Procurement Manager

Job Title: Procurement Manager Company: Dotdigital Job Category: SAP MM Roles & Responsibilities: About the Role Dotdigital is creating a dedicated Procurement Manager role to bring our global supplier base under a single, well\-governed framework. The framework and operating model are in place: your job is to deliver them, run them well, and keep making them better. It is a role of real breadth, covering a substantial portfolio of SaaS, cloud and infrastructure agreements negotiated with vendors worldwide, with direct access to senior leadership. This role can be based in the UK or South Africa. You will report to the Head of Legal and work in close partnership with Finance, Technology and the teams across the business who buy, so that purchasing decisions are commercially sharp, properly governed and soundly documented. Our supplier portfolio has two distinct halves: a small number of high\-value SaaS and infrastructure agreements that warrant close and continuous management, and a longer tail of smaller subscriptions that still needs proper oversight. Your task is to secure the right terms, pricing and flexibility on the first, and to keep the second controlled proportionately. The remit reaches beyond technology into our wider supplier base, including professional services, facilities and events, and across the full supplier lifecycle from sourcing and due diligence through contracting and renewal to exit. Responsibilities Strategic Delivery \& Leadership* * Deliver and evolve Dotdigital’s procurement strategy, embedding it across the organisation * Extend the procurement process to incorporate all vendor spend (consulting, facilities, events and other non\-software spend) * Operate and refine the operating model: which contracts get hands\-on negotiation, which get lighter\-touch monitoring, and which are delegated to individual purchasers * Advise senior leadership directly on vendor strategy for major platform decisions * Define KPIs that hold up to scrutiny: savings measured against a realistic baseline rather than the list price, set alongside control and compliance measures such as due diligence completion, adoption of standard terms, and cycle time by risk tier * Maintain and tune procurement policy and approval thresholds suited to a SaaS business * Own the supplier lifecycle end to end, from sourcing and due diligence through onboarding, contracting, approval, execution, ongoing management and renewal to exit, with a defined owner and a defined standard at each stage * Run a renewal and exit strategy built on contractual notice periods, tracking cancel\-by dates rather than renewal dates, supported by a negotiation playbook for the agreements that matter * Embed and maintain a category framework with named owners and clear accountabilities * Build data protection terms and SOC 2 / ISO 27001 assurance into every material negotiation from the outset * Co\-design the vendor assessment process with Legal, Information Security and Privacy, so due diligence happens once, at the right depth, and is evidenced * Bring newly acquired entities into the group procurement framework on a defined timetable * Use automation and AI, including agentic AI, to take manual effort out of the procurement cycle, so that your time goes into negotiation, supplier relationships and value rather than administration Supplier \& Stakeholder Management* * Own relationships with Dotdigital’s largest platform vendors and be the person their commercial team deals with directly, credible enough with vendor account teams to get a straight answer on roadmap and pricing flexibility; not just a name on a contract * Negotiate pricing, terms, and multi\-year commitments with full visibility of actual usage and roadmap * Bring Legal, Information Security and Privacy into vendor conversations early enough that their findings shape the negotiations rather than arrive after terms are agreed * Manage the long\-tail subscription base efficiently, without treating it like the priority contracts * Spot duplication and overlap across the tool estate (e.g. two subscriptions doing much the same job) and make the case for consolidation where it stands up Cost Management \& Value Creation* * Deliver measurable savings on major contracts through negotiation, not discount\-chasing * Benchmark pricing using external data where useful, grounded in Dotdigital’s own usage * Apply total cost of ownership thinking to build\-vs\-buy and vendor consolidation decisions * Make sure commercial outcomes are protected contractually, through price increase caps, benchmarking rights, service credits and exit assistance, so that the value agreed at signature survives the life of the contract * Report savings outcomes in terms the leadership team can understand and trust * A track record of negotiating SaaS/cloud contracts directly with vendor commercial teams, not through intermediary partners or platforms * Strong stakeholder management up to C\-level * Comfortable operating and improving established structure, playbooks and processes, and bringing colleagues with you as you do it * Numerate and analytical, able to interrogate a vendor’s pricing model rather than take a benchmark report at face value * Willing to challenge constructively, internal stakeholders as well as vendors, and to hold a position when it is the right one for the business * Sound judgement on risk: able to tell the difference between a term that is merely unusual and one that is genuinely unacceptable, and to escalate accordingly * Discreet with commercially sensitive pricing and contract information * Commission \& bonus opportunities * Annual leave that increases with service \+ option to buy more * Additional paid wellbeing days \+ annual wellbeing reward * Christmas office shutdown (extra time off) * Enhanced parental leave \& family support policies * Employee recognition \& reward schemes * Referral bonuses \& long\-service rewards Work Location: City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa Availability: Full time

The Product: Dotdigital is an all\-in\-one customer experience and data platform (CXDP) that empowers marketing teams to exceed customer expectations with highly personalized cross\-channel journeys. With Dotdigital, marketers can seamlessly unify, enrich, and segment customer data. Breaking down data siloes, Dotdigital streamlines decision\-making and paves the way for marketing creativity that delivers customer engagement at scale. With powerful AI capabilities, Dotdigital makes it easy to automate deeply personalized experiences across web, email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat, push, social, ads, and more. Desirable Qualifications* Experience* * Substantial procurement experience, typically six years or more, including specific and direct exposure to SaaS, cloud and technology vendor contracts * Experience negotiating complex, high\-value contracts, and confidence working within an established template and playbook framework * Working familiarity with the compliance backdrop to supplier contracting: data protection, information security assurance, sanctions screening, anti\-bribery and modern slavery * Exposure to AI\-enabled procurement, and ideally agentic AI, applied to real workflows such as intake, triage, data extraction or renewal tracking. Desirable rather than essential Interview Process * 15min Screening Call with Team Talent * 45 min 1st Stage Interview with the Head of Legal via Zoom * Written Task * 60 min Final Stage Interview with the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Legal. Some of Our Global Benefits At Dotdigital, we believe in genuine conversations and authentic expertise. While AI can be a valuable and legitimate tool in many contexts, we ask candidates not to use AI\-generated content or live AI assistance at any stage of our recruitment process, including applications, assessments, and interviews. Key Skills: Procurement Salary: Not disclosed