Founding Procurement Lead

You’ll work directly with our founder, take ownership of client engagements and continue to develop our current approach to contract assessment, negotiation and delivery. Your buying experience and judgement will help strengthen our methods and make them increasingly repeatable as we grow.

You’ll understand what clients need from their software agreements, assess where there is room to improve and turn that assessment into a clear negotiation strategy. You’ll then lead vendor negotiations or support the client’s team through them.

You should actively want to join a startup at this stage. You’ll enjoy taking responsibility, working closely with a small team, adapting as we learn and contributing ideas that improve both client outcomes and how the business operates.

Alongside delivering client work, you’ll help develop and scale our delivery operation, refine the standards future colleagues will work to and, as the business grows, have the opportunity to recruit, coach and lead others.

Client engagements. Understand each client’s requirements, priorities and decision process. Agree the brief, keep stakeholders informed and help them make confident decisions throughout the engagement.

Our negotiation framework. Continue to develop our current approach to establishing the baseline, assessing the evidence, recommending a price range and agreeing the negotiating position, timing and approvals. Help make this increasingly repeatable while adapting the strategy to each client and vendor.

Pricing and contract analysis. Interrogate vendor pricing models, proposals and comparable agreements. Assess whether comparisons are relevant and distinguish a genuine price improvement from changes in scope, quantities or commitment.

Vendor negotiations. Engage directly with vendor commercial teams, lead negotiations or equip clients to lead their own. Build constructive relationships, challenge confidently and hold a well-founded commercial position.

The agreed commercial outcome. Consider payment terms, renewal increases, notice deadlines and flexibility alongside price. Check that agreed concessions are reflected in the final documentation, working with the client’s legal, finance and technology colleagues where needed.

Savings clients can validate. Agree realistic baselines and compare equivalent requirements. Clearly distinguish potential savings from confirmed outcomes and explain the results in terms finance teams can understand and verify.

Continuous improvement. Refine our existing review methods, negotiation playbooks and client communications. Capture lessons from each engagement and use AI and automation thoughtfully to improve consistency and give us more time for negotiation and client relationships.

• Proven buying experience. A background in procurement, strategic sourcing or procurement consultancy, including personally negotiating software purchases and renewals.
• Direct negotiation experience. You’ve worked with software vendors' commercial teams and can explain the outcomes you achieved, the approach you took and your contribution.
• Strong analytical judgement. You can get beneath a pricing proposal, question assumptions and assess the relevance of benchmark data.
• Commercial confidence. You understand the implications of contract length, renewal provisions, payment terms and flexibility. You know when to challenge, when to compromise and when specialist input is needed.
• Credibility with clients. You can build trust with finance, procurement, IT and business stakeholders, including senior decision-makers. You communicate clearly and handle commercially sensitive information with care.
• Initiative and ownership. You organise your work, prioritise effectively and keep engagements moving. You bring recommendations and follow through on decisions.
• A genuine appetite for joining a startup. You enjoy contributing beyond your immediate remit and helping improve an existing approach as the business grows. You're comfortable making progress when priorities change and every process isn't fully documented.
• Practical curiosity about AI. You're interested in using it to improve research, analysis and delivery, with the judgement to question its output and validate what matters.

A CIPS or equivalent procurement qualification is welcome, but isn't essential. We're particularly interested in your practical experience and the outcomes you've achieved.