Director, Procurement Digital Solutions

Title: Director, Procurement Digital Solutions
Location: Hartford, CT
Job Type: Full Time/Permanent

Overview:
The Director, Procurement Digital Solutions will be responsible for owning the product vision and strategy for the Source to Pay solution, with Coupa as the current backbone platform, as well as the day-to-day management of the applications. This role will also manage a third-party supplier relationship providing application managed services in support of the Coupa platform. The successful candidate will develop and maintain a product roadmap, balancing short- and long-term goals, and adjust priorities based on stakeholder needs, market requirements, and technology capabilities. This role involves interacting with senior leadership, procurement, IT, and other key internal stakeholders.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and communicate the vision and strategy for the Source to Pay technology solution, including a product roadmap that balances short-term and long-term goals, adjusting priorities based on stakeholder needs, market advancements, innovation, and technology capabilities.
• Stay informed about the market to identify opportunities and inform product decisions.
• Drive adoption and optimization of the Source to Pay technology to effectively enable business processes.
• Serve as the central point of contact for managing all aspects of Application Managed Services (AMS) outsourced to a third-party, including incident management, work request management, enhancements, release management, change management, application monitoring, and testing.
• Work with Finance and Technology teams to ensure alignment between the business roadmap and the overall Finance Technology roadmap.
• Foster collaboration between Procurement Operations, Strategic Sourcing, and Technology Partners, ensuring good process design and controls, with a focus on meeting stakeholder needs.
• Lead release management activities, including overseeing and executing requirements, development/configuration, testing, and release processes, ensuring timely delivery of high-quality product updates and enhancements.
• Engage with stakeholders across departments, including SSRE, Finance, IT, and others, to gather requirements, prioritize features, and ensure alignment.
• Monitor performance metrics to measure product success and drive continuous improvement.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Ensure the quality and consistency of critical procurement data across the enterprise.
• Ensure the system is audit and SOX compliant.
• Ensure the system supports procurement policies.
• Deploy, manage, and enforce standards and rules for system enhancements, collaborating with the Data & Analytics team and the Operations Committee.
• Support strategies to process non-addressable spend effectively.
• Partner with the Tax team to integrate tax solutions for proper Sales & Use tax allocations.
• Lead end-to-end delivery of Source to Pay solutions, establishing, documenting, implementing, managing, and monitoring releases while ensuring program-wide compliance for both normal and emergency fixes.
• Ensure timely delivery of releases, meeting expectations, and identifying change management processes. Communicate and manage stakeholder expectations throughout all phases of the release process.

The successful candidate will:

• Possess functional knowledge and skills reflective of a competent Source-to-Pay practitioner, with the ability to deliver complex work while managing a team of AMS professionals and Source to Pay Administrators.
• Structure and lead working and informational sessions that promote collaboration and achieve desired outcomes using an agile methodology.
• Understand application choices and have "big picture " perspective to support all spend categories.
• Be responsible for managing the full delivery cycle of Source to Pay solutions, ensuring program-wide compliance with established processes.

Experience & Skills
Educational Level/Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in MIS, Business, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in enterprise application and/or information architecture.

Professional Skills:

• Direct experience managing an outsourced provider with a proven track record of success.
• Experience with service-based architecture, event-based architecture, or cloud-based technologies.
• Advanced understanding of technology capabilities, coupled with in-depth knowledge required to support assigned projects.
• Experience with implementing cultural change at the organizational level.
• Experience or involvement in teams responsible for Source to Pay digital solutions (Coupa or Ariba is a plus).
• Experience leading strategic initiatives in a highly matrixed environment.

Interpersonal Skills:

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively at all levels.
• Strong leadership and attention to detail.
• Excellent problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Strong project management abilities.

Skills and Certifications (required):

• Experience with Coupa platform (or Ariba as an alternative).
• Application ownership experience (Coupa or Ariba).
• Source-to-Pay procurement experience.