Strategic Sourcing Director, IT and Professional Services

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Performs a combination of duties in accordance with departmental guidelines:

• Leads research, gathers market intelligence and performs benchmarking analysis to understand the supply market and cost trends and develop an annual savings target for assigned business groups and categories.
• Establishes and leads cross functional teams of key stakeholders to collaboratively define business requirements, develop strategic category plans and execute initiatives that create value and reduce risk.
• Develops and drives negotiating sourcing strategies across assigned business units and categories, resulting in selection of most appropriate strategy for the service or commodity.
• Identifies, develops and leads the execution of sourcing strategies and improvement initiatives to reduce cost, improve quality and minimize risk.
• Presents category strategy analysis and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Liaises with Law function for the negotiation of large agreements for favorable contractual terms and key business owners aligned to policies and control areas for risk mitigation.
• Partners with an outsourced Third Party provider to provide strategic sourcing and contract management services to CNA, as needed.
• Builds strategic relationships with business leaders and external suppliers/agencies to drive results and influence business decisions with a focus on becoming a ‘trusted advisor’.
• Builds a robust understanding of the business’ strategies and purchase requirements across the enterprise in assigned categories to leverage sourcing and contracting opportunities that create the most value.
• Influences business leaders to enable the Procurement team to drive successful sourcing events, inclusive of combining multiple business needs into a single enterprise sourcing event to leverage the larger spend / opportunity and, where applicable, the ability to standardize across suppliers and services.

May perform additional duties as assigned.

Reporting Relationship

• Typically AVP and above

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Senior level knowledge in providing direction, consultation and recommendations in the area of strategic sourcing and contracting.
• Seasoned supplier and stakeholder influence and negotiation skills, including the ability to conduct balanced negotiations in the event a third party is both a supplier and customer of CNA.
• Experience leveraging auction tools/strategies for best outcomes.
• Recognized as a collaborative, team-player with internal and external partners. Develops team consensus based on compelling data-based analyses against business requirements and organizational imperatives. Builds positive relationships with suppliers best positioned to provide CNA with goods and services at the lowest total cost of ownership given risk and quality requirements.
• Excellent written and oral communication and presentation skills. Conveys information clearly and succinctly to all levels within the organization and external audiences, including effectively communicating the sourcing team’s vision, processes and value proposition.
• Ability to develop tactical and long term strategies. 
• Excellent project management, negotiation and change management skills.
• Excellent problem solving and conflict resolution skills.
• Results-driven. Recognizes commitments and organizes the team to deliver against assigned targets

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree with Master’s preferred in Business, Operations Management, Computer Science, or related discipline.
• Typically a minimum of eight years related work experience.

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