As the Director of the Center of Excellence, we need your experience and leadership within procurements Shared Services team to partner closely across all areas of procurement to define and implement best practices and drive continuous improvement initiatives. This Director role will report to the Head of Shared Services and also partner closely with the Head of Innovation and Data to ensure our practices are aligned to and supported by the vision, goals and direction of our technology and technology leaders.

Looking a layer deeper, the COE Director will be responsible for the ownership, management, steady improvement, and consistent adoption/usage of procurement practices across all of our procurement teams. Specific areas of ownership will include areas such as Policy ownership (including standards and procedures), Process ownership (including SOP/DTP level documents), Project/Initiative ownership (including our Agile practice and driving all continuous improvement projects that fall under that practice) and Compliance/Governance (tracking compliance and metrics/reporting to ensure that is visible to the organization).

General:

• Lead the Center of Excellence function of Procurement to ensure that the organization is successful in striving toward our best-in-class procurement goal and can ensure that success is measured and visible
• Lead a team of experienced process, project and procurement professionals as well as indirectly manage the resources being dedicated to the COE on a rotational basis from various procurement teams
• Use deep procurement experience to constantly innovate and to creatively develop methods and ideas to make the procurement process more efficient and effective; driving continuous process improvement across the Procurement Operating Model
• General development of the organization – including taking an active role in the current transformation, developing teams, driving transaction efficiency and improving service levels

Policy and Process Ownership

• Provide central ownership for all policies, standards and procedures, ensuring they are managed, maintained and align with our local business processes (SOPs and DTPs)
• Establish tools and frameworks to ensure that these documents are available, understood and their consistent usage is reinforced within the entire organization.\
• Develop and provide training and change management for the organization to ensure that they are knowledgeable of expectations and aware of changes as they occur; in some cases partnering with other procurement teams to do so (e.g. Innovation & Data, Contracts, P2P)
• Work closely with your teammates in procurement; these individuals have accountability for category management, stakeholder relationships, strategy and operational efficiency

Project and Initiative Ownership

• Leverage project management experience to lead and deliver initiatives that continuously improve the procurement function and team overall.
• Implement and lead the delivery of the agile framework and practices that procurement employs to deliver new ‘features’ (projects & initiatives).
• Partner with the Innovation and Data teams to ensure the Center of Excellence fully represents procurement’s broader strategic direction
• Identify trends and opportunities for procurement through industry involvement that continuously drives insights into best practices

Compliance, Governance and Quality

• Maintain and operate the core management functions of the procurement organization, including such things as monthly business reviews (MBRs) that report out on key metrics (KPIs) and initiative status/progress.
• Develop and own overall organizational metrics which should be designed to allow a business unit aligned team to understand how the core processes/functions are performing (e.g., sourcing, contracting, supplier management).
• Develop and operate quality controls / assurance (QA/QC) practices which allow management to monitor the compliance of the broader team to its procedures

 Other

• Lead all process enablement activities, training, and delivery of continuous improvement practices as may be required to facilitate problem resolution
• Partner with Category / Business-Unit teams in conveying Procurement-specific training and change management to the broader organization. As the central process owner, these category teams will rely on the COE for direction and support in rolling out key changes.
• Plan, allocate and manage financial budget by anticipating expenditures, accurately forecasting resource needs/costs and properly accounting for expenses to meet requirements in a fiscally responsible manner

The Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of demonstrated Supply Chain, Procurement, Vendor Management and Risk Management experience with a focus on centers of excellence and/or shared services leadership or equivalent consulting experience

The Ideal Qualifications

• Experience leading industry best practice procurement teams
• Experience implementing significant improvements or establishing procurement industry best practices across functional areas
• Strong background in procurement technologies, including Source to Pay and third party performance and risk management
• Leadership and governance of procurement processes and project teams
• Strong background in all modules of Ariba in support of the Source to Pay process as well as Service Now for workflow management and/or third party management
• Previous experience in a mutual company or similar financial services / insurance industry
• Prior work applying agile principles in a service delivery environment, including adeptness in the use of JIRA or other comparable technology
• Leadership and management of mixed staffing models with remote and third-party team members as key contributors to the team’s success
• Bachelor’s degree preferred
• MBA, JD or advanced degree in procurement related field preferred
• APICS CPIM/CSCP Certification or certification in progress preferred