Senior Manager - Procurement and Vendor Management

About DAT

DAT Freight & Analytics is an award-winning employer of choice and a next-generation SaaS technology company that has been at the leading edge of freight and logistics innovation for nearly five decades. Founded in 1978, DAT operates the largest freight marketplace in North America — processing 250 million+ load posts annually and maintaining one of the largest repositories of freight market transaction data in the world. On a defined path to $1 billion in revenue, DAT deploys a suite of software solutions, machine learning models, and intelligent automation tools that help brokers, carriers, and shippers price freight accurately, source capacity, reduce risk, and operate more efficiently. With nearly 700 teammates across offices in Denver, CO; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Springfield, MO; Toronto, ON; and Bangalore, India, DAT combines the credibility of a multi-decade market leader with the drive of a company that is not done disrupting the industry it helped build. For more information, visit www.DAT.com

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Application Deadline: 11/30/2026

The Opportunity

DAT Freight & Analytics (“DAT”) is the backbone of the transportation industry. Currently a $500M powerhouse on a rapid trajectory to $1B, we have acquired four companies in the past 18 months and are scaling our infrastructure to match our ambition.

We are seeking a Senior Manager of Procurement and Vendor Management to own the entire “Procure to Pay” (P2P) function across DAT. DAT currently manages a portfolio of >$30M of commercial contracts, and this is a build role: you will have executive sponsorship and a clear mandate to design and stand up modern procurement infrastructure and governance from the ground up over your first 18 months.

What You’ll Do

• Department Ownership: Build and lead the center of excellence for procurement and vendor management. Lead your team of a Procurement Ops Manager and Procurement Specialist to streamline day-to-day operations and controls while you focus on high-level strategy and integration.
• P2P Workflow in NetSuite: Partner with FP&A, Accounting, and our NetSuite admin to operationalize the Procure-to-Pay workflow inside our NetSuite ERP, including establishing Tropic as our system of record for spend tracking.
• Vendor Strategy & Benchmarking: Drive world-class negotiations with technology and indirect spend vendors. Utilize Tropic and other benchmarking data to ensure optimal commercial terms and service levels.
• Legal/Contracts & CLM Partnership: Lead the integration of a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform with our Tropic workflow, in close collaboration with DAT's Legal/Contracts team.
• Contract Risk Triage & Negotiation: Personally review and negotiate key commercial contract terms across DAT's vendor portfolio (SaaS agreements, MSAs, DPAs), performing a first-pass red-flags analysis — indemnification, Artificial Intelligence clauses, liability, data protection, termination, auto-renewal — before handing contracts to the Legal/Contracts team, so review cycles move faster and risk is caught earlier, not later.
• M&A Integration: Direct the procurement integration for our four recent acquisitions, identifying immediate cost synergies and migrating legacy contracts into the DAT ecosystem.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Act as a key advisor to department heads, providing spend visibility and ensuring procurement is viewed as a strategic partner rather than a hurdle.

Strategic Evolution

• SaaS Ecosystem Optimization: Partner closely with the Technology team to audit and rationalize the software stack across all business units and acquired entities, identifying vendor consolidation opportunities created by our four acquisitions over the past 18 months, eliminating redundancies and capturing immediate EBITDA improvements.
• AI Council Partnership: Serve as procurement's representative on DAT's AI Council, partnering with Architecture and InfoSec to govern the selection, onboarding, and ongoing review of third-party AI tools and platforms — and bring procurement's recommendation on vendor selection, contract terms, and risk for AI-related spend, which is growing faster than DAT's current governance can track.
• Cloud FinOps Partnership: Partner with Engineering and DevOps to manage Cloud infrastructure spend (AWS/Azure), driving transparency and cost-efficiency in our primary COGS drivers.
• Risk & Compliance Framework: Refine and manage a robust Vendor Risk Management (VRM) program in collaboration with Security and Legal to ensure all third-party partners meet DAT’s rigorous data privacy and security standards.

The Skills and Experience You’ll Bring

• Experience: 6–8 years in Procurement or Strategic Sourcing, specifically within a high-growth SaaS or software environment.
• Technical Expertise: Proven experience leading a CLM implementation and partnering on major ERP/P2P system design. Familiarity with Tropic and NetSuite is highly preferred.
• Contract Acumen: Comfortable reading and negotiating complex commercial contract language independently — SaaS, MSA, and DPA terms — and performing an initial risk read (a red-flags first pass) before formal legal review.
• Communication: Exceptional ability to translate complex financial and legal requirements into actionable business strategies for stakeholders at all levels.
• AI Governance Exposure: Experience participating in or advising cross-functional AI governance or procurement councils, with a point of view on vendor risk specific to AI-powered SaaS — selection, data handling, and contract terms.
• Autonomy: A "builder" mindset with the ability to work independently, make high-stakes decisions, and own the department's roadmap.
• Curiosity: Seek to understand the “why”.  Bring innovation of thought to solving problems for the long term. 

Why DAT?

DAT is an award winning employer of choice.

For starters, we have a hybrid work environment, but we also know what makes a great workplace. We have a time-tested and resolute set of operating values predicated on integrity, mutual respect, open communication, and executing with excellence. These values inform our strategic vision as much as any one of our products does. We’ve been an employer of choice in the Portland metropolitan area for four decades, and within one year of opening our Denver office, DAT was #26 on Built In Colorado’s 100 Best Places to Work In Colorado.

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, and AD&D insurance
• Paid Parental Leave
• Flexible Time Off
• An additional 10 holidays of paid time off per calendar year
• 401k matching (immediately vested)
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Short- and Long-term disability sick leave
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Health Savings Accounts
• Employee Assistance Program
• Additional programs - Employee Referral, Internal Recognition, and Wellness
• Free TriMet transit pass (Beaverton Office) 
• Competitive salary and benefits package
• Work on impactful projects in a cutting-edge environment
• Collaborative and supportive team culture
• Opportunity to make a real difference in the trucking industry
• Employee Resource Groups

For Oregon-based candidates, in compliance with Oregon's Pay Equity and Transparency Act (effective January 2024), the salary range for this role is $154,536 - $196,039. DAT considers factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education and training, core skills, internal equity, and market and business elements when extending an offer.

DAT embraces the value of a diverse workforce, and believes it is a core strength of our company that we encourage those values in every DAT employee, at every level of our organization, regardless of tenure or rank. We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)

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