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The Role
The Principal Strategist will lead efforts in enabling Coupa's sales organization, driving strategic positioning, and managing executive-level discussions around the Cirtuo platform, focusing on category management and procurement transformation.
Summary Generated by Built In
Coupa makes margins multiply through its community-generated AI and industry-leading total spend management platform for businesses large and small. Coupa AI is informed by trillions of dollars of direct and indirect spend data across a global network of 10M+ buyers and suppliers. We empower you with the ability to predict, prescribe, and automate smarter, more profitable business decisions to improve operating margins.
Why join Coupa?
🔹 Pioneering Technology: At Coupa, we're at the forefront of innovation, leveraging the latest technology to empower our customers with greater efficiency and visibility in their spend.
🔹 Collaborative Culture: We value collaboration and teamwork, and our culture is driven by transparency, openness, and a shared commitment to excellence.
🔹 Global Impact: Join a company where your work has a global, measurable impact on our clients, the business, and each other.
Learn more on Life at Coupa blog and hear from our employees about their experiences working at Coupa.
The Impact of a Sr. Principal Strategist, Category Management COE at Coupa:
As we scale our integration across Coupa’s global sales organization, we’re building a Center of Excellence (CoE) to enable and support the business in selling Cirtuo. We are seeking a Strategic Value Consultant, a seasoned procurement leader with deep category management experience, who can translate practitioner knowledge into commercial success.
This is a unique, hybrid role: part strategist, part evangelist, part executive deal sponsor. You’ll educate and enable Coupa account teams, govern executive-level prospect discussions, and help shape how Cirtuo’s value is positioned as a mission-critical strategic platform in the market. This role is strictly focused on strategic alignment and deal acceleration, not technical solutioning or basic pre-sales activities.
What You'll Do:
- CoE Enablement & Strategic Positioning: Drive organizational readiness by training Coupa’s sales organization (AEs, Solution Advisors, CVMs) on Cirtuo’s strategic positioning, Executive Value Narrative, and advanced use cases. Equip them with the confidence to transition the sales conversation from tactical to strategic.
- Executive Alignment & Credibility: Engage in critical, mid- to late-stage client and prospect conversations as a subject matter expert to articulate the strategic value of Cirtuo. Build immediate credibility at the CPO and VP level by connecting category management best practices to tangible business outcomes and operating model transformation.
- Strategic Deal Acceleration: Partner with sales teams during key inflection points of the opportunity lifecycle. Provide strategic governance for the value proposition, validating the ROI business case, and creating the urgency required to drive a successful, time-bound decision. Act as a trusted advisor during final-stage deal discussions to overcome strategic hurdles and close business.
- Thought Leadership & Evangelism: Represent Cirtuo as a procurement transformation advocate, in internal forums, executive customer meetings, and external industry events. Share proprietary insights on how leading organizations leverage strategy automation to drive impact at a global scale.
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with Product, Marketing, and Customer Success to feedback high-level strategic insights from the field, helping to refine messaging, analyst positioning, and the strategic narrative.
- Pipeline Influence: Help identify white space and strategic opportunities within Coupa’s customer base where Cirtuo can expand strategic value and accelerate overall growth.
What You Will Bring to Coupa:
- 10+ years of strategic procurement or category management experience derived from a global, large-scale enterprise environment.
- Proven ability to engage, challenge, and influence at the CPO and VP levels on topics like category strategy, organizational design, and enterprise-wide value delivery.
- Deep experience influencing digital transformation and driving the adoption of procurement technology.
- Commercial acumen and comfort working alongside sales teams in executive-level pre-sales or consultative selling environments.
- Impeccable executive presence, strategic communication, and business storytelling skills.
- Collaborative mindset and ability to operate cross-functionally in a fast-paced, global SaaS organization.
- Previous experience in management consulting, procurement strategy leadership, or senior solution advisory roles is a significant advantage.
Coupa complies with relevant laws and regulations regarding equal opportunity and offers a welcoming and inclusive work environment. Decisions related to hiring, compensation, training, or evaluating performance are made fairly, and we provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified candidates and employees.
Please be advised that inquiries or resumes from recruiters will not be accepted.
By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you have read Coupa’s Privacy Policy and understand that Coupa receives/collects your application, including your personal data, for the purposes of managing Coupa's ongoing recruitment and placement activities, including for employment purposes in the event of a successful application and for notification of future job opportunities if you did not succeed the first time. You will find more details about how your application is processed, the purposes of processing, and how long we retain your application in our Privacy Policy.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of strategic procurement or category management experience
- Ability to engage with CPO and VP levels on category strategy
- Experience influencing digital transformation in procurement
- Commercial acumen in executive-level pre-sales or consultative selling
- Strong strategic communication and business storytelling skills
- Previous experience in management consulting or senior solution advisory roles
What the Team is Saying
Aditya Maheshwari
Sr. Software Engineer, Cloud
Alex Moon
Operations Analyst, Order Management
Jose Miguel Jimenez
Procurement
Jessica Fonseca
Technical Support Specialist
Daniela Aristizábal
Associate Planning & Operations Analyst
Coupa Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Company materials describe comprehensive healthcare and mental wellness programs for employees and their families, positioning well‑being as a core pillar of the package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous paid time off, parental leave, and company Wellness Days are highlighted, with remote‑work flexibility available for many roles.
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Parental & Family Support — Family‑focused offerings include parental leave, fertility benefits, family medical leave, and on‑site mother’s rooms to support caregivers.
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The Company
What We Do
Coupa is a global technology company that helps businesses run smarter by connecting all the ways they spend money — from procurement and expenses to payments and supply chain decisions — in one intelligent platform. In simple terms, Coupa gives organizations the visibility and control they need to make better financial choices, reduce waste, and drive real impact. It’s where technology meets purpose: helping companies manage their resources more responsibly while creating a positive ripple across their people, partners, and the planet.
Why Work With Us
At Coupa, we prioritize an inclusive and empathetic workplace where every voice is valued. Our teams are proactive and accountable, ensuring we collaborate effectively to achieve our goals. The foundation of our culture rests on our people; we believe in fostering an environment that encourages innovation and curiosity.
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