Lead Principal SAM Strategy & Optimization

Available Locations: Austin Texas
About the Role
Cloudflare is seeking a Lead Principal of SaaS Strategy & Optimization to lead our company-wide SaaS application portfolio with a focus on cost efficiency, scalability, and strategic business value. This role will drive visibility, governance, and performance across all SaaS tools, ensuring Cloudflare's software ecosystem is secure, well-managed, and delivering maximum return on investment.
Reporting to the VP of Enterprise Operations & IT, this role will be responsible for aligning SaaS investments with organizational needs and priorities, eliminating inefficiencies, and creating repeatable, scalable practices that support sustainable growth. The ideal candidate will partner with leadership up to CIO, CAO and others to align SAM initiatives with business objectives, ensure regulatory adherence, and deliver measurable value through efficient resource utilization.
Responsibilities
SaaS Portfolio Leadership

• Define and implement the enterprise SaaS strategy, ensuring alignment with business priorities and compliance requirements.
• Establish and enforce governance frameworks, intake processes, and standards for SaaS procurement, deployment, and offboarding.
• Partner with the VP of Enterprise Operations, as well as key cross functional partners, to integrate SAM into broader IT and operational strategies.

Cost Efficiency & Value Realization

• Identify and execute cost-saving opportunities through license optimization, vendor consolidation, and rationalization of redundant tools.
• Develop reporting frameworks and dashboards to monitor usage trends, renewal timelines, and software ROI across departments.
• Identify and resolve compliance gaps, including over/under-licensing issues.

Operational Excellence

• Build and maintain processes that ensure the right tools are in place, fully utilized, and aligned with team workflows.
• Partner with internal teams to improve onboarding and offboarding practices, helping reduce shadow IT and security risk.
• Mitigate audit risks by maintaining accurate license inventories, usage reports, and entitlement tracking.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate closely with Procurement, IT, Security, Legal, and Finance teams to align SaaS policies and practices across the organization.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to business leaders on software decisions and performance management.

Vendor Engagement

• Support vendor relationship management and contract strategy, ensuring favorable terms, visibility into usage, and scalability for future needs.
• Coordinate with Procurement to drive informed negotiation and renewal activities.
• Ensure compliance with software licensing agreements, vendor contracts, and regulatory requirements
• Oversee SAM tools to automate inventory tracking and reporting.

Team Leadership

• Build and manage a small, high-performing team focused on SaaS operations, governance, and analysis.
• Promote a data-informed, outcome-driven culture around software decision-making.
• Standardize SAM processes across global teams, ensuring scalability and efficiency.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in SaaS portfolio management, IT strategy, vendor governance, or enterprise procurement
• Strong understanding of SaaS licensing models, usage analytics, and tooling ecosystems
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and influence at the executive level
• Experience delivering cost optimization, operational maturity, and process improvements
• Familiarity with InfoSec, compliance, and legal standards related to SaaS vendors
• Excellent communication, storytelling, and data presentation skills
• Experience in high-growth, fast-paced environments preferred
• Familiarity and experience with Zylo preferred

Compensation
Compensation for this role ranges will vary depending on location. The role is also eligible to receive equity in the company. Final compensation will be determined by a number of factors, including the candidate's experience, knowledge, and skills.
What Makes Cloudflare Special
What Makes Cloudflare Special?
We're not just a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company. We're a highly ambitious, large-scale technology company with a soul. Fundamental to our mission to help build a better Internet is protecting the free and open Internet.
Project Galileo: We equip politically and artistically important organizations and journalists with powerful tools to defend themselves against attacks that would otherwise censor their work, technology already used by Cloudflare's enterprise customers--at no cost.
Athenian Project: We created the Athenian Project to ensure that state and local governments have the highest level of protection and reliability for free, so that their constituents have access to election information and voter registration.
1.1.1.1: We released 1.1.1.1 to help fix the foundation of the Internet by building a faster, more secure and privacy-centric public DNS resolver. This is available publicly for everyone to use - it is the first consumer-focused service Cloudflare has ever released. Here's the deal - we don't store client IP addresses never, ever. We will continue to abide by our privacy commitment and ensure that no user data is sold to advertisers or used to target consumers.
Sound like something you'd like to be a part of? We'd love to hear from you!
This position may require access to information protected under U.S. export control laws, including the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. Please note that any offer of employment may be conditioned on your authorization to receive software or technology controlled under these U.S. export laws without sponsorship for an export license.
Cloudflare is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all people and place great value in both diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to their, or any other person's, perceived or actual race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law. We are an AA/Veterans/Disabled Employer.
Cloudflare provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job. Examples of reasonable accommodations include, but are not limited to, changing the application process, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment. If you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job, please contact us via e-mail at [email protected] or via mail at 101 Townsend St. San Francisco, CA 94107.