Strategic Sourcing Manager, Marketing & Advertising

Aquent is partnering with a globally recognized leader in the retail industry, known for its innovative approach to customer experience and its commitment to excellence. This organization is at the forefront of shaping trends and delivering unparalleled value to its stakeholders through strategic operations.

Are you a strategic sourcing expert ready to make a significant impact on a dynamic and growing team? We're seeking a highly motivated individual to drive critical sourcing initiatives within a leading retail environment. In this pivotal role, you will be instrumental in shaping strategic sourcing strategies, optimizing value, and fostering key relationships across marketing and advertising categories. Your expertise will directly contribute to scaling operations, enhancing efficiency, and supporting the future growth and success of a beloved brand. Get ready to leverage your experience to deliver substantial value, influence key decisions, and leave your mark on exciting projects!

Responsibilities

• Lead the comprehensive strategic sourcing process for assigned projects, encompassing market profiling, stakeholder collaboration for business requirements, managing RFI/X events using sourcing technology, facilitating award consensus, conducting supplier negotiations, finalizing contracts, and ensuring successful long-term handoff to business partners.
• Utilize market intelligence, benchmarking, spend analysis, and supplier insights to inform sourcing strategies, negotiation approaches, and category recommendations.
• Support business partners with sourcing objectives and supplier needs through an established intake-to-contract process and tools, assisting in contract negotiations to optimize organizational value.
• Act as the primary lead for assigned contracts, facilitating internal and supplier approvals, summarizing negotiation results, and presenting decision-oriented updates to senior leaders outlining recommendations, tradeoffs, risks, financial impact, and required decisions.
• Develop comprehensive category strategies across all assigned areas, understanding supply markets to optimize supplier capabilities nationally and regionally.
• Partner with business stakeholders to develop annual and multi-year sourcing plans, aligning initiatives with business priorities, budget cycles, savings targets, and supplier/category roadmaps.
• Build out a strategic sourcing roadmap in collaboration with key stakeholders, leveraging data, contract expiry information, and market intelligence to balance near-term execution with longer-term category planning.
• Proactively identify project, supplier, commercial, and compliance risks, developing mitigation plans and escalating blockers with proposed solutions for timely, risk-based decision-making.
• Provide broader category support to the Marketing and Advertising Teams.
• Identify and optimize leverage spend opportunities across departments and global operations to reduce total costs for the broader business.
• Operationalize supplier awards through governance routines, stakeholder adoption plans, and ongoing performance management.
• Cultivate strong, trusting relationships with key stakeholders through consistent delivery and effective communication.

Qualifications

• Proven success across end-to-end strategic sourcing engagements (5+ years).
• Sourcing experience with marketing categories across goods and services, preferably within a North American retail organization (5+ years).
• Bachelor's Degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, or Operations preferred (or equivalent experience).
• Experience negotiating enterprise agreements typical of your assigned categories, for example, master services agreements, and statements of work, among others, in a timely manner.
• Experience developing relationships and gaining buy-in with key stakeholders on category strategies, multi-year sourcing plans, supplier relationship management, continuous improvement plans, 'should-cost' models, and negotiation strategies.
• A proven track record of cost reduction and productivity improvements; ability to influence and drive change while building solid relationships with your internal clients and external suppliers.
• Excellent project and timeline management skills to manage sourcing projects end-to-end, from project intake, onboarding to project closure, operationalization, and governance.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to prioritize and multi-task in a fast-paced environment.
• Skilled negotiator with a current understanding of various contract models and on-market terms; ability to shepherd a contract from beginning to end ensuring all commercial and legal terms are optimally negotiated on behalf of the organization.
• Ability to successfully influence both internal and external partners and interface with senior-level stakeholders.
• Ability to translate market intelligence, benchmarking, spend analysis, and supplier performance insights into clear sourcing strategies and executive-ready recommendations.
• Proven ability to proactively identify risks, manage tradeoffs, and escalate blockers with proposed solutions to drive timely stakeholder decisions.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and able to thrive in a dynamic environment.
• Excellent communication skills, including oral, written, and interpersonal; confidence in presenting to all levels of the organization.
• Advanced analytics, Excel, presentations in PowerPoint, data visualization, and sourcing tools skills required.
• Hands-on user of various software tools critical to strategic sourcing: employee collaboration and productivity tools, procure-to-pay and vendor management solutions, e-RFX, sourcing pipeline and savings reporting, and contract lifecycle management, as examples.

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About Aquent Talent

Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world's biggest brands.

Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match.

Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We're about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.