Senior Category Buyer, Raw Materials

TAIT partners with artists, brands, IP holders and place makers to bring culture-defining, never-before-seen experiences to life. With a legacy of innovation spanning over 45 years, TAIT has grown from pioneering in rock ‘n’ roll concert staging to setting the global standard for extraordinary live events and experiences through cutting‑edge technology, precision engineering, and creative design. TAIT’s 20 global offices have developed iconic productions and experiences in over 30 countries, all seven continents, and even outer space for renowned performers, theme parks, exhibits, and venues across the globe, including partnerships with Taylor Swift, Cirque Du Soleil, Royal Opera House, Nike, NASA, Bloomberg, Google, Beyoncé, and The Olympics.

The Director of Procurement – Travel, Events & AI-Enabled Spend Control is responsible for leading the strategy, governance, and optimization of a global travel and events spend portfolio exceeding $46M annually. This role is charged with delivering 10–20% sustainable, measurable savings across addressable spend while enhancing financial discipline, compliance, and operational efficiency. The position combines strategic sourcing, category management, policy and governance transformation, demand management, and advanced SAP Concur optimization to drive enterprise‑wide cost control.

This leader will identify and eliminate spend leakage, reduce unnecessary cost variability, and leverage AI‑enabled workflows and controls to streamline decision‑making, improve compliance, and minimize reliance on subjective approval processes—all while maintaining business productivity and a positive traveler experience.

Partnering closely with business leaders, Finance, Operations, and functional stakeholders, this role will drive organization‑wide adoption of travel and expense policies, embed sustainable behavioral change, and establish a culture of disciplined spend management. This is a highly visible, enterprise‑impact role with direct exposure to senior leadership. Success will strengthen governance, improve spend transparency, enhance decision quality through automation and AI, and deliver meaningful, recurring value across one of the organization’s largest indirect spend categories.

• Spend Diagnostics and Baseline Establishment
  • Leverage SAP Concur data (expense, travel, audit, and approval workflows) to establish a defensible spend baseline and identify leakage, non‑compliance, and behavioral savings opportunities.
  • Establish a credible baseline by category, geography, and business unit.
  • Identify addressable vs non‑addressable spend and quantify savings levers.
  • Develop transparent reporting dashboards for Finance and senior leadership.
• Travel and Events Policy Redesign
  • Review and redesign travel and event policies to reduce premium travel behaviors, tighten discretionary spend, clarify eligibility rules, approval thresholds, and escalation paths.
  • Align policies with executive expectations, risk appetite, and operational reality.
  • Partner with HR, Legal, Capability leadership and Finance to ensure enforce ability and adoption.
• Governance and Spend Control Enhancement
  • Redesign governance to reduce leakage and maverick spend, including clear ownership of approvals and exceptions, reduced manual intervention, and strong linkage between booking, expense, and reimbursement systems.
  • Introduce controls that prevent non‑compliant spend rather than correcting it after the fact.
  • Configure and optimize SAP Concur approval workflows, audit rules, and exception logic to reduce manual intervention and enforce policy by design.
  • Ensure tight integration between Concur Travel, Concur Expense, and the TMC to prevent off‑policy bookings and post‑trip leakage.
  • Work with capability leadership to develop training programs and information sessions to ensure all travelers understand the policies.
  • Design preferred vendor programs for selected categories, negotiate pricing, rebates, SLAs, service guarantees, and compliance mechanisms to deliver both rate savings and behavioral savings.
• Strategic Sourcing and RFP Execution
  • Lead end‑to‑end RFPs for Travel Management Company (TMC), airlines and…