Job Description

Join us today as the Director of Procurement!

First Business Bank is a Top Workplaces USA company, learn more here.

At the heart of First Business Bank, we believe success comes down to putting people first. Our people are our priority — they embody ambition, experience, and client focus. The result is extremely engaged employees who provide unmatched client satisfaction. With comprehensive total rewards to support our team members, a commitment to valuing each other’s differences, and a focus on improving our communities, we are confident you’ll find the experience is your advantage. We’re delighted you’re considering joining us!

Work Model: Remote, requiring one day at our Madison, WI headquarters each month.

Position Overview

The Director of Procurement provides centralized oversight of the Company’s end-to-end procurement-to-payment process. This includes establishing sourcing and vendor strategies aligned with business needs, financial objectives and risk appetite. This is a senior level, individual contributor role with the primary responsibility of building a procure to pay process with an annual spend of approximately $30 million across approximately 300 vendors that can scale as the company grows.

The individual will be expected to foster strong cross-functional collaboration with Finance, Legal, IT, Operations, and business leaders. The position reports to the Chief Risk Officer, with a functional or dotted-line relationship to the Chief Accounting Officer for financial controls, accounts payable integration, and budgeting.

Essential responsibilities for this role include:

• Strategic Sourcing and Procurement (50%). Develop and lead the company’s strategic sourcing program across key categories of spend through disciplined, transparent, competitive and risk informed processes.
• Establish and document sourcing standards, including business-case requirements, competitive-bid expectations, exception protocols, and delegated approval authorities.
• Oversee supplier proposals, bid processes, pricing and business term negotiations.
• Identify and deliver measurable opportunities for cost savings, cost avoidance, demand management, supplier consolidation, contract optimization, and process efficiency.
• Coordinate periodic vendor evaluations, risk review and issue resolutions in partnership with Compliance through the lifecycle of the contract.
• Accounts Payable and Finance Coordination (30%). The role is responsible for ensuring that procurement and payment processes are efficient, appropriately controlled, supported by complete and accurate records, and executed in accordance with delegated authority.
• Own and continuously improve the end-to-end P2P process, including requisitioning, vendor payment data maintenance, invoicing, approvals, payment workflows, and the integration of P2P systems.
• Partner with finance to identify and eliminate bottlenecks, reduce manual work, and improve data quality across purchasing and Accounts Payable processes using key performance indicators.
• Support Finance and business leaders in vendor-spend forecasting, budget preparation, and accrual identification.
• Design and monitor controls over vendor creation and changes, purchasing authority, invoice approval, employee expense process, sponsorships process, and documentation standards.
• Reporting and Analytics (10%). Establish transparent, decision-useful reporting and performance analytics that enable management of enterprise spend, procurement value, supplier performance, process efficiency, control compliance, and material issues.
• Develop recurring reporting appropriate to the Company’s governance structure and the significance of procurement, supplier, and P2P matters. Provide trend analysis and actionable recommendations to management.
• Monitor timely completion of due diligence and periodic reviews; document and escalate overdue items, exceptions, residual risks, control deficiencies, contractual concerns, and significant supplier issues.
• Establish operational metrics, technology strategy, and staffing models to support efficient, scalable P2P operations.
• Demonstrate cost savings in procurement program through optimization of vendors, improved contract terms, and reduction of process waste.
• Governance and Risk Management (10%). Administer a risk-based procurement governance framework in partnership with vendor owners, Finance, Legal, Risk and Compliance, Information Security, Information Technology, Operations and business leaders.
• Define roles and responsibilities for vendor owners, service owners, approvers, Accounts Payable, and oversight functions.
• Design and maintain controls related to vendor management, purchasing, approvals, and payments.
• Support regulatory examinations, internal and external audits, and remediation of findings relating to procurement, contracting, and procure-to-pay (“P2P”) processes.

Position Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain management, business administration, finance, accounting, risk management, or a related field.
• 7+ years of progressively responsible experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, supplier management, third-party risk management, procure-to-pay, finance operations, or a related discipline.
• 2+ years of leadership, program ownership, or cross-functional transformation experience.
• Experience in financial services or related field required.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex sourcing initiatives and commercial negotiations.
• Ability to both 1) assess and understand the in depth processes, and 2) oversee assess the program management of the following areas:
• Strategic sourcing, category management, competitive bidding, commercial negotiation, and supplier-performance management.
• Third-party risk-management principles and banking regulatory expectations.
• Contract lifecycle management and ability to identify matters requiring Legal or specialist review.
• P2P processes, Accounts Payable workflows, internal controls, delegated authority, and segregation of duties.
• Financial and spend analysis, budgeting, and cost-benefit analysis.