Category Manager - IT
RemoteUnited States
Job Summary
Own category strategy and renewal management for IT spend areas including SaaS, cloud, endpoint, and telecom services. Lead end-to-end competitive sourcing events from business case development through award, negotiating directly on pricing, terms, SLAs, and total cost of ownership. Drive contract execution with Legal and Information Security, maintaining sourcing pipeline hygiene and validating outcomes against established baselines. Partner with Finance, Legal, IT, and business unit stakeholders to align on strategy, reduce vendor risk, and deliver measurable savings. Build spend and TCO analysis that holds up under vendor scrutiny while documenting lessons learned for the broader sourcing team.
Required Qualifications
- 6+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, vendor management, or a related commercial role
- experience with IT, software, SaaS, or technology services categories
- Proven ability to lead vendor negotiations directly
- develop leverage-based negotiation strategies
- challenge supplier assumptions
- secure measurable commercial improvements across pricing, terms, risk, and flexibility
- Working knowledge of commercial contract terms
- comfort partnering with Legal on redlines, negotiation positions, and contract risk tradeoffs
- Strong spend and data analysis skills
- building and defending TCO and multi-year commitment models
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and/or Google Sheets
- experience with BI, reporting, or spend analytics tools
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills
- the ability to align Finance, Legal, Information Security, IT, and business stakeholders around a sourcing strategy
- Organized, systems-minded work habits
- comfort managing work through a procurement intake, sourcing, or work management platform
- such as Zip, Coupa, Ariba, or Jira
- Exceptional written and verbal communication
- the ability to make a data-dense recommendation easy to act on
- a reliable internet connection through a cable or fiber-optic broadband service
- minimum speeds of 10 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload
- actively participate in video-based interviews during the recruiting process
- ongoing virtual meetings with their camera on
Desired Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Operations, or related field
- Background in SaaS, Tech, K–12, EdTech, or another software-heavy environment
- Experience in a private equity-backed, high-growth, or matrixed organization
- where sourcing spans multiple operating brands
- Familiarity with major technology vendors
- agreement structures such as cloud enterprise agreements, SaaS estates, and endpoint or device services
- Experience standing up or maturing a sourcing function, process, or playbook
- rather than only operating an established one
- Familiarity with Zip or another procurement orchestration platform
- used to manage intake, approvals, sourcing workflows, and supplier engagement
- Relevant certifications such as CPSM, CIPS, or PMP
- experience with IT, software, SaaS, or technology services categories
- experience with BI, reporting, or spend analytics tools is a plus
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