Sr. Manager, Vendor Optimization

Company Description

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

FLEXWORK is an employee-centric reimagining of how we work. We built FLEXWORK based on employee feedback – it is about flexibility, trust, and choice whenever possible. It’s been a journey of disruption that has yielded the best of our values. We offer as much flexibility as possible, and choices that enable you to be most productive, including benefits that meet your needs and learning opportunities that you feel passionate about.

Job Description

Your Career

The Senior Manager of Vendor Optimization & Controls in the safety and security team of a 15,000-employee company is instrumental in solving challenges and creating solutions. This role optimizes vendor relationships, standardizes budget processes, and sets performance metrics, leading to significant cost savings, efficient resource allocation, and risk mitigation. By implementing data-driven solutions like Contract Lifecycle Management and spend analytics, the Senior Manager enhances transparency, fosters cross-functional collaboration, and boosts operational efficiency. Overall, this position proactively addresses safety and security challenges, contributing to the well-being of the company and its employees.

Your Impact 

• Bridge the gaps between sourcing and finance
• Support all of GPS org circa $200M annual spend.  Standardize annual budget planning, quarterly budget vs actual tracking, and spend utilization.  Ensure team leaders have the resources required to execute their charters, enable spend agility across org, and contribute to the financial health of the business
• Lead strategic supplier management initiatives and set standards for vendor QBRs, metrics for performance, and quality assurance.  Oversee organizational activities within the source-to-pay process including management of Project Intake Form for budget alignment, ensure compliance with Global Sourcing policies, PR creation, accruals, and invoice approvals
• Drive spend optimization and process efficiency initiatives targeting >$2M in annual efficiencies.  Complete spend analytics to identify cost reduction opportunities and make recommendations to GPS leaders.  Set standards for engagement and collaboration with Global Sourcing to streamline RFx projects
• Design and implement Contract Lifecycle Management solution for GPS to enhance transparency into the org's legal obligations with suppliers/contracts and enable spend analytics for efficiency/cost optimization projects
• Create a standardized operational framework to ensure GPS compliance with internal PAN regulations and policies (including Internal Audit, Global Sourcing, & Legal).
• Focused on process, collaborate with Places leaders to create & launch global real estate strategy and playbook to standardize best practices and ensure best data-driven decisions are leveraged for future buildouts (includes business justifications, project & financial approval process, etc)

Qualifications

Your Experience

• 10+ Years experience with Bachelors or Masters Degree in Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, or related field
• Self starter with experience in a fast-paced, growth minded company
• Experience and knowledge of SaaS-based architectures, ideally in a networking and/or security context 
• Experience cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with Financial Planning & Analytics, Accounting, Global Sourcing, Internal Audit, & Legal
• Experience leading annual budget planning process for global organization with annual spend exceeding $100M spread across multiple regions (Americas, EMEA, & JAPAC) and stakeholders
• Successful track record designing and implementing global standards and processes for optimal efficiency
• Excellent time management skills, and work with high levels of autonomy and self-direction
• Highly competitive, ramp quickly, extremely adaptive, and pride yourself on exceeding spend efficiency goals

Additional Information

The Team

While Palo Alto Networks vigilantly protects the world against cyber bad actors, the Palo Alto Networks Global Safety & Security team works tirelessly in the background to see that our buildings, assets and people are always safe and secure, both domestically and overseas. Even in some