Job DescriptionPosition: Procurement Manager - Investments and Asset ManagementLocation: Cape Town Report to: Head of Procurement, Group FinanceFirm Profile:The Client is a leading global alternative investment manager focused on private equity, secondaries, credit and infrastructure. The firm has an international network of 29 local offices and 188 billion of assets under management. The Client manages funds on behalf of pension funds, financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds and other investors. The Client has an entrepreneurial, performance driven culture built around the goal of delivering exceptional returns for clients. The firms ability to bring to bear the full extent of its global resources on any situation gives it a competitive advantage when sourcing new investment opportunities and when creating value during its funds investment period.The Opportunity:Given the firms entrepreneurial culture, they currently have a decentralised control framework for approval and oversight of non-staff costs. As the business continues to grow, our client is now seeking an experienced procurement lead to join the Group Finance team and be responsible for controlling and monitoring non-staff cost expenditure across the group and introducing best-practice procurement processes around contract negotiation, risk management and service delivery.Reporting to the Global Head of Finance, the successful candidate will develop and implement a global procurement strategy that aligns with the firm's overall business objectives. This will require the implementation of processes and reporting from the ground up, working closely with all areas of the business. The right candidate will have significant drive and energy, a self-starter that is highly motivated to get things done and build something new.This role has a clear opportunity to demonstrate success to senior stakeholders within the business and will have significant room for growth as a result.The role will be based in Cape Town and expects the successful candidate to be in the office three days a week to build the intra-company relationships that will be necessary to deliver successful outcomes. ResponsibilitiesBusiness Partnering:Understand investment team workflows and deal origination practices to identify opportunities to better leverage new and existing market data sources/platforms to increase investment officer efficiencyAct as a business partner to investment teams and advise them on available market data services and how best to use themOnboard new employees and regularly engage with investment teams to make them aware of the services available to themWork closely with Technology and Innovation team to incorporate appropriate market data vendors into internal technology-led research propositionsMarket data buying:Understand the market, new entrants and how they might be used to best support the investment team workflows and deal sourcingRun timely and competitive tender processes for new and renewing suppliers to reduce spend and maximise valueRun trials/feedback gathering/consensus buildingWrite compelling commercial cases for approval by managing partnersWork with the data compliance team to make sure that vendors are appropriate vetted during onboardingRealtime entitlements managementSupplier relationship management:Work closely with vendors to drive business adoption of available servicesAdvise vendors on communicating with the business (training, new feature announcements, etc.)Act as a point of escalation for issues between users and market data vendorsReporting:Record and track spend on market data vendorsRegularly report on spend levels, usage and adoptionProvide expert network usage data to support fund recharging effortsExperience:Market data procurement experience in a financial services setting, with a preference for experience in private equity firms or investment managers.Proven track record of building out markets data capabilities.Experience engaging with, advising and persuading senior leadership.Knowledge of procurement best practices and industry standards.Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities.Experience of a high growth, fast-paced environment would be beneficial.Skills:Strong negotiation skillsDemonstrable numerical ability e.g., accounting qualification, maths / business degree, relevant professional experienceExcellent interpersonal skills and the ability to build trusted relationships across a global organisationStrong analytical skillset and attention to detailExperience of working with business spend and contract management systems (e.g., Coupa, Concur, DocuSign)