Category Manager, IT – Indirect

At Verint, we believe customer engagement is the core of every global brand. Our mission is to help organizations elevate Customer Experience (CX) and increase workforce productivity by delivering CX Automation. We hire innovators with the passion, creativity, and drive to answer constantly shifting market challenges and deliver impactful results for our customers. Our commitment to attracting and retaining a talented, diverse, and engaged team creates a collaborative environment that openly celebrates all cultures and affords personal and professional growth opportunities. Learn more at www.verint.com.

Overview of Job Function: 

The Category Manager, IT – Indirect will be responsible for sourcing, negotiating and contract management for the company’s indirect IT spend, with a primary focus on SaaS and enterprise software and cloud services, as well as IT hardware, telecom and data network services, and IT professional services. This includes leading cross functional teams to determine and execute the category sourcing strategy, requirements, vendor candidates and supplier selection, and managing the SaaS and software contract lifecycle from intake and evaluation through negotiation and renewal. The Category Manager will be responsible for the supplier relationships and ensuring compliance of vendor engagements in accordance with the company’s procurement policies and procedures.

Principal Duties and Essential Responsibilities: 

• Demonstrate cross functional leadership, working closely with teams to identify opportunities, aggregate spend, and standardize SaaS and enterprise software, cloud, hardware, telecom and data network services, and IT services as required to leverage purchasing power and achieve results.

• Develop and coordinate assigned category specific plans and remain accountable for targets aligned with procurement objectives.

• Interface and persuade cross-functional teams, including senior leadership, to ensure seamless execution of category plans.

• Use current spend information/data and business knowledge to identify sourcing projects for individual subcategories and develop an overall cost reduction plan.

• Communicate, execute, and implement category initiatives.

• Lead complex, strategic sourcing projects and obtain cost savings through supplier negotiations, event driven activities and alternate sourcing. 

• Manage the end-to-end SaaS and software procurement lifecycle, from intake, business case and requirements through vendor evaluation, negotiation, contracting and renewal, in partnership with IT, Information Security, Legal, Finance and business owners.

• Negotiate SaaS and software agreements, including subscription and consumption-based pricing models, multi-year commitments, renewal price caps, true-ups, auto-renewal and termination terms, license entitlements, data protection and security requirements, and service levels.

• Maintain a forward-looking renewal calendar for SaaS and software contracts and lead renewal strategy well ahead of notice dates to preserve negotiating leverage and avoid unplanned auto-renewals.

• Partner with IT and Finance to rationalize the SaaS and software portfolio by identifying duplicate applications, unused or underutilized licenses and unmanaged purchases, and right-sizing entitlements to drive cost savings and cost avoidance.

• Partner with IT and Finance to manage cloud commitments and spend (e.g., Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform), including enterprise agreements, committed-spend discounts and marketplace purchases.

• Coordinate with Information Security, Privacy and Legal to ensure third-party risk, security and data privacy due diligence is completed at vendor onboarding and renewal.

• Monitor current category market conditions, including vendor pricing and licensing model changes, to identify potential supply challenges and develop supply continuity plan.

• Manage all vendors as required including key suppliers with global and/or critical contracts.

• Respond and resolve issues around the contract, technical and operational support, and invoicing.

• Establish global collaboration and proper alignment with cross functional teams and stakeholders.

• Responsible for interfacing with stakeholders to improve decisions regarding budgeting, forecasting, sourcing, compliance, quality and contracting.

• Bring strategic thinking to spend categories to support execution of business transformation strategies.

• Build and maintain positive business relationships with suppliers and stakeholders yielding effective partnerships.

• Initiate and lead supplier business reviews that address performance, technology, roadmaps, business growth strategies and supply market changes.

• Track and report category spend, savings (cost reduction and cost avoidance) and the renewal pipeline to procurement leadership through regular dashboards and reporting.

• Ensure all procurement projects and activities are following the Global Procurement policy and procedures.

Minimum Requirements: 

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Technology or related field or equivalent work experience. 

• Five or more years’ experience in strategic sourcing of indirect IT categories (SaaS and enterprise software, cloud, hardware and IT services) and managing category spend with delivered results and evidence of increases in scope and level of responsibility, including at least three years of SaaS or enterprise software procurement.

• Working knowledge of SaaS and software licensing and pricing models (e.g., subscription, consumption-based, named user, enterprise agreements, true-ups and audit exposure), and a strong technical understanding of organizational technology needs and cloud operations with familiarity with one or more cloud platforms (e.g., Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud Platform).

• Demonstrated expertise with all elements of a structured strategic sourcing process.

• Strong stakeholder and supplier relationship management skills.

• Experience interacting with all levels of the organization, consistent record of effective and productive senior management level interactions.

• Excellent knowledge of procurement sourcing process and category strategy development.

• Strong interpersonal skills, ability to communicate both verbal and written and engage at all levels within the organization.

• Ability to start and finish tasks with minimal management oversight and maintain a positive attitude throughout typical work-related challenges.

• Highly organized with excellent time management skills and the flexibility to manage multiple projects.

• Proven experience in interpreting and negotiating complex legal agreements and service schedules (e.g., master subscription agreements, order forms, data processing terms and service level agreements) and utilizing a network of IT supplier contacts that can be leveraged in such negotiations.

• Demonstrated effectiveness in sourcing IT categories.  Examples include:

• SaaS and enterprise software, including subscription and consumption-based models, multi-year renewals, true-ups and license compliance

• Cloud operations and platforms, including committed-spend agreements and marketplace purchasing

• IT Hardware, including personal computing, servers and security appliances

• Networking including voice, data, wireless, SIP, conferencing, VOIP, network equipment

• Telecommunication including contract terms, tariffs, fixed and variable bandwidth-based pricing schedules, minimum revenue commitments and service level agreements for voice and data

• IT Services, including outsourced infrastructure, data center, application development and product assessment

• Proficient in MS Office Suite, including strong Excel skills for spend and savings analysis

• Successful completion of a background screening process including, but not limited to, employment verifications, criminal search, OFAC, SS Verification, as well as credit and drug screening, where applicable and in accordance with federal and local regulations.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Experience supporting a software or technology company.

• Procurement or software asset management certification (e.g., CPSM, IAITAM CSAM) and/or MBA.

• Hands-on experience with source-to-pay, contract lifecycle management and/or SaaS management platforms.

• Familiarity with FinOps practices and third-party risk management processes.