Senior Manager Sourcing and Category Management Technology

Heidrick & Struggles Technology Procurement Manager

Heidrick & Struggles is a premier provider of executive search, leadership assessment and development, organization and team effectiveness, and culture shaping services globally. In our more than 60 year history, we have conducted some of the most high-profile C-suite and board-level searches in the world.

Today, we are working with our clients across 29 countries to help them accelerate their performance and respond with agility to new opportunities and challenges in every industry. We continue to raise the bar in serving our clients as trusted leadership advisors, and we are also providing an expanded range of data-driven, tech-enabled tools and platforms across our executive search and consulting businesses.

Managing top talent isn't just our business. It's our passion, and we are committed to investing in and developing the careers of our own people.

We look for people with experience from a variety of industries and diverse educational backgrounds who are passionate about partnering with innovative and influential organizations and share our commitment to our purpose – to help our clients change the world, one leadership team at a time.

The Role:

Technology spend is one of Heidrick's most strategically important and risk-sensitive procurement areas, encompassing enterprise software, cloud platforms, infrastructure services, telecom, hardware, and strategic IT vendors. This role will help move Heidrick from reactive purchasing and renewal management to proactive category leadership, stronger supplier governance, disciplined sourcing, and measurable value delivery.

Success in this role is measured by the ability to deliver savings and value against validated baselines, increase the percentage of addressable Technology spend under Procurement management, and provide visibility into the renewal pipeline 120 to 90 days before contract expiration. The role is also expected to reduce unmanaged renewals, late-stage negotiations, and supplier fragmentation, while strengthening supplier performance governance for strategic Technology vendors and driving strong stakeholder satisfaction across IT, Security, Finance, Legal, and business owners.

In addition, success includes improving contract compliance, metadata quality, and sourcing documentation.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute multi-year category strategies for Technology spend, including software, cloud, IT services, hardware, telecom, security tools, and enterprise platforms.
• Own end-to-end sourcing events, including market analysis, stakeholder alignment, RFP/RFQ strategy, supplier evaluation, negotiation, award recommendation, and contract handoff.
• Lead major renewals and enterprise agreements, with emphasis on cost control, usage optimization, scope discipline, price increase mitigation, and commercial flexibility.
• Partner with IT, Security, Finance, Legal, and business owners to translate technology roadmaps, security requirements, platform dependencies, usage trends, and business needs into sourcing strategies.
• Build and maintain category tools, including supplier segmentation, renewal calendars, negotiation playbooks, category plans, savings pipeline, contract risk views, and executive-ready reporting.
• Manage strategic supplier relationships and governance, including QBRs, KPI tracking, escalation management, performance improvement plans, and executive-level supplier engagement.
• Drive savings and value realization through competitive sourcing, demand management, vendor consolidation, commercial restructuring, license optimization, payment-term improvements, and TCO reduction.
• Ensure Procurement and Legal review for technology contracts involving data, PII, security, privacy, IP, regulatory, non-standard terms, or other elevated risk.
• Identify and mitigate supplier, renewal, commercial, operational, and contract risks, especially for auto-renewals, expired contracts, legacy suppliers, and high-dependency platforms.
• Partner with Finance to validate savings against credible baselines and ensure savings are tracked from identified to confirmed and realized.
• Improve Procurement operating discipline by strengthening intake, documentation, approval routing, supplier onboarding, contract metadata, and renewal visibility.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders by presenting clear deal narratives, options, risks, financial impact, tradeoffs, and recommendations.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree.
• 8-12+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, vendor management, or supplier management, with significant experience in Technology spend.
• Demonstrated experience negotiating complex technology agreements, including software/SaaS, cloud, IT services, telecom, infrastructure, security, hardware, or enterprise platform contracts.
• Strong commercial judgment across enterprise licensing, usage-based models, renewals, multi-year commitments, price protections, service levels, and…