Manager, Procurement Operations

POSITION SUMMARY:
NMDP is looking for a Manager, Procurement Operations to join our team in Minneapolis! The Manager, Procurement Operations leads the systems, processes, and people that enable efficient procurement operations, with a strong focus on procurement technology and transformation. This role will play a key part in implementing, integrating, and optimizing procure-to-pay and contracting platforms, making hands-on system ownership and implementation or migration experience highly valuable. The ideal candidate brings strong procurement operations and people leadership experience, along with the ability to own workflows, leverage data for actionable insights, and drive process adoption across the organization. Experience with platforms such as Oracle/Oracle Fusion, Coupa, SAP/SAP Ariba, or similar procurement technology is highly relevant, with the emphasis on successfully owning and implementing technology rather than expertise in one specific platform.

The Manager, Procurement Operations oversees the daily purchasing workflows, systems, compliance, metrics and reporting, and transaction processes that enable efficient supply chain and source-to-settle operations. This position provides leadership and guidance to direct reports and the broader Procurement team, ensuring procurement technology, requisition-to-purchase-order processes, contract workflows, controls, reporting and service delivery operate effectively. The Manager partners across the organization to standardize processes, strengthen governance, manage operational risk, and use performance data to drive continuous improvement.

ACCOUNTABILITIES:
• Leads procurement operations and service delivery across purchasing and source-to-settle processes, establishing priorities, service expectations, work allocation, and consistent operating practices for the Procurement team.
• Oversees procurement technology and data, including ERP, e-procurement, contracting, and source-to-pay platforms; maintains system configurations, access, data integrity, documentation, and controls; and resolves operational issues.
• Leads procurement technology implementations and enhancements, including system migrations, integrations, testing, training, change management, and user adoption for procure-to-pay tools.
• Manages purchasing and contract workflows, including requisition-to-purchase-order transactions and contract intake, review, approval, execution, repository, and compliance processes, ensuring work is completed accurately and within established service levels.
• Maintains procurement governance and compliance by developing and standardizing policies, procedures, controls, process documentation, and training; monitoring adherence to regulatory, contractual, audit, spending, and documentation requirements; and addressing control gaps and operational risks.
• Measures and improves operational performance by monitoring service-level agreements, cycle times, transaction quality, user adoption, and cost-savings or cost-avoidance measures; using data and stakeholder feedback to streamline processes and improve effectiveness and scalability.
• Provides team and cross-functional leadership by coaching and developing direct reports, setting performance expectations, providing guidance across the Procurement team and organization, leading cross-functional initiatives, and serving as an escalation point for purchasing, contracting, system, and process issues.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
Knowledge of:
• Procurement and purchasing operations, including requisition-to-purchase-order processes, contract lifecycle workflows, and transaction controls.
• ERP, e-procurement, and source-to-pay platforms and the practices required to implement, migrate, administer, integrate, and optimize procurement technology.
• Integration and communication between upstream and downstream Procure to Pay technologies
• Procurement governance, internal controls, audit standards, regulatory compliance, data management, and operational risk management.
• Operational performance measures, service-level agreements, cycle-time analysis, process improvement, and cost-savings or cost-avoidance tracking.

Ability to:
• Lead, coach, and develop employees; establish priorities and performance expectations; and hold team members accountable for results.
• Analyze operational data, identify trends and risks, translate findings into recommendations, and measure the impact of improvements.
• Standardize and improve complex processes while maintaining appropriate controls, documentation, and customer service.
• Lead cross-functional projects, system implementations or migrations, change management, testing, training, and adoption.
• Build productive relationships and communicate clearly with internal stakeholders and external partners.
• Apply strong judgment, problem-solving, project management, and risk-management capabilities in a changing operational environment.

Education and/or Experience:
• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, business administration, finance, or a related field. Additional relevant experience may be substituted for the degree requirement.
• Five or more years of experience in procurement, purchasing operations, supply chain, or a related field, including prior people leadership or significant project leadership experience.
• Hands-on experience with ERP and source-to-pay platforms, such as SAP, Oracle, Coupa, or IBM Maximo. Direct experience with Ironclad and / or Oracle Fusion is preferred.
• Direct experience leading a procurement systems migration or establishing and implementing a new procure-to-pay suite of tools.