Client Technology Procurement Associate Director

The opportunity

The purpose of the global EY organization is to Build a Better Working World. The insights and services the organization provides help to drive long-term value for clients, people, and society and to build trust in the capital markets. An essential function under EY Business Enablement, Supply Chain Services (SCS) is a global team with more than 600 professionals in over 35 countries supporting the EY organization across the globe. This structure helps enable knowledge-sharing across categories and regions, streamlining efforts in seeking innovative suppliers that can provide exceptional client service to maximize SCS’s value for the EY organization and the world's supply chain.

A key component of SCS is Global Procurement, whose purpose is to drive significant synergies and value creation from sourcing to contract lifecycle management, deliver exceptional client experiences and build more vital collaboration to manage Technology, Talent, Alliances and Brand, Marketing and Communications (BMC) spend categories. We forge meaningful supplier relationships and strengthen supplier resilience to help EY maximize long-term value for its people, clients and communities.

The Technology Procurement team manage circa $1.5B of spend annually and focus on requirements from the Technology teams. This is a superb opportunity to support EY Technology (EYT) at the forefront of developing, managing, and implementing technology solutions that span the full process life cycle – integral in identifying organizational needs across various regions and service lines, shaping strategic direction and architectural frameworks, and ensuring the successful delivery and management of operational services.

EYT increasingly acts as a catalyst for business success; priority projects such as EY’s AI solutions, Fabric platform and Global Tax Platform are essential to delivering on EY’s Global Priorities and sustaining our competitive advantage as the most globally integrated professional services organization.

The Client Technology Procurement team supports key programs and solutions globally in partnership with our Client Technology and Service Line colleagues, continuing to enhance EY’s position as a technology driven industry leader. You may support these technology procurement requirements within this role.

Responsibilities

This role reports into the Client Technology Procurement Leader within the Global Procurement function and is responsible for the sourcing strategy and execution, stakeholder engagement and experience, and vendor engagement in line with the Global Procurement Policy and processes. 

The role will primarily focus on the procurement of technology software and professional services but may include other technology procurement categories such as hardware.

Your key responsibilities

• Remit includes all Technology procurement requirements across the following Service Lines and Business Units: Assurance (including Forensics), Financial Services, Client Technology Engineering, Managed Services, Platforms and Emerging Technology, EY Fabric, Applied Innovation and Government and Public Sector (GPS). Many including key EY revenue generating platforms.
• Managing circa US$400m spend annually with team delivering over 500 projects annually with 8-10% cost savings/cost avoidance. 
• Develop category strategies for technology categories and proactively manage contract negotiations, including EY’s procurement strategy and execution of core AI, central to EY’s future success.
• Experienced counsellor managing global team of counselees, including managing their training, development and performance - 13 Sourcing Managers located across India, Argentina, Ireland, Spain and the US.  Responsible for project allocation and workload management across team and approvals of all deals.
• Senior contributor on most complex Technology RFPs and projects, aligned to one or more service lines, as well as client serving business units.  Acting as strategic business advisor who can enable business to secure the best-in-class deals through the procurement process including market research to identify potential suppliers, robust negotiations on competitive pricing and contractual terms, etc.
• Senior team member helping to advise (especially on AI procurement) and support other team members across Client Technology Procurement and Global Procurement. 
• SCS representative for the Procurement pillar of the new AI Utility program sponsored by EY leadership, covering the strategy for AI and how EY buys it and manages it across the company.
• Procurement Representative on EY’s Technology Standards Board, leads the AI and Emerging Technology Big Bet as well as being part of the Reseller Big Bet.
• Exceptional Stakeholder and supplier relationship management.  Build and foster collaborative working relationships with EYT and other internal business partners.
• Supporting and leading stakeholders through the Onboarding of Technology Goods and Services end-to-end process.
• Socialization and facilitation of the Procurement policy and processes, ensuring that the project teams and stakeholders understand the value of the policy and adhere to it accordingly.
• Timely and frequent submission of management information, including project status and savings reporting.
• Supporting Supply Chain Services’ overall global strategies.

Skills and attributes for success

• Exceptional leadership skills with experience of working in a Sourcing/Procurement/Supplier Management team in a complex and global environment.
• Experience with senior stakeholder engagement, and the ability to collaboratively co-develop strategies and set and manage expectations. Provide exceptional Client Service.
• Comprehensive experience with negotiating contracts related to AI, software licensing & cloud-based solutions and professional services.  Proven experience with negotiating contracts globally and regionally.
• Strong influencing and networking skills as the organization relies on working in cross-functional teams across borders.
• Proficient organizational skills, demonstrate a positive attitude and have an appetite for change.

To qualify for the role, you must have 

• 10+ years of experience sourcing technology goods and services, in a global leadership capacity
• Business Degree or equivalent a plus.

Ideally, you’ll also have

• CPM (US), CIPS (UK) or similar Procurement certification is welcomed, but not essential.
• Good knowledge of IT suppliers, AI and emerging technologies.

What we look for

Successful team leaders are high energy individuals with experience working in a truly global, culturally diverse organization where change is embraced.  Relationship building is key and excellent oral, written and communications skills in English is necessary to deliver Exceptional Client Service to our stakeholders.