Vice President, Procurement Services

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range:

Position Summary

Reporting to the Executive Vice President for Finance and Information Technology, the Vice President, Procurement Services is responsible for the strategic management of the $2.2 billion annual acquisition cycle of goods and services at the University at the Morningside, Medical Center and Manhattanville campuses, along with global operations in over 30 countries.

Responsibilities

• The Vice President, Procurement Services, leads an organization of over 50 professionals in Purchasing, Contract Management, Vendor Management and Accounts Payable and Disbursement units providing the effective and efficient processing of requisitions, contracts, vouchers and card-based transactions in support of over 17,000 full-time faculty and staff and 32,000 students.
• The Vice President oversees and is the business owner for all procurement systems including the procurement modules for the University’s financial system, ARC (Accounting and Reporting at Columbia), an enterprise-wide Electronic Document Management System, procurement and corporate card systems, and a range of tools supporting operational, analytic and strategic data management.
• The Vice President leads an ongoing set of system enhancements and development of new supporting technologies, working closely with staff within Procurement Services, the University’s Finance Service Management team and Information Technology department, vendors, and stakeholders across Schools and departments to realize a state-of-the-art operational, compliance and customer service environment to support the full range of the University’s procurement activity.
• The Vice President, Procurement Services, is responsible for consistently delivering to the University the highest level of customer service and support through business process improvements and the effective use of enabling technologies, close monitoring of service levels, coordination with the Finance Service Center and regular outreach and meetings with Schools and departments.
• The Vice President is responsible for delivering a set of hard savings, through strategic sourcing and negotiated savings, as well as soft savings through continued development of efficiencies.
• The Vice President, Procurement Services, is responsible for a dynamic, effective and thoughtful compliance program that protects the University in a range of areas including tax compliance, fraud controls, information security, import/export controls, and federal government sponsor compliance.
• The Vice President will ensure the provision of innovative and meaningful support that helps the University realize a range of priorities and initiatives including global initiatives, environmentally sustainable practices and promoting opportunities for local vendors.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.

• Ten years of relevant experience including business process redesign required.

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or comparable advanced degree strongly preferred.
• Experience in higher education, patient care or research organization strongly preferred.
• Experience with the implementation of electronic procurement systems strongly preferred.
• Experience with some combination of strategic sourcing, strategic partnerships and/or supplier diversity strongly preferred.

Other Requirements

• Must have experience in the implementation and/or management of operations and/or systems across functional units.
• Experience in a complex, decentralized organization required.
• Excellent oral, written, interpersonal, organizational and problem-solving skills required.
• Ability to work closely and effectively with a diverse group of senior University administrators essential.
• Must be experienced at senior level presentations.
• In addition, the successful candidate must be a strategic thinker, with an open and collaborative style of leadership that encourages teamwork and cooperation, and a strong role model, manager and coach, with the ability to provide a positive working and learning environment for staff, as well as to develop a first-class service organization that responds effectively to inquiries and engenders trust from the University community.
• Must have a demonstrated passion for excellent customer service and commitment to exceptional quality, as well as very high energy levels.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

Applications open: Dec 02 2019 Eastern Standard Time
Applications close: