Principal Strategic Sourcing Manager

Job Overview

The Principal Strategic Sourcing Manager will be an integral part of the Value Chain Sourcing team and will be responsible for driving global sourcing activities across multiple categories within Intuit in an independent contributor role. Areas of sourcing responsibilities can include Technology, Services, and Partnerships.

This role will serve as a strategic leader and contact point responsible for building and managing relationships with key suppliers and internal Intuit business owners.  This role supports Intuit in-product integrations of technology and services, driving new product evaluations, customer engagement, and 3rd party offerings.  This role also requires the development and execution of sourcing strategies, with an equal emphasis placed on strategy and execution including the ability to identify, analyze, and quantify opportunities as well as the ability to manage RFI and RFPs and handle vendor negotiations.  Projects will include a mix of both cost savings opportunities, revenue-driving projects, and indirect savings.

This role will require the experience of a strategic driver who will act as the contact point across business unit leaders and stakeholders, including being key partner to support teams to ensure cross functional success of new opportunities.   This will require the leadership capabilities to identify and evaluate strategic sourcing initiatives, drive total partner value, identify efficiencies, and support growth strategies across business and functional groups stakeholders.  

Responsibilities

Leadership

• Take ownership and responsibility for proactively leading and managing strategic sourcing initiatives with or without analytical support
• Direct, define, and implement sourcing strategies and initiatives to drive the delivery of growth strategy, and business transformation objectives for responsible categories
• Lead portfolio including multiple projects that require strategy, planning and execution of transformational, complex and innovative projects
• Contribute suggestions to assist management in the development of organizational strategy, structure and operational roadmap
• Provide leadership, mentorship, and management of team
• Sets strategic priorities and develops goals and objectives for team planning resources accordingly
• Proactively builds relationships with and influences stakeholders
• Collaborate with procurement teams where applicable to ensure procurement efficiency and automation, sourced supplier utilization, risk mitigation and contract compliance
• Engages with several stakeholders at all levels, primarily Group Manager/Director/VP and above
• Demonstrate and practice a high degree of professional integrity and ethical responsibility in all business activities
• Keep abreast of industry innovation and bring ideas that will help the company re-imagine and leapfrog ahead resulting in advancements in technologies, process methodologies or establishing supplier alliances

Opportunity Assessment

• Own and drive opportunity assessments with the right balance of strategic insights (spend, supplier, category, contract) and representation of current state to drive senior stakeholder engagement
• Evaluate and recommend strategic opportunities/initiatives to Strategic Sourcing leadership utilizing current and emerging business models, assessing short-term and long-term industry and strategic considerations
• Demonstrate a high degree of deep data analysis and summarization for senior leadership review.
• Develop an effective approach to present and obtain sponsorship from senior leadership on opportunities

Strategic Sourcing Process Execution and Project Management

• Provide category expertise and leverage that understanding to determine potential sources of supply, determine capabilities of suppliers’ product and service offerings, and relate offerings to stakeholder needs
• Determine the right sourcing process considering bidding approach, formal and informal negotiations, and structure process to resolve conflicts and build consensus
• Drive project activity across large cross-functional team through communication of expectations, decisions, changes, enforcement of deadlines, and creation and evaluation of deliverables
• Define data needed to meet objectives and develop an effective plan for gathering it (including spend, contracts, supplier information, stakeholder insights, current state process & tools)
• Utilize analysis to solve business problems. Draw conclusions and insights that are not immediately obvious
• Gather, analyze, and document requirements using interviews, document analysis, requirements workshops, surveys, site visits, business process descriptions, use cases, business analysis, and task and workflow analysis
• Lead and Manage RFI/RFQ/RFPs from start to finish, which includes creation, issuance, and facilitation of the entire process, through vendor evaluations (using scorecards) and vendor selection
• Direct the negotiation of highly complex, enterprise-wide, strategic supplier partners. Drive best total cost of ownership value for the organization based on specific project requirements and marketplace conditions.
• Manage issues & risks and communicate to management. Consult with senior management and project management experts as needed. Facilitate communication between project team and stakeholders
• Drive consensus across critical business decisions that are complex and high impact to the organization
• Create supporting documentation to applicable standards such that the value generated can be included in executive-level presentations
• Lead projects that drive price reduction, optimized demand, vendor consolidation and process improvement

Continuous Improvement and Supplier Management

• Partner with stakeholders to review ongoing vendor segmentation and identify strategic vendors to be included in vendor management programs
• Perform assigned vendor management activities (business reviews, scorecard reviews, discussions) in alignment with client teams
• Manages supplier performance monitoring and measurement and work with vendor owners on key escalations or remediations
• Identify improvement opportunities with key vendors and focus areas that drive continuous improvement across KPIs and pushes innovation
• Evaluate vendors for preferred supplier programs by category and drive adoption with stakeholders
• Maximize realized value from vendor partnerships by driving third parties to innovate and automate solutions

People Management

• No direct reports

Qualifications

Basic qualifications:

• Relevant industry or category experience
• 10+ years of strategic sourcing or consulting experience (e.g., developing category strategies, running RFI/RFQ/RFP, reverse auctions, interests-based direct negotiations)
• Experience with driving top line revenue and growth opportunities
• Experience with ERP and Source-to-Pay tools
• Experience in team environments and negotiating with internal and external stakeholders
• Experience developing and/or presenting business cases, category strategy
• Solid financial and quantitative modeling. Attention to detail and ability to analyze complex data with multiple independent variables.
• Comfort with written and verbal communication of quantitative and qualitative information with executives
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain Management, or other quantitative discipline; equivalent experience will be considered
• Experience in contract development, administration, and/or management
• Experience managing multiple simultaneous projects in a fast-paced environment with several stakeholders
• Experience in negotiating deals with global vendors
• Experience managing global vendor relationships
• Experience in managing transformational projects that require high-level of change management
• Attention to detail and ability to analyze complex data
• Availability to directly support and interact with multiple international business units

Desired skills:

• A proven track record of cost reduction and productivity improvements; ability to influence and drive change while building solid relationships with your internal clients and external vendors
• Internal or external business consulting experience highly desired
• Knowledge and interest in key sourcing areas such as:
  • Technology
  • Professional Services
  • Financial Services
  • Data/AI/ML
  • Customer Success and Care
• Strong analytical skills; MS Excel proficient; financial modeling preferred
• Strong written and communication skills; MS Office Suite and/or Google Workspace
• Ability to work independently as well as lead and participate in cross functional teams
• Ability to collaborate in a team environment
• Awareness of best practices regarding vendor management (e.g., strategic alliances, supplier certification, etc.)
• Excellent documentation and requirements analysis

Eligibility requirements:

• Interested candidates must submit a resume/CV online to be considered
• Must be willing to submit to a background investigation