Director of Procurement (71101)

About the role

The Director of Procurement will lead the development, centralization, and professionalization of the Institute’s purchasing and vendor management function. This position is responsible for establishing a more strategic, transparent, compliant, and service-oriented procurement operation that supports academic and administrative departments across campus. The Director will move the institution from a primarily decentralized purchasing model — where departments manage much of their own purchasing and vendor negotiation — toward a coordinated procurement structure that improves pricing, strengthens controls, reduces institutional risk, standardizes purchasing practices, and enhances service to departments.

Responsibilities

• Procurement Leadership and Strategy
  • Develop and implement a centralized procurement strategy for the Institute.
  • Assess current purchasing practices across departments and identify opportunities for consolidation, savings, improved compliance, and process improvement.
  • Establish procurement standards, policies, procedures, templates, and service expectations.
  • Serve as the primary institutional leader for purchasing strategy, vendor management, sourcing, and procurement process improvement.
  • Build strong relationships with campus departments to support adoption of centralized purchasing practices.
  • Promote a procurement function that balances fiscal discipline, operational efficiency, customer service, and institutional mission.
• Purchasing Operations
  • Oversee the daily purchasing function, including purchase requisitions, purchase orders, vendor setup coordination, approvals, and issue resolution.
  • Supervise purchasing staff and ensure timely, accurate, and compliant processing of purchase orders.
  • Review and improve purchasing workflows to reduce delays, duplication, manual work, and inconsistent practices.
  • Partner with Finance and Accounts Payable to improve the full procure-to-pay process.
  • Ensure purchasing activity complies with institutional policies, internal controls, budget requirements, and applicable laws and regulations.
  • Develop reporting tools and metrics to monitor purchasing volume, processing times, vendor concentration, savings, and policy compliance.
  • Review existing PCard practices, recommend and implement revisions where needed, develop tools to monitor ongoing compliance with PCard policies, and revise those policies as appropriate to strengthen controls and accountability.
• Strategic Sourcing and Vendor Negotiation
  • Lead competitive sourcing processes, including requests for proposals, requests for quotes, bid evaluations, and vendor selection processes.
  • Negotiate pricing, terms, service levels, and business terms with vendors.
  • Identify opportunities for institution-wide contracts, preferred vendor arrangements, consortium purchasing, cooperative purchasing agreements, and volume discounts.
  • Support departments in evaluating vendor proposals and making sound purchasing decisions.
  • Develop sourcing strategies for major spend categories, including but not limited to facilities, technology, instructional and other supplies, equipment, professional services, insurance-related services, and outsourced services.
  • Track and report cost savings, cost avoidance, and operational improvements achieved through procurement initiatives.
• Contract and Risk Coordination
  • Coordinate with Legal Counsel on contract review, terms and conditions, indemnification, insurance requirements, data privacy, and institutional risk issues.
  • Establish clear workflows for routing vendor contracts for review and approval.
  • Maintain or support a centralized repository of vendor contracts and key contract terms.
  • Monitor contract expiration dates, renewal deadlines, pricing escalations, and service obligations.
  • Ensure that vendor agreements are reviewed before commitments are made by departments.
  • Support stronger controls around unauthorized purchasing, off-contract spending, and inconsistent vendor terms.
• Policy, Compliance, and Internal Controls
  • Develop and maintain purchasing policies, procedures, and guidelines.
  • Ensure appropriate segregation of duties, approval thresholds, documentation standards, and competitive bidding requirements.
  • Educate departments on purchasing rules, procurement timelines, vendor selection requirements, and contract approval processes.
  • Promote ethical purchasing practices, transparency, conflict-of-interest compliance, and responsible stewardship of institutional resources.
• Supplier Diversity and Sustainability
  • Support institutional goals related to supplier diversity, sustainability, local purchasing, and responsible procurement.
  • Develop methods to identify, track, and expand use of diverse, minority-owned, women-owned, local, and sustainable vendors where appropriate.
  • Partner with campus stakeholders to incorporate sustainability, accessibility, equity, and social responsibility considerations into procurement decisions.
  • Balance mission-related procurement goals with cost, quality, service, and risk considerations.
• Technology and Process Improvement
  • Recommend system enhancements, automation opportunities, and process improvements.
  • Develop training materials, forms, templates, and user guidance for departments.
  • Use data analytics to identify spend patterns, vendor opportunities, compliance gaps, and savings potential.
• Staff Supervision and Development
  • Supervise, train, and evaluate purchasing staff.
  • Reallocate staff time from transactional purchase order processing toward higher-value procurement support where possible.
  • Establish clear roles, responsibilities, performance expectations, and service standards for the purchasing team.
  • Provide coaching and professional development to staff as the procurement function matures.
  • Foster a collaborative, accountable, and service-oriented team culture.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, supply chain management, public administration, accounting, or a related field.
• At least eight years of progressively responsible experience in procurement, purchasing, strategic sourcing, contract administration, vendor management, supply chain, or related business operations.
• At least three years of supervisory, management, or team leadership experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading vendor negotiations and competitive sourcing processes.
• Experience developing or improving purchasing policies, procedures, workflows, and internal controls.
• Strong understanding of procurement best practices, purchase order processes, vendor management, and contract administration.
• Ability to analyze institutional spending and identify savings, consolidation, and process improvement opportunities.
• Strong written, verbal, analytical, negotiation, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively with academic, administrative, finance, legal, facilities, technology, and academic stakeholders.
• High degree of integrity, judgment, discretion, and commitment to ethical procurement practices.
• Proficiency with ERP, procurement, financial, spreadsheet, and reporting systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ten or more years of relevant procurement or sourcing experience.
• Experience in higher education, nonprofit, government, healthcare, cultural institutions, or another complex, mission-driven organization.
• Experience centralizing or transforming a decentralized purchasing function.
• Experience with contract management systems, e-procurement platforms, or ERP procurement modules.
• Knowledge of New York nonprofit, public-sector, or higher education procurement practices.
• Experience with supplier diversity, sustainable procurement, and cooperative purchasing programs.
• Professional certification such as CPSM, CPPO, CPPB, NIGP-CPP, CPM, or similar procurement/supply chain credential.