Procurement Solutions Manager
Works closely with: PMO & Performance, Product Design team, Data & AI team, Procurement business teams
Role Purpose
Within the Digital Solutions team, the Procurement Solutions Manager leads the Procurement solutions team and manages its solution experts. The role owns the vision, delivery and run of the Procurement solutions for air, ocean & road, and plays an active role in the digital transformation of the end-to-end procurement process — from the relationship with carriers through to booking execution. It ensures the solution consistently delivers value to the business, in line with the Procurement strategy, within agreed budgets and timelines.
Drive the Digital Transformation of Procurement
This role is a key enabler of the Procurement strategy: professionalising carrier relations, influencing and driving ocean bookings, and unlocking the organisation's capacity to take calculated risks.
Play an active role in the digital transformation of the end-to-end procurement process, from the relationship with carriers through to booking execution.
Turn the Procurement strategy into a concrete solution and data roadmap through our home made platform called Live Procurement
Make carrier and market data actionable within the solution so the business can decide faster and better.
Build the data, visibility and tooling that empower procurement and sales teams to take calculated risks and seize commercial opportunities while the final commercial decision stays with the business.
Empower procurement teams through the solution without causing strong disruption to their day-to-day operations.
Reports to: Head of Digital Solutions
Direct reports: Procurement solution experts
Works closely with: PMO & Performance, Product Design team, Data & AI team, Procurement business teams
Location : Le Havre, Lyon, Marseille, Paris
Role Purpose
Within the Digital Solutions team, the Procurement Solutions Manager leads the Procurement solutions team and manages its solution experts. The role owns the vision, delivery and run of the Procurement solutions for air, ocean & road, and plays an active role in the digital transformation of the end-to-end procurement process — from the relationship with carriers through to booking execution. It ensures the solution consistently delivers value to the business, in line with the Procurement strategy, within agreed budgets and timelines.
This role is a key enabler of the Procurement strategy: professionalising carrier relations, influencing and driving ocean bookings, and unlocking the organisation's capacity to take calculated risks.
Play an active role in the digital transformation of the end-to-end procurement process, from the relationship with carriers through to booking execution.
Turn the Procurement strategy into a concrete solution and data roadmap through our home made platform called Live Procurement
Make carrier and market data actionable within the solution so the business can decide faster and better.
Build the data, visibility and tooling that empower procurement and sales teams to take calculated risks and seize commercial opportunities while the final commercial decision stays with the business.
Empower procurement teams through the solution without causing strong disruption to their day-to-day operations.
Build the Solution Vision
– Define, together with the Head of Digital Solutions and the Product & Procurement teams, the key features to be built into the solution through the roadmap.
– Where the solution impacts operational or financial processes, or raises technical or security implications, coordinate with the relevant owners to find the best solution — accounting for each party's constraints without compromising the business vision.
– Feed the product backlog on the basis of the roadmap.
Support Sales and the Booking Process
– Design innovative solutions that support the sales teams in responding to client requests (e.g. tender response, pricing visibility, sell-vs-book guidance).
– Support the booking process by orienting operational teams toward the most appropriate contracts, balancing a complex matrix of constraints.
– Provide smart, secure booking guidance that steers choices without removing business ownership of the decision.
– Ensure the booking choices enabled by the solution are secure, compliant and auditable.
Deliver the Roadmap and Run the Solution
The core of the role is to build and deliver the value of the solution through new features, while also guaranteeing effective support of existing features.
– Design the features included in the roadmap.
– Manage the product backlog, prioritising features and ensuring the continuous delivery of value against expected timelines.
– Own the user stories and functional specifications handed over to development.
– Collaborate with the development team to define sprint goals and ensure a shared understanding of requirements.
– Challenge the development teams on their estimates, adherence to timelines and the quality of delivered solutions.
– Be accountable for the quality of the delivered solution in terms of functional content, performance and ease of use.
– Own the successful deployment of the solution.
– Act as guarantor of effective solution support.
Lead and Manage the Team
– Lead and motivate the solution experts under their responsibility, with the support of the Head of Digital Solutions.
– Allocate tasks and responsibilities across the team.
– Support the experts in their professional development and in the delivery of their work.
– Steer the Procurement solution team and its projects through effective governance.
– Support the experts when they hit blocking points, drawing on the Head of Digital Solutions where needed.
– Organise and steer product support together with the experts.
– Manage the external partners within their scope.
– Establish and apply the regular governance required at each level (team, management, partners, top management).
Steer the Solution through Indicators
Working from facts is a key success factor: it ensures value is delivered within budget and on time.
– Build and put in place, together with the Head of Digital Solutions, the indicators used to track day-to-day product activity (solution experts' workload, active planning, etc.).
– Track and steer usage of the solution under their responsibility.
– Track and steer product support through monitoring KPIs (number of tickets, resolution times, etc.).
– Provide a weekly activity report on the product (client topics, ongoing projects, blocking points, current key topics, team matters, etc.).
– Solid understanding of ocean freight procurement, carrier relations and booking processes; exposure to CargoWise (or a comparable TMS) is a strong plus.
– Proven Product Owner / Product Manager experience in an Agile environment (roadmap, backlog, user stories, sprint delivery).
– Experience leading or coordinating a team.
– Comfortable with data- and AI-driven ways of working; able to define KPIs and steer from facts.
– Strong stakeholder management: able to influence business, IT and external partners without direct authority.
– Fluent English; Spanish is a plus.
– Leadership, structure, pragmatism and clear communication.