Senior Publishing Sourcing Specialist

SUMMARY
Reporting to the Manager, Strategic Sourcing, the Senior Publishing Sourcing Specialist supports vendor selection, sourcing, and procurement of product development services across the business functions of the company. The support includes vendor identification, identification/research of benchmark pricing to support budget planning, competitive bidding, bid analysis, assignment recommendations, and contract management. Additionally, the Senior Publishing Sourcing Specialist negotiates vendor pricing, terms and conditions, provides input on strategic initiatives, and supports the achievement and tracking of savings targets.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Pipeline Management

  • Actively manages projects identified and brought forth across the business categories.

  • Facilitates Dashboard/Pipeline meetings with business categories.

  • Prioritizes effort and works collaboratively and timely with business to meet project timelines.

  • Manages the timely completion of internal approvals and provides status to the business teams regarding projects.

  • Suggests cadence for upcoming projects to meet interim steps such as competitive bidding, definition of requirements, negotiation, and vendor adds/set up.

• Vendor Engagement

  • Provide vendor recommendations to the business categories during planning stages.

  • Lead formal RFI (Request for Information) and RFP (Request for Proposal) requests as required by the business.

  • Facilitate DoS (Description of Service) in collaboration with the business

  • Facilitates the creation of the SOW (Statement of Work), payment schedules, contracts, and POs.

  • Facilitate and analyze vendor proposals and bids with the business

  • Collaborate with the business to validate assumptions and costs for Change Requests.

  • Maintain awareness of current Savvas suppliers and identify new suppliers as needed to support identified business needs.

• Negotiation

  • Oversees competitive bidding, uses effective negotiation and accurate analysis of effort

  • Supports project teams and vendors in final project reconciliation

  • Actively identifies savings opportunities and strategies

  • Negotiates aggressively but fairly with vendors on behalf of business teams

  • Provides timely and accurate estimates to Finance and the business as requested

  • Provides timely and accurate forecast data to Finance as requested

  • Collaborates with business partners and Legal for final contracting.

• Other

  • This position is responsible for supporting the sourcing requirements of the company excluding Technology Development and Indirect sourcing categories.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Related work experience

• 5-7 years of experience in Editorial, Content, Sourcing, Procurement and/or Project Management capacity.

• Knowledge of business functions and vendor management required.

• Experience in managing multiple, complex, and data-rich projects under tight timeframes.

• Knowledge of budgeting and cost accounting is preferred.

• BA or BS, preferably in business, communication arts, or other technical functional areas.

ADDITIONAL SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, ABILITIES
Excellent project management skills; excellent communication and advocacy skills, strong attention to detail and organization, demonstrated ability to manage complex projects and relationships, understanding of budgets, demonstrated ability to meet deadlines, in-depth knowledge of project set-up process and vendor negotiation, demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with others, good personnel management skills with ability to collaborate with peers and vendors both onsite and remotely, strong business planning skills.