Chief Procurement Officer and Executive Director of Operations

The Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) and Executive Director of Operations oversees the University's procurement, card services, travel services, and accounts payable operations. The CPO/Executive Director designs and implements University-wide, data-driven strategic sourcing operations that are integrated with exceptional payment services. The department's financial scope includes expenditures of approximately $900 million per year in materials, supplies and services. The position reports to the Associate Vice Chancellor of Finance.

The CPO/Executive Director is responsible for the performance of the central procurement function that supports the spend management initiatives across the University's academic and administrative units. The position plays a leadership role in the development of effective and efficient spend management practices across the University. This responsibility includes strategic and operational planning, talent and performance management, and execution of initiatives. This will entail the support of new tools and processes, the negotiation of advantageous contracts with vendors, and the coordination of University spend activity to ensure customer satisfaction, compliance, and cost-effectiveness.

In addition, the CPO/Executive Director will build strong relationships and coalitions across the University that will foster consensus for spend management initiatives.

The position leads a team of senior spend management professionals, across all areas of the source to settlement lifecycle, to transform the nature of their work from transaction management to spend management. To complement this effort, the CPO/Executive Director will focus on talent management best practices to elevate the depth and breadth of the team.

The position is responsible for ensuring the highest levels of satisfaction among University faculty and staff, optimizing savings through consolidated procurement and contracts while sustaining compliance with University policies and maintaining the highest integrity in all contracting, purchasing, and payment activities.

The CPO/Executive Director partners in a leadership capacity with key stakeholders across campus to ensure effective and efficient purchasing and payment services. This position leads and delivers change and seeks to align campus activity with best practice. This position leads through consensus, strong analytics, and benchmarking.