KERING Professional Services Procurement Specialist

We are looking for our future Professional Services Buyer to join the Indirect Procurement team, in an international, multicultural environment undergoing major transformation. Based in Wayne, New Jersey (New York area), United States, you will report to the Professional Services Category Manager.

In this role, you will deploy the Professional Services category strategy, running tenders and managing day-to-day supplier relationships, in close collaboration with the Group's executive, Finance, Legal, HR and Houses' teams and a network of consulting firms and service providers.

Your scope covers intellectual services purchases for the Americas region: strategy and management consulting, audit, legal services, recruitment and temporary staffing, and training. Your ambition will be to combine economic performance, quality of service, compliance, and value creation for the Group.

How you will contribute

Contribution to the category strategy

• Deploy the Professional Services category strategy defined by the Category Manager and contribute to structuring the Group's supplier panels (consulting firms, law firms, recruitment and staffing agencies, training providers).
• Monitor the professional services market (rate trends, consolidation of firms, new delivery models, regulatory developments) to identify optimization and innovation opportunities.
• Track spend, realized savings, and category KPIs (share of spend under framework agreements, average day rates, panel compliance, upstream Procurement involvement before engagements); ensure compliance and manage associated risks.
• Promote the Procurement Department's policy, processes, and value proposition among internal stakeholders.

Stakeholder engagement

• Work closely with the executive, Finance, Legal, HR and Houses' teams to understand their needs, challenge the scope of engagements, and translate them into procurement solutions.
• Act as the procurement business partner on professional services topics, ensuring Procurement is involved before consultants or firms are engaged.
• Work in synergy with Procurement teams at Group and House level and across regions, to share best practices and leverage global synergies.

Procurement process management

• Run tenders and negotiations (consulting assignments, legal and audit panels, recruitment, staffing and training framework agreements) according to the Procurement process, integrating the CSR dimension (in particular supplier diversity and subcontracting compliance): supplier database maintenance, negotiations, and contract set-up (framework agreements, statements of work, rate cards) in collaboration with the dedicated legal team.
• Analyze professional services spend (rates by seniority, engagement duration, fixed-fee vs. time-and-materials, off-panel spend) to identify rationalization and optimization opportunities.
• Ensure the reliability of procurement data and produce the reporting needed to steer category performance.

Supplier relationship management

• Identify, evaluate, negotiate with, and onboard professional services suppliers (consulting and audit firms, law firms, recruitment and staffing agencies, training organizations).
• Manage day-to-day relationships with suppliers and handle escalations on deliverables, service levels, team changes, and invoicing (consistency with agreed scope and rates).
• Measure and steer supplier performance through KPIs and regular business reviews.
• Identify innovative solutions (new delivery models, outcome-based pricing, digital training and recruitment platforms) and be a source of proposals for internal clients.

Who are you

Graduate of a business or engineering school, with a specialization in Procurement, you have 3 to 5 years of experience in procurement, ideally in professional services or indirect categories within an international company. Fluency in English and French is required.

Requirements

• Strong interpersonal skills and credibility with senior stakeholders, with the ability to challenge needs and build trust with internal clients and suppliers.
• An analytical mindset, with a good understanding of professional services cost drivers (day rates, seniority mix, pricing models, scope definition).
• The ability to translate business needs into procurement solutions and to promote adoption of the Procurement policy.
• Strong negotiation skills and clear, impactful communication.
• The ability to manage multiple priorities and to work in a matrix organization.
• Sensitivity to CSR and compliance issues (conflicts of interest, auditor independence, subcontracting obligations), initiative, and proactivity.
• Good command of office tools (advanced Excel) and ideally of e-sourcing, contract management or Business Intelligence tools.

Salary: $100,000 - $110,000 per year plus incentives 

Health benefits include: Medical and prescription drug insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, hospital indemnity insurance, personalized healthcare support, wellbeing programs. 

Financial benefits include: Health Savings Account (HSA), Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), 401(k) plan, basic life and AD&D insurance, and short-term disability insurance.