IT Sourcing Specialist

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Job Title

IT Sourcing Specialist

Department

Operations

Office Location

London or Birmingham

Reports To

Head of Procurement

Working Hours

35 hours per week, 9:30am to 5:30pm but additional hours may be required.  We are happy to consider agile and flexible working patterns. Our approach to hybrid working allows for up to 40% of time working from home and 60% working in the office, please contact a member of the recruitment team to discuss further.

Firm Description

Hogan Lovells is one of the leading global law firms.  Our distinctive market position is founded on our exceptional breadth of our practice, on deep industry knowledge, and on our 'one team' global approach.  Formed through the combination of two top international law firms, Hogan Lovells has over 40 offices in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

With a presence in the world's major financial and commercial markets, we are well placed to provide excellent business-oriented advice to our clients locally and internationally.  Our people are the key to our success, which is why we seek to recruit and retain the most talented individuals in all regions of our global practice.

In the UK Hogan Lovells has offices in Birmingham and London. The Birmingham office opened in 2015 and has a number of practice areas including Corporate / Commercial, Disputes, Finance and Real Estate, as well as our Legal Delivery Centre and Business teams. 

Department Description

The Procurement function is responsible for the strategic, holistic management of third-party spend across Hogan Lovells globally, to deliver cost effective purchasing solutions while maintaining compliance with internal policies and external regulations.

Role Overview

The IT Sourcing Specialist supports strategic sourcing, contract management, supplier relationship management and strategic operations' duties and tasks as directed:

• Strategic Sourcing – Employ best practices and procedures, including defined templates for all sourcing activities.

• Contract Lifecycle Management – Manage the process for review and approval of IT commercials documentation to ensure compliance.

• Relationship Management – Develop and enhance relationships with firm stakeholders, business owners and third-party suppliers.

• Supplier Risk Management – Follow all firm processes and procedures to assess and onboard qualified vendors.

• Supplier Performance Management – Monitor supplier SLAs and perform audits to ensure service and financial compliance across defined KPIs.

Key Responsibilities / Accountabilities

Strategic Sourcing

• Lead end-to-end procurement processes, manage the RFx life-cycle and contract negotiations.

• Analyse, synthesise and benchmark responses, collaborate with stakeholders and business owners to conduct scoring and other evaluations to inform finalists.

• Support the presentations, demonstrations and additional supplier evaluation through the selection of final vendors.

• Support the identification of suppliers for new or replacement suppliers and products / services upon request.

• Support IT business owners in the execution of key supplier renewals and purchase.

• Negotiate price, value adds and commercials for optimal outcomes for the firm.

• Supports initiatives to identify and realise cost savings within the IT function.

Contract Lifecycle Management

• Ensure contracts and agreements are reviewed in a timely manner, allowing for renegotiation and possible exit.

• Review contracts to ensure compliance with firm requirements.

• Review and negotiate contracts to ensure optimal commercial outcomes as informed by business owners and other stakeholders.

• Responsible for all required documentation for sourcing activities, including NDA, SLAs, KPIs, Contracts and Statements of Work.

• Collaborate with the General Counsel and other key firm personnel to ensure comprehensive considerations in executing contracts.

• Support the implementation of standard processes to maintain appropriate governance and minimise potential third-party supplier risks.

• Apply technology, as appropriate, to create efficiencies.

Customer Relationship Management

• Form and develop partnerships with stakeholders and business owners to ensure engagement and compliance with procurement protocols.

• Provide procurement guidance and support to stakeholders.

• Support IT business owners in contract review to ensure compliance with firm standards as needed.

Supplier Risk Management

• Support the definition and continuous improvement of supplier risk management policies and procedures.

• Ensure required supplier documentation is collected and stored in compliance with defined procedures.

• Collaborate with firm personnel as required to ensure holistic process definition to manage third-party risks.

• Manage supplier onboarding tasks related to risk management.

Supplier Management

• Support the IT business owners in the relationship management for Key IT suppliers.

• Monitor and report on supplier performance, contractual compliance and adherence to SLAs and KPIs.

• Participate in supplier and client audits as directed.

• Maintain a broad understanding of the commercial IT environment.

Software Audit and Licensing

• Supports software licensing activities to ensure compliance in accordance with the contract.

• Identifies opportunities for savings by either using different licensing models or reducing license count. Understand the impact of any changes that may affect the firm's licensed position and ensure the IT leadership team are aware.

• Lead the negotiations for the firms contracts with Microsoft which include an enterprise agreement and server and cloud enrolment.

• Undertake annual true ups and ensure license compliance.

Supplier Performance Management

• Supports the development of strategies to address under-performance and compliance failures, including application of contract terms.

• Supports and engages experts and stakeholders to ensure active review and benchmarking to inform continuous improvement initiatives.

• Ensures that service level agreements are met and cost effective, service delivery is monitored effectively and that identified actions to maintain or improve levels of service are implemented.

Specific duties or responsibilities may be reviewed from time to time to reflect changes in personnel and management structure, staff location or services.

All members of the firm participate in our Responsible Business program.

Person Specification

Qualifications and Training

• A strong understanding of IT categories including hardware, software, cloud services, and professional services.

• Experienced in Microsoft licensing, preferably with certifications but at a minimum, practical experience and product knowledge.

• 5 years' experience in Strategic Sourcing or Senior Vendor Management Experience specific to Information Technology.

• Experience creating and managing the end-to-end process for RFx.

• Proven record of negotiation skills for IT contracts including hardware, software, services, networks, telecoms and software as a service.

• Familiarity with contract law, data privacy, information security and cybersecurity standards.

• Proven vendor management experience.

• Strong analytical skills with the ability to synthesise and tabulate large quantities of data into a clear and concise format.

• Technical expertise specific to Contract Lifecycle Management, including redlining and commercial terms negotiation.

• Strong networking skills leveraged to build effective relationships quickly and efficiently across diverse stakeholder groups.

• Effective communication skills, both verbal and written with the ability to explain complex contractual terms in language business owners and stakeholders understand.

• Proven track record of leading global scope programs and projects.

General Attributes

• Comfortable working in a global organisation, flexing to accommodate different time zones and working patterns where necessary.

• Ability to follow instructions furnished in written or verbal form.

• Self-motivated, proactive, independent, and responsive – requires reasonable supervisory attention once objectives are confirmed.

• Ability to prioritise tasks to meet deadlines and manage multiple projects effectively.

• Strong service-oriented mindset with demonstrated ability to partner effectively with a variety of stakeholders to effectively impact desired outcomes.

• Strong ability to adapt to firm culture and values by focusing on services and service delivery to our partners, people and clients.

• Proven ability to both manage and enable change.

• Comfortable working independently and as part of a team.

Agile Working Statement

Our goal is to embed flexibility across our business by giving everyone the opportunity to work in an agile way, whether as a regular pattern or on an ad hoc basis, and we will be happy to discuss this further.

Equal Opportunities Employment Statement

It is the policy of Hogan Lovells to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion.  Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of racial or ethnic origin, religion, sex , gender and gender identity, age, sexual orientation, marital and civil partnership status, pregnancy or disability.