Job Description
Title: Senior Category Manager
Location: Remote – US
About the role:
Reporting to the Director of Strategic Sourcing, you will play an integral part in elevating the role of Strategic Sourcing at Samsara by enabling stakeholder success, supplier innovation and driving savings for your assigned categories. In addition to facilitating the contract negotiation process, you will be part of a team focused on driving cost efficiencies, maximizing value, minimizing risk, and managing overall supplier performance. This role can be office-based or fully remote in the US and Canada.
You should apply if:
- You want to impact the industries that run our world: Your efforts will result in real-world impact helping to keep the lights on, get food into grocery stores, reduce emissions, and most importantly, ensure workers return home safely.
- You are the architect of your own career: If you put in the work, this role won’t be your last at Samsara. We set up our employees for success and have built a culture that encourages rapid career development, countless opportunities to experiment and master your craft in a hyper growth environment.
- You’re energized by our opportunity: The vision we have to digitize large sectors of the global economy requires your full focus and best efforts to bring forth creative, ambitious ideas for our customers.
- You want to be with the best: At Samsara, we win together, celebrate together and support each other. You will be surrounded by a high-caliber team that will encourage you to do your best.
In this role, you will:
- Largely focus on Technology and Engineering spend areas
- Develop and Execute Strategic Sourcing Plans
- Lead the development and execution of category strategies that deliver a competitive advantage to the business
- Analyze industry trends to proactively identify issues and to develop contingency plans
- Leverage supplier scorecards to monitor and manage supplier performance
- Partner with key stakeholders to facilitate business reviews with key suppliers
- Drive Negotiation Excellence and Results
- Align with internal stakeholders to drive the right solutions at the right price
- Consistently deliver win-win outcomes with internal and external partners in complex negotiations
- Lead all aspects of the sourcing process from end-to-end including the redlining and negotiation of contracts in a fast-paced environment
- Balance speed, quality, and risk with cost savings goals
- Manage projects related to Strategic Sourcing process, tools, and functional improvements
- Champion, role model, and embed Samsara’s cultural principles (Obsess Over the Customer, Build for the Long Term, Growth Mindset) as we scale globally and across new offices
Minimum requirements for the role:
- Minimum of 8 years of strategic sourcing or technology industry experience including 5+ years of Technology sourcing experience
- Knowledge of sourcing trends and best practices, supplier performance models, licensing models, IT application lifecycle management, and emerging technologies
- Strong negotiation and communication skills self starter and change agent capable of influencing strategy and decisions
- Demonstrated experience forging relationships with executives, stakeholders, and suppliers
- Ability to lead various financial analysis such as cost modeling, total cost of ownership, build vs. buy
- Bachelor’s Degree in business, supply chain, engineering, or related discipline preferred
- Able to work with a high volume of transactions in a fast-paced environment.
An ideal candidate also has:
- Strategic sourcing expertise in one or more of the following categories: Business Technology; Engineering; or Cloud Infrastructure
- Experience working in a hyper growth environment
- Strong history of delivering creative solutions, compelling cost savings and improving supplier performance in technical spend categories such as Application Services, SaaS, Professional Services, Infrastructure, etc.
- Experience negotiating complex, enterprise-level terms for the above categories
- Proven track record of driving strategy and bottom line results for the above categories
- Deep understanding of legal- and category-specific terms and requirements
- Ability to transform business needs into contract terms
- Ability to prioritize and organize work effectively
- A history of collaborating and communicating effectively with others
