Organizational Background
Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster, including the climate crisis, to survive, recover, and rebuild their futures. Headquartered in New York and London, the IRC operates in more than 40 countries and supports refugee resettlement through 25 offices across the United States. Our work is grounded in bold leadership, innovation, partnership, and accountability to the people we serve.
Role Purpose
The Senior Manager, Global Procurement (GP) – Corporate and Professional Services provides strategic leadership across Travel, Translation, Insurance, Cash, Financial and HR Services, including payroll and benefits administration, learning and development platforms, recruitment and RPO, and global mobility and relocation.
The role establishes disciplined, forward-looking category management across this portfolio: translating business demand into sourcing strategies, shaping competitive markets, negotiating high-value agreements, and building supplier ecosystems that improve value, service quality, risk management, and staff experience. As the Senior Manager within GP for these categories, the postholder influences decisions across People & Culture, Safety & Security, Finance, Legal, Risk & Compliance, and country programs.
Key Accountabilities
1. Category Strategy and Portfolio Leadership
- Own and execute multi-year category strategies for Travel, Translation, Insurance, Cash, HR Services, and additional corporate and professional services categories as assigned.
- Convert spend, demand, market, supplier, and risk insights into clear category plans, sourcing priorities, value targets, and implementation roadmaps.
- Create fit-for-purpose sourcing guide for each category, including market intelligence, pricing and commercial models, contracting approaches, evaluation criteria, and negotiation levers.
- Build an integrated pipeline with business owners, aligning sourcing activity to contract expiries, renewal windows, benefits cycles, and operational priorities.
- Identify and deliver measurable value through cost optimization, demand management, service improvement, risk reduction, and a stronger employee experience.
2. Strategic Sourcing and Commercial Delivery
- Lead complex, high-value sourcing initiatives from strategy and market engagement through RFx, evaluation, negotiation, award, and implementation.
- Design sourcing and negotiation strategies that strengthen competition, improve commercial terms, and reflect the operational and regulatory realities of IRC’s global footprint.
- Establish robust evaluation governance, ensuring transparent decision-making, clear stakeholder accountability, and complete audit trails.
- Advise business owners on specifications, statements of work, service levels, pricing structures, and contract models that drive performance and protect IRC’s interests.
- Lead commercial escalations and resolve material supplier, service, and contractual issues in partnership with Legal, Finance, Risk & Compliance, People and Culture, and operational stakeholders.
3. Supplier Strategy and Performance
- Develop resilient supplier pool through framework agreements, pre-qualified panels, strategic partnerships, and appropriate regional or global coverage models.
- Segment suppliers by value, criticality, and risk; apply differentiated governance and relationship-management approaches across the portfolio.
- Set performance expectations and lead structured business reviews using service, cost, risk, innovation, and stakeholder-experience measures.
- Drive supplier accountability, corrective action, and continuous improvement, while identifying opportunities for innovation and stronger market capability.
- Evaluate and document single-source or waiver recommendations when competition is not viable, ensuring a defensible rationale and full policy compliance.
4. Stakeholder Leadership and Business Partnership
- Act as the principal Global Procurement partner to People & Culture, Safety & Security, and other corporate functions that depend on the assigned categories.
- Influence senior stakeholders with evidence-based recommendations on market options, supplier strategy, commercial trade-offs, risk, and total value.
- Translate functional priorities into executable procurement plans, creating clarity on scope, roles, timelines, decisions, and dependencies.
- Partner with Safety & Security on travel duty of care and traveler risk-management requirements, ensuring supplier and contracting strategies support organizational obligations.
- Build procurement capability among stakeholders by promoting early engagement, disciplined planning, and consistent use of category and sourcing standards.
5. Governance, Risk, and Performance
- Ensure all sourcing and supplier-management activity complies with IRC policies, donor requirements, delegated authorities, and audit standards.
- Embed privacy, information-security, ethical, and regulatory requirements into sourcing and contracting, with particular focus on HR and Insurance providers handling sensitive personal data.
- Maintain accurate spend, contract, pipeline, savings, risk, and supplier-performance data; use insights to guide priorities and demonstrate portfolio impact.
- Keep sourcing decisions and contract records complete, current, and audit-ready.
- Contribute category expertise and market insight to enterprise-wide procurement transformation and continuous-improvement initiatives.
Person Specification
Essential
- Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, business administration, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
- CIPS Level 4 or higher, or an equivalent procurement qualification.
- At least seven years of progressively responsible procurement experience, including substantial ownership of category management and strategic sourcing.
- Demonstrated success leading complex competitive sourcing, multi-supplier evaluations, commercial negotiations, and contract awards.
- Strong commercial judgment and a track record of improving value, supplier performance, and risk outcomes.
- Ability to influence senior stakeholders, navigate competing priorities, and convert business requirements into practical sourcing strategies.
- Strong analytical capability across spend analysis, market assessment, business-case development, and performance reporting.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex issues and recommendations clearly.
Desirable
- Master’s degree in a relevant field.
- Direct category experience in travel, insurance, HR/BPO, language services, or other corporate and professional services.
- Procurement experience in an NGO or nonprofit environment, including familiarity with donor compliance frameworks.
- Working knowledge of Spanish, or Arabic.
Professional Competencies
- Strategic and commercial thinking
- Influence and stakeholder leadership
- Market and supplier insight
- Negotiation and decision quality
- Risk awareness and integrity
- Execution discipline and accountability
- Collaboration across cultures and geographies
Compensation: (US Pay Rate: $72,930 – 119,000/yr; UK Pay Rate: £52,000 – £62,000/yr). Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.
Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.
US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $163 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.
How to apply
Visit IRC Careers: https://theirc.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/External_Careers/job/New-York-NY-HQ-USA/Senior-Manager-Global-Procurements-Corporate-and-Professional-Services_JR00004825
More Information
- Job City Kenya
