree preferred.
• Affiliations: Appropriate professional registration or certifications are desirable.
• Advanced: Exposure to executive development programs and/or specialist supply chain program preferred (e.g. Six Sigma certification).

Experience

• 10+ years’ business management, and 5+ years’ senior management experience in a supply chain or procurement operations environment. 
• Familiarity with implementing, using and/or optimizing modern procurement standards and industry-leading procurement technologies.
• Hands-on experience with intake/orchestration, Source-to-Pay (S2P), CLM, supplier management, analytics, and ERP procurement technologies highly preferred.
• Relevant related industry/sector experience is advantageous (e.g. exposure to a direct and indirect procurement environment and/or in technology and services organizations).

Work content

Capability improvement strategy: Developing and documenting plans to improve procurement capabilities, processes, systems, and policies to enable procurement delivery and governance.

• Establishes frameworks, processes and measurement strategies that enhance efficiency, governance, performance, resilience and visibility.
• Collects and synthesizes improvement opportunities both from within and outside of the organization.
• Coordinates a cross-functional procurement excellence council that provides advice on perceived capability gaps, priorities and opportunities.
• Assesses and designs key digital transformation opportunities that foster scalability, visibility, value assurance, and governance.

Integration strategy and execution: Identifying and executing on strategies targeting enterprise procurement digital and process capability improvement and performance efficiency.

• Works closely with procurement leadership to lead and coordinate transformation initiatives, efficiently administering projects.
• Enables and maintains a repository of ongoing projects, ensuring project plans and documentation are available and up to date.
• Develops project and communications plans around digital and/or process transformation initiatives.

Leadership: Dotted and/or solid-line leadership and people enablement. Cross-functional enablement that shapes/influences operating models.

• Acts as a change agent, enthusing procurement staff and stakeholders about upcoming changes.
• Operates as the face of procurement systems and policy, working with procurement leadership to communicate and showcase the function’s protocol, systems, and related changes.
• Oversees the rollout of the departmental learning and development strategy, to ensure ongoing improvement in procurement capability.
• Plays a mentorship and coaching role where required.

Business management and coordination: Leading cross-functional initiatives and developing business partnerships with key governance and process areas.

• Operates in close collaboration with senior stakeholders across the business and category-level staff in understanding their requirements, key areas of opportunity, escalating feedback and bringing individuals together around shared initiatives.
• Works with governance areas (legal, IT Security, etc.) to optimize contract management processes, agreement templates and process.
• Partners with digital leaders across the business in aligning digital and data strategies.
• Ensures the procurement team can provide accurate and timely information, as required, in areas such as:
• Spend visibility
• Contract reporting and notifications
• Preferred supplier profiles/lists
• Cycle times and Procurement KPIs
• Acts as the central point of contact for audits or queries surrounding process changes and performance measurement.

Essential competences

• Business case development: Obtains support for ideas by creating detailed and workable processes, policy and/or technology proposals; considering the strategic, commercial, financial, and business management implications.
• Managing and promoting change: Is agile and resilient in the face of organizational change. Seeks, analyzes and supports opportunities to drive change, as well as add value to the business and its customers.
• Procurement process and policy management: Applies, embeds and develops processes designed to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the function.
• Project management: Approaches the completion of assignments with focus and initiative, applying relevant methods to see projects successfully through to completion.
• Problem solving and decision making: Thinks through problems holistically, constructively, and takes action to devise solutions.
• Strategy development: Creates, documents, and delivers structured and compelling procurement process strategies based on data-driven insights, stakeholder needs/feedback, and business objectives.
• Technologically savvy: Well-informed of the latest technology trends, and understands the value, impacts, and risks they present to procurement and to the company.