Sr. Director of Procurement Excellence Full Time NEW

We are looking for a highly capable leader to oversee savings validation, implementation, value realization assurance, and client invoicing activities across a portfolio of Fortune 1000 clients.

This role sits at the intersection of procurement analytics, client leadership, operational execution, and financial accountability. You will serve as a trusted partner both internally to our negotiation teams and externally to client procurement and finance stakeholders, ensuring negotiated savings outcomes are accurate, defensible, implemented effectively, and ultimately realized by the client.

At the core of the role is ownership of the savings validation function. This individual will lead the review, underwriting, and communication of negotiated savings outcomes before they are transmitted to clients, ensuring the organization can stand confidently behind the analytics, assumptions, and methodologies used. Because our business frequently operates under gainshare arrangements, the effectiveness of this function directly impacts client trust, savings realization, and company revenue.

The role also includes leading the client-facing validation and implementation process, acting as the bridge between our internal teams and client stakeholders to resolve analytical questions, implementation issues, and occasional disagreements in principle in a collaborative and solutions-oriented manner. Success in the role requires strong judgment, executive presence, and the ability to inspire confidence in high-accountability environments.

This leader will manage and elevate a highly capable team of experienced procurement audit and savings validation professionals who have helped build the function from the ground up into what it is today. Success in the role is not about supervising junior resources — it is about coaching an experienced team, respecting and leveraging the deep expertise already within the function, supplementing specialized skill sets where needed, driving accountability, and helping take the function to the next level operationally and technologically. The role will also assume ownership of portions of the client management and invoicing responsibilities currently handled by senior leadership, helping remove operational burden from the leadership team while strengthening the overall client delivery function.

Importantly, this is a player-coach leadership role. We believe leaders at every level of the organization should remain close to the work itself, from the CEO throughout the company. This individual should expect to spend a meaningful portion of their time directly participating in complex savings reviews and validation activities in order to stay deeply connected to the content, client nuances, and evolving dynamics across the team and engagements.

Finally, this person will help evolve the function operationally and technologically, leveraging analytics, automation, AI tools, and scalable workflows to advance the sophistication and efficiency of savings validation, implementation, and realization assurance processes.

ResponsibilitiesSavings Validation, Implementation & Value Realization

• Lead the review, validation, valuation, and underwriting of negotiated savings outcomes across client engagements
• Ensure savings analyses are accurate, defensible, and ready for external client communication
• Personally participate in complex savings reviews and validation activities to remain closely connected to the work, client dynamics, and analytical nuances across engagements
• Ensure approved savings outcomes are implemented effectively within client organizations and translated into realized client value
• Drive accountability internally and externally to ensure negotiated outcomes are operationalized successfully
• Oversee processes related to savings realization assurance and client invoicing accuracy
• Advance and modernize existing validation and realization processes through improved analytics, automation, AI enablement, and technology-driven workflows
• Maintain high standards for analytical rigor, quality control, and execution consistency

Client Leadership & Delivery

• Serve as the senior point of contact for client procurement and finance stakeholders throughout the savings validation and implementation process
• Lead complex and occasionally contentious conversations regarding savings validation, implementation, realization tracking, and invoicing
• Resolve analytical discrepancies, implementation issues, and stakeholder disagreements in a collaborative, professional, and solutions-oriented manner
• Build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders by demonstrating confidence, accuracy, responsiveness, and sound judgment
• Coordinate closely with internal negotiation teams, suppliers, and client stakeholders to ensure alignment and successful realization of negotiated outcomes
• Translate complex analytical findings into clear, practical, and credible client communications
• Assume ownership of key client management and invoicing interactions currently handled by senior leadership

Team Leadership & Operational Excellence

• Lead, mentor, and performance manage a highly capable team across procurement excellence and savings validation functions
• Coach an experienced team while respecting and leveraging the expertise they have built over time
• Supplement specialized skill sets and help elevate the overall capability of the function
• Create accountability while empowering experienced individual contributors and subject matter experts to perform at a high level
• Operate as a player-coach, balancing strategic leadership with hands-on execution and problem solving
• Help identify capability gaps, strengthen team performance, and improve execution quality across the function
• Support operational scaling initiatives and continuous improvement efforts
• Contribute to building a high-performance, collaborative, and accountable culture
  

What We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of experience in procurement, consulting, finance, analytics, and/or client delivery environments
• Experience operating within a client service business or advisory environment
• Significant experience managing executive-level client relationships in high-accountability settings
• Strong experience leading teams of experienced, high-performing professionals
• Procurement savings validation, audit, and/or value realization experience strongly preferred
• Exceptional analytical and financial acumen, including experience working with large and complex datasets
• Strong judgment and the ability to navigate difficult or high-pressure stakeholder conversations with confidence, professionalism, and credibility
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex analyses clearly and persuasively
• Ability to operate independently in a fast-paced and entrepreneurial environment
• High degree of ownership, accountability, execution capability, and attention to detail
• Desire and aptitude to improve operational workflows through technology, analytics, automation, and AI-enabled processes

Technical & Operational Skills

Required:

• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills
• Experience using AI productivity and analysis tools such as ChatGPT and Claude
• Strong comfort working with data, analytics, and technology-enabled workflows

Nice to Have:

• Experience working with ERP and procurement platforms such as SAP, Oracle, Ariba, or similar enterprise systems
• Experience improving operational workflows through automation or technology enablement