Strategic Sourcing Specialist - Technology

About Northern Trust

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award‑winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889. Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world's most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world's most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Major

Duties & Responsibilities
1) Cross‑Vendor Security & Risk Commercial Strategy (Primary Ownership)

• Build and maintain the multi‑vendor strategy across identity/security controls, risk tooling, and protective service layers, aligned to enterprise risk posture and resiliency goals.
• Drive vendor rationalization/substitution strategies and contract runway planning to avoid surprise renewals and unmanaged risk exposure.
• Lead commercial design for security tooling where value is measured by adoption, coverage, and risk reduction outcomes (not shelfware).

2) Channel & Reseller Governance / Margin Transparency (Primary Ownership)

• Own strategy and controls for reseller/channel economics: discount governance, rebate programs, pass‑through requirements, fee structures, and price protection.
• Establish playbooks and guardrails that prevent margin leakage, duplicative purchases, and fragmented sourcing across channels.
• Drive demand management opportunities (standardization, preferred channel routing, catalog discipline) in partnership with Procurement Ops.

3) Complex Negotiations & Escalation Path (Shared Ownership; Complexity Lead)

• Support Category Managers on renewals/RFx and step in as escalation for impasses or highly complex negotiations (security terms, audit rights, incident‑related clauses, regulatory addenda, channel price disputes).
• Ensure negotiation posture and outcomes align to enterprise standards for security, privacy, resiliency, and regulatory requirements.

4) Value Tracking, Controls, and Risk‑Focused Governance (Primary Ownership Within Scope)

• Develop scorecards and value realization frameworks for security and optimization vendors (license utilization, coverage metrics, outcome validation, unit‑cost curves).
• Establish periodic strategic reviews with Security/Risk leadership and IT Finance to confirm roadmap alignment and quantify delivered value.
• Ensure sourcing decisions reinforce a sustainable risk culture and reduce operational/compliance surprises.

What This Role Does Not Own (By Design)

• Day‑to‑day vendor operational governance/Q  ownership and performance management (Vendor Management lane), though this role participates to enforce commercial controls and drive value realization.
• Routine purchasing admin, PO/invoice troubleshooting, or CLM data hygiene (Procurement Ops lane).
• Owning all RFx execution end‑to‑end (Category Manager lane), except when a sourcing event is strategically critical or stalled.

Preferred Knowledge & Specialized Expertise (Not Required) Security + Risk Commercial Acumen (Role‑Specific)

• Security contracting patterns: audit rights, breach notification, SLAs for protective services, cyber indemnity constructs (in partnership with Legal/Risk)
• Understanding of identity/security architectures at a conceptual level (IAM, WAF/CDN, posture management, monitoring/telemetry) to align commercials to real usage and coverage

Channel / Reseller Economics (Role‑Specific)

• Discount structures, rebates, MDF‑like programs, services attach, margin controls, price protection, and governance models for large resellers/telecom/optimization providers

Optimization / Value‑Realization Mindset

• Strong orientation to utilization, leakage reduction, and measurable outcomes; ability to build executive‑ready value narratives

Experience & Qualifications

• 10+ years in technology sourcing with demonstrated strength in security/risk contracting and/or channel economics (resellers/telecom/optimization platforms)
• Master's preferred; advanced negotiation or conflict management specialization a plus
• Proven track record of building governance models, leading…