Associate - Strategic Procurement & Global Contract

Description

About this role

Overview:
BlackRock Finance consists of finance professionals in teams such as Financial Planning & Analysis, Treasury, Tax, Finance Controls, Sourcing and Vendor Management (“SVM”), Finance Platform Support and Controllers. SVM is a global team, with team members primarily based in New York, Gurgaon, Budapest and London. SVM strives to be trusted strategic sourcing advisors enabling BlackRock to achieve more value. SVM helps negotiate agreements with vendors to help achieve optimum value, identify and mitigate vendor risks and provides strategic advice to our clients. The SVM team strives to avoid certain costs and deliver cost reductions, deliver reliable analytical data for improved decision making, and enable a socially responsible and diverse supplier base.

Background

SVM seeks a professional in sourcing/procurement to support the sourcing/contract life-cycle for some or all of the following subcategories: Professional Services mainly audit, tax, due diligence, real assets, non-IT consulting, reporting and proxy voting on behalf of BlackRock.

Principal duties include:

- Assist in the development of strategic sourcing opportunities through bidding, proof-of-concept, demand management, supplier consolidation, and process reengineering.
- Ownership of the full strategic sourcing cycle, including vendor identification and selection, price negotiation, and contract “red-lining” (i.e. contract drafting and editing).
- Strong Knowledge of commercial and legal contract terms (e.g. liability, indemnification)
- Partnering with Category Leads, Third Party Risk, and Legal teams around the world in the negotiations of: Master Services Agreements, Master Hosted Services Agreements, Statements of Work, Audit and Fund Engagement Letters, Service Level Agreements, Facility management agreements, Benefits contracts, etc.
- Develop positive relationships with key BlackRock groups and leaders ensuring governance programs are fully understood and embraced;
- Support a robust pipeline of sourcing projects in parallel with broader strategic projects
- Develop market research and benchmarking of suppliers and related service categories

Experience required:

- At least 5 years of strategic sourcing experience at a consulting firm, technology organization, or financial services firm.
- Depth in negotiating global contracts with the ability to understand legal terms and conditions while negotiating fees, SLA’s and articulating deliverables.
- A passion for the technology sector, including a comprehensive understanding of IT market drivers, trends, and dynamics.
- Relevant experience in drafting and redlining contracts.
- Sufficient financial modelling skills so as to build multiple negotiation scenarios, total cost of ownership models, consumption models, and demand forecasts, etc.
- Experience directly drafting and running RFIs, RFQs, and RFPs including vendor selection and understanding the vendor risk due diligence process
- Experience with vendor disputes/escalation management.
- Strong MS Office skills; particularly Word and Excel.
- P2P system such as Coupa, Ariba, SAP desired
- Reporting tools such as Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, SharePoint desired.

Competencies:

- Strong written and spoken English language essential. Additional languages are a plus.
- Superior analytical skills
- able to demonstrate superior quantitative and analytical capabilities, and the ability to translate analysis into tactics and results
- Negotiation skills -comfortable representing BlackRock’s interests in interactions with vendors and other counter parties.
- Ability to manage issues to resolution, negotiating compromises for overall business benefit when required.
- Self-confident and decisive
- Excellent attention to detail
- Ability to recognize and resolve problems
- Customer oriented
- Able to develop and maintain strong working relationships with internal stakeholders and vendors
- Able to influence others through direct discussion or in written format
- Ability to meet tight time schedules
- Willingness to handle repetitious assignments
- Flexibility in approach to working hours to meet business needs

Education Requirements:

- Bachelor’s Degree, with preferences for Supply Chain Management, Computer Science, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Management Information Systems, Data Science, Business Analytics, Economics, Innovation Management, Technology Management, Operations Research, Legal Studies, or Paralegal Studies.
- Advanced degrees in Business, IT (CS, MIS, etc), Law, or Mathematics or related areas are also preferred.

Our benefits

To help you stay energized, engaged and inspired, we offer a wide range of benefits including a strong retirement plan, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive healthcare, support for working parents and Flexible Time Off (FTO) so you can relax, recharge and be there for the people you care about.

Our hybrid work model

BlackRock’s hybrid work model is