Senior Manager - Procurement Operations

At IFS you will work in a growing, global enterprise software company built upon committed and empowered colleagues who come to work knowing they are making a difference. We work everyday with customers who continue to challenge their markets and competitors. As a challenger ourselves, we partner with our customers to guide them through their digital transformations and extract the most value out of our software solutions. We take pride in ensuring that our employees are able to achieve the company goals as well as develop their career. We believe empowered autonomy, committed colleagues and being part of a winning team are the keys to our success and what makes us great! We are #ForTheChallengers and if that resonates with you, we would love to hear from you!

No one ever reached the top by doing things the same way as everyone else. We pride ourselves on being different, and four times world leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant demonstrates this Challenger state of mind. Read more here: https://www.ifs.com/corp/company/about-ifs/

JOB OVERVIEW

IFS is at the end of a 3-year transformation program which included the acquisition of four companies in 18 months and the implementation of IFSBiz (v10) as a global solution across all 27 countries. We will shortly embark on the next phase of this transformation with additional acquisitions and the migration to IFS Cloud in early 2022.

Supporting Procurement Operations globally, the incumbent shall manage IFS’s Procurement Service Centre in Sri Lanka (PSC) and the global procure-to-pay (P2P) activities across all 27+ IFS entities.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

Operations Management

• Manage the day to day functionality of IFS THOR ERP Purchasing processes, including the efficient transacting of PO’s, PO approvals, Goods Receipt, 3-way invoice mapping and all exceptions therein
• Manage all masterdata inputs, maintenance, archiving and purging of aged transactions for the onward optimisation of the IFS THOR environment
• Oversee all Procurement and Travel portals, including the collation and upload of content, on IFS portals: MyIFS, My Workplace, ServiceNow, Pagero e-Invoicing portal, and the IFS Supplier page
• Oversee the Procurement environment on ServiceNow including: the efficient processing of incidents by the PSC, escalation management, content of ServiceNow incident forms, related workflows and monthly reports
• Manage the blueprinting, development and implementation of IFS’ SRM and contracts database solution
• Contact point for all escalated operational issues and ensures their resolution
• Assist the Vice President, Global Procurement and key stakeholders to develop, refine and convey P2P policies and processes and you will be responsible to produce training materials and deliver these to internal constituents and stakeholders accordingly.

Performance Management / Continuous Improvement

• Ensure quality of service delivery against defined service levels set by the EVP Global Procurement
• Manage the Procurement Service Centre (one manager and a team of 5 direct reports) and collaborate with Regional Procurement Managers to monitor supplier performance against service levels
• Monitors the key partner suppliers to ensure continuous improvement initiatives are implemented in accordance with agreed SOW
• Manage the request, testing and production release of any functional or process changes/transformation activities in accordance with IFS Corporate Services sprint demand management.
• Act as the Global Process Lead on all company acquisitions or mergers and for any IFS THOR upgrade activities
• Work in close collaboration with the Global Controllership and a defined team of Procurement Superusers for continuous process and system improvements.

Governance and Reporting

• Develop and manage operational reports to assist and inform spend management, policy compliance, category management, savings delivery, supplier management and risk management.
• Organising, attending and facilitating as needed operational reviews
• Managing the reporting suite ensuring accuracy and timeliness of delivery and working with the stakeholders, internal audit, and suppliers as needed to update and improve internal operations and/or supplier performance

Competence:

• Excellent relationship building skills with both internal & external customers
• Experience in report building and interpretation
• Knowledge and experience of internal accounting and finance policies and processes
• Knowledge and experience in creating and improving data and workflow controls
• Ability to manage a demanding workload, planning and prioritising as needed
• Able to take a logical and systematic approach to resolving issues, thinking outside the box and weighing up all options available to make an informed decision where a precedent may not already exist
• Able to quickly understand the IFS operational structure and actively build internal networks
• Able to consistently produce work to a high standard
• Adaptable to change and able to/willing to learn new skills and develop expertise
• High level of numeracy and analytical ability, to be able to understand and interpret data and troubleshoot errors quickly
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office/365 and proficiency with Excel and PowerPoint
• People management experience, particularly with remote working in multiple locations
• Change management experience

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS

Essential:

• Understanding and global experience of Procurement operations and services from working within a P2P, Procurement or Finance Service Centre
• Experience of global ERPs including SAP, Oracle, and any IFS products and direct, hands-on experience of implementing ERPs or modules therein (including running testing & release schedules)
• Extensive experience within a Procurement function (min. 5 years)

Desirable:

• Extensive experience in Procurement/P2P/ERP, with at least 5 years’ experience supporting a Procurement Service Centre or Finance Service Centre in a multi-national corporation
• Degree-educated in business, accounting, IT, or related field (advanced degree preferred)
• CIPS or MCIPS diploma preferred but not required
• Track record of strong people management and leadership skills
• Demonstrable ability to motivate, influence and drive change across geographic boundaries
• Project management experience (Prince2, Agile etc)
• Excellent business/financial acumen
• Ability to travel internationally on occasion

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

You must be able to navigate a fast-paced multi-national environment with personnel from all corners of the globe and seek to foster excellent working relationships.

This role may require occasional travel to key markets (or more frequently as needed).

IFS develops and delivers enterprise software for customers around the world who manufacture and distribute goods, maintain assets, and manage service-focused operations. The industry expertise of our people and solutions, together with commitment to our customers, has made us a recognised leader and the most recommended supplier in our sector. Our team of 4,000 employees supports more than 10,000 customers worldwide from a network of local offices and through our growing ecosystem of partners. For more information, visit: IFS.com.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability status.