Procurement Lead

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Procurement Lead based in Belgium. As Procurement Lead, you will take ownership of the commercial and vendor-management function, with a strong focus on financial operations (FinOps) and cost optimization. You will oversee strategic cloud and SaaS vendor relationships, lead contract negotiations, and establish effective procurement governance. This is an opportunity to build and shape a procurement function from the ground up, defining its operating model, processes, and reporting standards. Working closely with Finance, Engineering, Legal, and external partners, you will turn complex spending data into actionable insights and measurable savings. You will drive transparency, improve unit economics, and ensure responsible vendor management across the organization. In a fully remote, globally distributed environment, you will have the autonomy to make strategic decisions and deliver meaningful business impact. Accountabilities - Own end-to-end relationships with key cloud and SaaS vendors, including AWS, GCP, Cloudflare, CloudQuery, ClickHouse, and other strategic partners, leading contract negotiations and renewals in collaboration with Finance and Legal. - Establish and enforce procurement governance, including competitive bidding processes, approval thresholds, benchmarking, and coordination with managed-procurement partners. - Lead the Procurement and FinOps function, defining its operating model, roadmap, processes, and standards while ensuring alignment with wider business objectives. - Manage and develop direct reports by overseeing onboarding, performance management, career development, regular one-to-ones, and day-to-day team administration. - Drive the team's delivery and accountability through roadmap management, project tracking, workflow prioritization, and stakeholder communication.

- Improve commercial visibility and unit economics by monitoring vendor expenditure, identifying licensing inefficiencies, analyzing usage patterns, and driving renewals, right-sizing, and tooling consolidation to achieve measurable savings. - Build and maintain vendor and SaaS cost dashboards and reporting systems, working hands-on with data and partnering with internal teams to scale reporting capabilities. - Define and maintain spending policies, governance frameworks, accountability standards, and cost-control thresholds. - Coordinate cloud cost-efficiency initiatives, tracking optimization opportunities from initial commitment through to realized savings in partnership with Engineering teams. Requirements: - At least 8 years of experience in procurement, vendor or commercial management, FinOps, or technical and financial analysis, including senior-level ownership of a function or strategic area. - Proven experience managing strategic vendor relationships, negotiating commercial agreements, and overseeing contract renewals. - Strong understanding of procurement governance, including competitive bidding, contract benchmarking, approval processes, and managed-procurement partnerships. - Hands-on experience building cost dashboards and reporting solutions using SQL, business intelligence tools, or similar analytical technologies. - Comfortable analyzing cloud infrastructure expenditure, particularly AWS and GCP costs, SaaS billing, licensing structures, and usage data. - Strong financial and analytical capabilities, with the ability to translate complex spending information into actionable insights and measurable business outcomes. - Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with both technical and non-technical teams. - Strong judgment, strategic thinking, and the ability to influence decisions, build consensus, and drive alignment without relying on formal authority.