Job Description:
The Director, Procurement is responsible for leading the company’s procurement function with a focus on optimizing vendor spend, driving strategic sourcing, strengthening vendor governance, and elevating contract negotiation capabilities across the organization. This role serves as the central point of accountability for vendor-related spend management, ensuring the company purchases goods and services from appropriate suppliers at competitive pricing and under favorable commercial terms. The Director partners closely with Finance, Legal, Technology, Information Security, Risk, Accounts Payable, and business leaders to implement disciplined procurement practices, improve spend visibility, and build scalable procurement processes and systems. This role combines strategic leadership with selective hands-on involvement in high-impact negotiations, process design, and function-building initiatives.
Contract Negotiation & Vendor Management
- Own and lead complex contract negotiations across key spend categories, including software/SaaS, hardware, professional services, and other enterprise vendor agreements.
- Serve as a strategic negotiation partner to business leaders and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Develop and implement a repeatable negotiation playbook encompassing price benchmarking, total cost of ownership analysis, supplier benchmarking, risk allocation, and key commercial terms.
- Maximize negotiation leverage through structured competitive bidding, market intelligence, supplier benchmarking, and total cost analysis.
- Maintain a proactive renewal calendar and negotiation pipeline to reduce unplanned renewals and support structured review, business justification, and renegotiation before renewal deadlines.
- Establish and drive a vendor governance program, including supplier segmentation, performance tracking, regular business reviews, and vendor accountability practices.
- Actively manage tail spend and identify consolidation, rationalization, and cost optimization opportunities across existing vendor spend.
Leadership & Executive Communication
- Build, lead, and develop a cohesive, high-performing procurement team that is equipped to drive financial and operational value for the organization.
- Set team priorities, allocate procurement resources, and establish performance expectations to support business needs, savings targets, compliance objectives, and vendor management priorities.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, data-driven decision-making, and professional growth within the procurement function.
- Prepare and present board- and executive-facing procurement reports, translating complex spend data and vendor activity into clear, concise, board-caliber materials.
- Develop and maintain procurement dashboards and KPI reporting for Finance and senior leadership; provide regular, data driven updates on savings achieved, vendor performance, contract pipeline, and policy compliance.
Procurement Strategy & Process Design
- Develop and execute a multi-year procurement strategy in partnership with Finance leadership that aligns spend management priorities with company growth objectives.
- Establish and enforce procurement policies that strengthen end-to-end procurement process flows, vendor onboarding and offboarding, internal stakeholder engagement and discipline, and cross collaboration with IS/Security/Risk, Legal Finance and A/P.
- Apply an AI-forward mindset to procurement operations, using existing enterprise AI tools to drive automation, reduce manual workflows across the procure-to-pay cycle, and boost the overall value of the procurement function.
- Serve as a procurement subject matter expert and key business stakeholder for procurement-related systems and workflows, including SAP, DocuSign, Salesforce-related vendor processes, and approved enterprise automation or AI tools.
- Perform other duties that support the overall objective of the position.
Education Required:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Supply Chain Management, or a related field required.
- Or, any combination of education and experience which would provide the required qualifications for the position.
Experience Required:
- 10+ years of progressive procurement, strategic sourcing, vendor management, or contract negotiation experience, including at least 5 years leading a procurement team, function, or major procurement transformation initiative.
- Demonstrated experience leading complex, high-value contract negotiations across multiple spend categories, such as software/SaaS, professional services, hardware, and enterprise services.
- Experience building, maturing, or transforming procurement practices, policies, systems, or operating models in a mid- to large-scale organization.
- Experience using ERP, procurement, contract lifecycle management, or analytics tools to manage spend, vendor activity, contracts, and reporting.
- Experience preparing executive-level reporting, presentations, and written communications related to procurement activity,savings, vendor performance, and spend management.
- Experience with SAP, DocuSign, Salesforce, procurement automation, AI-enabled tools, or data analytics platforms preferred.
- Experience in a technology, SaaS, healthcare technology, or regulated business environment preferred.
License/Certification Required:
- Certified Professional in Supply Management (CPSM), Certified Commercial Contracts Manager (CCCM), Certified Professional Contracts Manager (CPCM), Certified Supply Chain Professional (CSCP), or similar procurement, sourcing,supply chain, or contract management certification preferred.
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:
- Knowledge of: Strategic sourcing, category management, procurement governance, and supplier management best practices. Contract negotiation, commercial terms, pricing structures, risk allocation, and total cost of ownership analysis.Vendor performance management, supplier segmentation, renewal management, and business review frameworks. Procureto-pay processes, vendor onboarding and offboarding, spend analytics, procurement controls, and policy compliance. ERP,CLM, procurement workflow, reporting, dashboarding, analytics tools, and AI-enabled technologies. Procurement considerations related to software/SaaS, hardware, professional services, and technology vendor agreements.
- Skill in: Negotiating complex pricing, commercial terms, renewals, and vendor agreements. Analyzing spend, contract,vendor, and procurement data with strong financial and commercial acumen. Creating executive-level written communications, presentations, dashboards, and business cases. Building scalable procurement processes, operating models, governance practices, and performance metrics. Translating complex data, vendor activity, and procurement trends into actionable insights and recommendations. Leading cross-functional initiatives and aligning stakeholders around procurement priorities. Using procurement systems, ERP platforms, CLM tools, analytics platforms, and enterprise-approved automation tools, including approved AI tools.
- Ability to: Demonstrated ability to partner with and influence senior leaders, business stakeholders, Legal, Finance,Technology, Information Security, Risk, and Accounts Payable teams. Operate strategically and tactically in a fast-paced,evolving business environment. Build trust and influence leaders and stakeholders without direct authority. Challenge stakeholders constructively while maintaining strong business partnerships. Apply a continuous improvement and innovation mindset to procurement operations. Drive organizational change and adoption of new procurement processes, tools, and governance practices. Make sound independent decisions and exercise strong commercial judgment. Leverage automation,analytics, and emerging technologies, including approved AI tools, to improve business outcomes. Balance cost savings, business needs, vendor performance, risk management, and compliance considerations.
The company has reviewed this job description to ensure that essential functions and basic duties have been included. It is intended to provide guidelines for job expectations and the employee's ability to perform the position described. It is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all functions, responsibilities, skills and abilities. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by supervisors as deemed appropriate. This document does not represent a contract of employment, and the company reserves the right to change this job description and/or assign tasks for the employee to perform, as the company may deem appropriate.
NextGen Healthcare is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
