About the position

The Senior Director of Sourcing & Contracting leads a high-performing team responsible for strategic sourcing, supplier management, and contracting across Emory University. This role drives enterprise value through category strategy development, cost optimization, risk mitigation, and supplier innovation while strengthening stakeholder partnerships and enhancing the overall procurement function.

Responsibilities

• Leads, coaches, and develops a team of sourcing and contracting professionals, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and collaboration.
• Sets clear performance expectations; provides ongoing feedback, mentoring, and career development opportunities.
• Builds organizational capability in strategic sourcing, negotiation, analytics, and supplier relationship management (SRM).
• Oversees category management strategies aligned with University priorities, focusing on value creation, total cost of ownership (TCO), risk management, and supplier diversity.
• Partners with stakeholders to understand business needs, define requirements, and develop multi-year sourcing strategies.
• Identifies and executes opportunities for cost savings, demand management, and process efficiencies.
• Leads complex negotiations and contracting efforts to achieve optimal commercial, legal, and operational outcomes.
• Establishes and maintains standardized contract templates, terms, and playbooks in partnership with the Office of General Counsel.
• Ensures contracts reflect best practices in risk mitigation, compliance, and performance management.
• Develops and manages supplier segmentation strategies, including strategic and preferred suppliers.
• Implements supplier performance management frameworks with defined KPIs and governance routines.
• Drives supplier innovation and continuous improvement initiatives aligned with University goals.
• Serves as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders across the University.
• Enhances the procurement organization's reputation through responsiveness, transparency, and value delivery.
• Leads change management initiatives to drive adoption of sourcing strategies and procurement best practices.
• Leads ongoing improvements to sourcing processes, policies, and systems.
• Leverages digital tools (eSourcing, contract lifecycle management, spend analytics) to enable data-driven decision-making.
• Ensures data integrity and maintain centralized repositories for contracts and sourcing documentation.
• Designs and delivers training programs to improve procurement literacy and adoption of sourcing processes across the University.
• Promotes best practices in sourcing, contracting, and supplier management.
• Performs additional duties as assigned in support of departmental and institutional objectives.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, Finance, or a related field and 10 years of progressive experience in strategic sourcing, category management, and contracting within a complex organization.
• Demonstrated leadership experience managing and developing high-performing teams.
• Proven expertise in sourcing strategy development, complex negotiations, and contract management across multiple spend categories (e.g., IT, professional services, facilities, and indirect goods/services).
• Strong understanding of procurement technologies (eSourcing platforms, spend analytics tools, procure-to-pay systems, and contract lifecycle management systems).
• Knowledge of modern strategic sourcing methodologies, including category management, supplier segmentation, and total cost of ownership analysis.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills, with the ability to drive alignment across diverse groups.
• Experience leading change initiatives and driving process improvement in a dynamic environment.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities.

Nice-to-haves

• MBA or other master's degree
• Professional certifications such as CPSM (Certified Professional in Supply Management), CIPS, or equivalent.
• Experience in higher education or similarly complex, decentralized organizations.

Benefits

• Emory University offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off.