SaaS Category Specialist

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The Category Specialist for SaaS & Technology Solutions will support software strategy, sourcing, competitive events, contract negotiations, and supplier management across the enterprise. The role requires deep familiarity with SaaS commercial models, renewal cycles, supplier lock-in dynamics, consumption-based pricing, and negotiation strategies with major industry players. This role partners closely with IT, Legal, Operational Risk, Cyber, Business Owners, and Supplier Risk Management to deliver cost optimization, risk transparency, and improved leverage across the SaaS portfolio.

Our team unlocks value from our supply network to enable growth, innovation and an outstanding customer experience! We seek to improve customer experience, mitigate third-party risk and demonstrate our buying power in order to build, enable, and sustain value for our business partners and suppliers.

Key Responsibilities

1. Category Strategy & Market Intelligence

• Develop annual category strategy for SaaS products across enterprise.

• Understand emerging SaaS trends: AI-enabled offerings, shifting license models, supplier consolidation, major acquisitions, and new regulatory obligations (e.g., data residency, AI governance, etc.).

• Maintain competitive benchmarks and price trends for major platforms (e.g., per-user license growth, price uplift norms).

2. Sourcing & Negotiation

• Lead RFPs, renewals, and competitive events for SaaS agreements (typically $1M–$25M).

• Negotiate with major technology suppliers known for aggressive pricing models.

• Drive 24-month renewal look-ahead to create leverage, evaluate switching options, and coordinate exit strategy readiness.

• Develop negotiation positions including licensing optimization, demand management, alternative vendor analysis, and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

3. Contracting & Risk Alignment

• Collaborate with Legal on contract terms including:

  • Data privacy

  • AI use & model training restrictions

  • Security requirements

  • SLAs, credits, uptime

  • Term length aligned to exit strategy readiness (12/24/36+ months)

• Review and negotiate complex SaaS terms such as:

  • Overages

  • Usage tiers

  • True-ups / True-downs

  • Auto-renew / evergreen risk

  • De-scoping & termination assistance

4. Supplier Relationship Management & Performance

• Develop supplier scorecards and quarterly business reviews for tier-1 SaaS suppliers.

• Track delivery, performance, roadmap alignment, price changes, and compliance.

• Identify emerging risks: supplier lock-in, under utilization, shadow IT, duplicate tools.

5. Governance & Reporting

• Prepare materials for Executive Leadership governance including renewal dashboards, contract risk heat maps, and business case summaries.

• Partner with IT stakeholders for forecasting and consumption modeling.

• Document category playbooks, standard negotiation strategies, and supplier intelligence profiles.

Technical & Procurement Expertise

• 5–10+ years in technology procurement, with 3+ years focused on SaaS.

• Experience negotiating with top-tier SaaS providers.

• Strong understanding of SaaS licensing: per-seat, consumption-based, tiered, platform bundles, unlimited agreements, community licenses, sandbox pricing, etc.

• Proven ability to run sourcing events from intake → strategy → RFP → evaluation → negotiation → contracting → renewal governance.

Data & Analytics Capability

• Ability to model SaaS usage, optimize licenses, and scenario-plan renewal options.

• Skilled in evaluating cost models, utilization reports, and consumption dashboards.

Legal/Contract Experience

• Familiarity with SaaS terms, AI policies, uptime SLAs, indemnities, SOC reports, and cyber requirements.

• Ability to redline documents and propose alternative terms.

• Executive presence --comfortable presenting to senior leadership, risk committees.

• Influencing without authority
  across IT, Finance, and business…