Head of Procurement

Benchling is looking for a Head of Procurement to lead how we buy. You'll be a senior individual contributor reporting to the Chief Accounting Officer with broad influence across and responsibility for our third-party spend in cloud infrastructure, enterprise SaaS, and professional services, and over our travel and expense program. Our procurement function has earned real trust across the business. Teams don't just invite procurement into their deals for compliance, but because it makes their deals better. You'll protect and build on that trust. You'll be a partner to the business: someone who understands what each team is trying to achieve, looks objectively through a broader company-wide lens, finds the best overall value for Benchling, and makes buying easier while improving how it's controlled. You'll lead negotiations of our largest and most strategic contracts, build coverage to address the tail, and be our expert on what a well-designed procure-to-pay process looks like, guiding our systems and accounting partners toward it. You'll work closely with Engineering, IT, Security, Marketing, Legal, Strategic Finance, Corporate Development, and Accounting, running a regular rhythm that gets to decisions. Sourcing and negotiation, together with strategic initiatives, make up roughly 65–70% of your time. Process excellence makes up the remaining 30–35%.

Responsibilities

Lead vendor negotiation and renewals for the largest and most strategic agreements, including cloud infrastructure and enterprise SaaS providers; Structure deals that hold up over time, including usage-based and committed-spend pricing, multi-year terms, price protections, and exit and data portability rights; Enhance the renewal management process, building a renewal strategy with business owners and Strategic Finance; Develop category strategies for major spend areas to consolidate vendors, inform renewal strategies, stop redundant software spend, and work with business partners on usage monitoring and build-versus-buy decisions; Design and implement an appropriately sized third-party vendor risk program that aligns and partners with security and other stakeholders, improve vendor risk visibility, and build mitigation plans with business partners; Build leverage by giving business owners what they need to negotiate on their own; Advise on categories outside procurement today, such as benefits, large events, real estate, and contingent workforce vendors; Leverage experience in leading-edge, best-in-class process and set the direction, partnering with stakeholder teams to evolve existing processes; Own procurement and T&E policies, set clear rules for when procurement gets involved, and assess whether tools are still the right ones; Simplify and apply AI and automation from intake through reporting, including procurement metrics, department-level tool budgets with Strategic Finance, and tracking of committed and usage-based contracts with Corporate Accounting

Requirements

10+ years in procurement, strategic sourcing, or vendor management, with most of that experience at technology or SaaS companies; Negotiation expertise that experienced deal owners can learn from, and a track record of delivering substantial, measurable savings by leading the most complex, high-stakes negotiations in the company, including large cloud infrastructure commitments and multi-year enterprise SaaS agreements, and by driving cross-functional vendor and tool consolidation; Direct spend and supply chain experience are not a priority; A reputation as a trusted business partner who balances commercial results with stakeholder needs and long-term vendor relationships; Ability to understand why the business needs a solution and how it fits into the broader product vision; Leading-practice procurement process design: demonstrated results from process redesign and simplification, leveraging AI and automation, with good judgment about where they help and where they don't; Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills at an executive level, with the ability to make a clear case for value with data-driven analysis based on usage, benchmark, and total-cost data, and to influence decisions without authority; Experience designing third-party risk processes with Security, Legal, and Compliance partners; Familiarity with Zip, Navan, NetSuite, or similar platforms; Comfort working on your own, handling both strategy and execution

Nice to have

Procurement certification (CPSM, CIPS, or similar); Experience in life sciences or biotech