Global Category Leader, Indirect Services

The Company

NorthMark Strategies is a leading investment firm, combining capital, innovation, and engineering to drive long-term value. From operating complex businesses to backing breakthrough technologies, our mission is to build enduring businesses. Our team combines intelligent risk-taking, operational excellence, exceptional talent, and world-class computing capacity to create shareholder value.

Our company offers a dynamic environment where individuals have the freedom to lead companies toward bold achievements by embracing innovation, leveraging technology, and fostering differentiated business strategies. Our values are Integrity, Ability, and Energy, and the company aims to hire individuals who possess those qualities.

At NorthMark Strategies, we believe the future isn’t something to hope for, it’s something to build. We don’t just invest, we create. Bringing together strategic insight and technical horsepower to deliver outcomes that endure.

The Position

The Global Category Leader, Indirect Services, owns enterprise category strategy for HR, Professional Services, and Facilities services. This is the senior global owner of these categories, responsible for setting strategy, defining the supplier landscape and preferred-supplier architecture, leading the largest global negotiations, and enabling regional procurement teams to execute consistently in their markets. The role leads a team of Category Managers covering the assigned categories.

The role balances the drive for global consistency against the practical constraints of individual markets. Category strategies must be ambitious enough to unlock enterprise-level value and practical enough for regional teams to deliver against local supplier markets, regulatory regimes, and business expectations. Success depends as much on the quality of the strategy and the strength of partnership with regional procurement leaders and global function heads as on direct authority.

Responsibilities

Team leadership

Lead, develop, and manage a team of Category Managers, allocating category ownership, setting objectives, and building depth in category strategy, negotiation, and executive stakeholder management. Own hiring, performance management, and succession planning for the team, and ensure consistent standards of category rigor across the portfolio.

Global category strategy

Own and maintain multi-year global category strategies for HR, Professional Services, and Facilities, grounded in spend analytics, supplier market intelligence, cost drivers, benchmarking, and the strategic priorities of the global functions supported. Refresh strategies on a defined cadence and secure endorsement from function leadership and the Head of Indirect Procurement.

Supplier portfolio architecture

Define the target supplier landscape for each category, including global versus regional supplier roles, preferred-supplier panels, rationalization targets, and where competition should be preserved versus consolidated. Provide make-versus-buy and outsourcing input where relevant.

Global sourcing and negotiation

Direct global and multi-region sourcing events across the portfolio and personally lead the most significant commercial negotiations, including global MSAs, outsourced service agreements, consulting and SOW frameworks, contingent labor programs, and integrated facilities management contracts. Partner with Legal, Finance, Security, Privacy, and Risk on terms and due diligence.

Enablement of regional teams

Ensure regional procurement teams are equipped with the strategy, playbooks, negotiation levers, benchmarks, contract templates, and supplier intelligence required to execute locally. Review and support regional category strategies for alignment, arbitrate exception requests, and act as escalation point on category questions.

Executive stakeholder management

Build trusted advisor relationships with global leaders in HR, Finance, Real Estate and Workplace, and other functions. Shape demand and specifications upstream, influence budget and planning cycles, and represent procurement’s point of view credibly at senior levels.

Global supplier relationship management

Own executive-level relationships and governance for strategic global suppliers in the assigned categories, including business reviews, performance frameworks, innovation and value-engineering agendas, and remediation of systemic performance issues.

Value delivery and reporting

Build and maintain the global opportunity pipeline across the portfolio, covering cost, demand management, working capital, and service-quality improvements. Report performance, risks, and market developments to the Head of Indirect Procurement and function leadership.

Risk, compliance, and responsible sourcing

Ensure category strategies address third-party risk, data privacy, worker classification and co-employment exposure, business continuity, and regulatory requirements across regions. Embed supplier diversity and sustainability commitments into category and supplier decisions.

Requirements

• 7+ years of procurement, strategic sourcing, or category management experience, with substantial depth in indirect services.
• Demonstrated people-leadership experience, including direct line management of category managers or senior sourcing professionals.
• Demonstrated ownership of global or multi-region category strategy, not solely regional or transactional sourcing. Proven track record leading large, complex services negotiations — outsourced services, consulting frameworks, contingent labor, or facilities management.
• Experience working through a global-plus-regional operating model and influencing teams and stakeholders outside a direct reporting line.
• Strong executive presence and the ability to hold a commercial position with senior business leaders.
• Analytical rigor in spend analytics, cost modeling, benchmarking, and business case development.
• Willingness to travel internationally up to 10% of your time.
• Bachelor’s degree; MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred.

Preferred

• Category depth in two or more of HR services (benefits administration, talent acquisition, learning, payroll), Professional Services (consulting, advisory, legal, agency), and Facilities (IFM, maintenance, security, food services).
• Experience with Coupa / SAP Ariba / Ivalua / Zip / Oracle and contract lifecycle management platforms.
• Exposure to contingent labor and MSP/VMS programs, and to worker-classification considerations across multiple jurisdictions.
• CPSM, MCIPS, or equivalent certification.