Senior Director, Strategic Sourcing

Company Description

Freshworks makes it fast and easy for businesses to delight their customers and employees. We do this by taking a fresh approach to building and delivering software that is affordable, quick to implement, and designed for the end user. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks has a global team operating from 13 global locations to serve more than 65,000 companies -- from startups to public companies – that rely on Freshworks software-as-a-service to enable a better customer experience (CRM, CX) and employee experience (ITSM). 

Freshworks’ cloud-based software suite includes Freshdesk (omni-channel customer support), Freshsales (sales automation), Freshmarketer (marketing automation), Freshservice (IT service desk), Freshchat (AI-powered bots), supported by Neo, our underlying platform of shared services.

Freshworks is featured in global national press including CNBC, Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg and has been a BuiltIn Best Place to work in San Francisco and Denver for the last 3 years. Our customer ratings have earned Freshworks products TrustRadius Top Rated Software ratings and G2 Best of Awards for Best Feature Set, Best Value for the Price and Best Relationship.

Job Description

The Senior Director, Head of Strategic Sourcing will lead a mission-driven procurement team and be a strategic business thinker with the ability to collaborate with the highest levels of the Freshworks organization. Your leadership skills should include the ability to be a long-term systems thinker, a solid negotiator, a superb project and process manager, and an inspiring leader who can hold all parties accountable to drive the desired outcomes.

Role and Responsibilities:

• Direct and develop sourcing strategies that are aligned with Freshworks’ organizational objectives and operational goals.  Implement business strategies that drive company financial results and support growth plans.
• Work closely with business partners including executives, legal, finance, IT and other department heads to define needs and create solutions to drive efficiencies with approval processes, contract and security reviews that will help scale the business 
• Manage governance and control programs to ensure business continuity, protect company assets, and comply with corporate and regulatory policies.
• Develop annual cost savings programs for leadership review, approval, and implementation.  Implement sourcing and negotiation strategies for key spend areas to achieve short and long-term savings targets.
• Provide executive updates to direct management and regular business reviews to the Chief Financial Officer and other executives 
• Handle global and diverse customer, supplier, or operational issues.  Exercise good business judgement within generally defined and established practices and policies.
• Lead, coordinate, and facilitate global, cross-functional teams.  Plan, execute, and train on communication strategies to ensure accurate and timely flow of information to internal customers and stakeholders and externally to vendors.
• Ensure systems and tools are optimized and work closely with the finance & accounting teams to drive process improvements
• Lead, coach and develop global Strategic Sourcing Team.  Identify and organize team resources responsible for implementing spend category / strategies
• Participate in continuous learning and professional development
• Assist in special projects and other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• 10+ years of procurement, or sourcing, related experience in a senior leadership capacity
• Prior experience in a software / SaaS business model with technology purchasing experience
• Experience and confidence working directly with C-Level Executives
• Legal acumen as it relates to purchasing contract terms
• Experience and familiarity with finance, storage, and sales systems including as NetSuite
• Experience and proficiency with procurement applications, including Graphite and Netsuite for procurement, preferred
• Analytics experience and proficiency with Microsoft Office applications
• Experience working with a global team, across multiple time zones
• Experience in process improvement and a track record of identifying and establishing KPIs and benchmarking metrics to drive continuous process improvement
• Entrepreneurial-minded self-starter who takes ownership, can innovate, takes pride in their deliverables, and has superb attention to detail
• Strong supervisory and leadership skills with the ability to effectively lead, develop and coach others
• Ability to act autonomously working toward company goals
• Ability to influence others; pers