About the Role

The Procurement Category Manager is responsible for negotiating contracts for various categories including, but not limited to, technology, facilities, HR, consulting, accounting, and services engagements across the entire company globally. The position also involves support of overall Procurement Program, developing negotiation strategies, advising requestors on contract terms, monitoring costs of assigned contracts, and validate/improve pricing. The Procurement Category Manager may recommend cost saving proposals including alternative sourcing and will exercise independent judgment within defined practices and procedures to determine appropriate action.

Remote U.S. role within a reasonable commuting distance to one of the following offices: Arlington,VA; Austin, TX, Columbia, MD; El Segundo, CA; Irvine, CA; Kirkland, WA; Minneapolis, MA; Seattle, WA; St. Louis, MO; Sunnyvale, CA

Additional Responsibilities

Strategic Sourcing

• Develop global sourcing strategies for various categories

• Work with various business stakeholder groups to identify and qualify new or existing capable suppliers, initiate requests for proposals/quotations (RFPs/RFQs), advise requestors with respect to contract terms and conditions

• Conduct RFP and lead cross functional teams through the selection process of preferred suppliers with effective scoring criteria to critically evaluate supplier proposals in accordance with company policies

• Lead negotiations on General Procurement agreements, including, but not limited to, Master Agreements, Statements of Work, Change Orders balancing business deliverables, legal interests and pricing

• Conduct analysis on proposals for services in support of various business functions

• Analyze total costs, assist business functions with ROI analysis, price and rate benchmarking and negotiate favorable business terms to leverage company purchasing power

• Provide global contract expertise for sourcing of products and services for various business units

• Evaluate single sourcing requests and ensure competitiveness

Category Management

• Develop, refine and implement category strategies and tactics that enable the procurement of products and services at the highest value benefit to the company

• Add value by becoming the subject matter expert on various categories and consulting internal clients on industry trends, benchmarking, and best practices

• Lead cross-functional meetings with various business functions and develop a communication strategy to keep internal clients informed about procurement processes, supplier strategy, and procurement policies

Supplier Management

• Manage supplier relationships with focus on supply risk management, contract risk management and cost management

• Mediate supplier issues and resolve customer / supplier contract disputes if necessary

• Lead and participate in supplier performance reviews with vendors to review performance and support mutually agreed upon improvement programs as required

• Support ad-hoc reporting needs including supplier scorecards and other reporting

Contract Management

• Evaluate processes and recommend improvements to standardize lifecycle contract processes and systems

• Ensure pricing & deliverables as negotiated are included in the contract; coordinate comparison of proposals and final contract terms

Procurement Program Management

• Assist the department in developing and monitoring target category strategies

• Support Procurement project delivery against KPIs and other major initiatives

• Develop reports to measure overall performance and monitor value add

What You’ll Need 

• Bachelor’s degree required with 5+ years of experience in category management and/or strategic sourcing

• MBA degree a plus

• Subject matter expertise in sourcing & contracting tools (SAP and/or Oracle)

• Certified Purchasing Manager - desirable

• Contract Negotiation / Vendor Mgmt. / Influencing Skills

• Demonstrated skills in negotiating and formulating contracts, understanding cost models and various price structures, management of contractual, IP and labor law risks

• Demonstrated skills in project management required

• Ability to work well in a high-pace dynamic environment, handle multiple projects simultaneously, and ensure task completion and deadlines are met as required

• Proficient with Microsoft Office applications: Excel, Word, PowerPoint

Communication Skills

• Communicate well in English both in verbal and written form

• Strong project management, organizational, and analytical skills required

• Excellent team facilitation and presentation skills required

• Ability to present to C-level executives / stakeholders and articulate strategies and performance metrics

Bonus Points 

• Experience developing strategies for multiple categories of spend

• High-tech, start-up, rapid growth and/or publicly traded company experience.

• You must love our business. CrowdStrike is a leader in cybersecurity. We don’t have a mission statement. We are on a mission to protect our customers from breaches. You must be genuinely committed to our mission and eager to learn the details of our business 

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