Position: Sr. Vice President, Sourcing

Reports to: CEO

Location: Remote

Position Type: Full Time

Who We Are

At E&I Cooperative Services, we are transforming how universities and schools buy the goods and services they need to operate and thrive. By leveraging the power of cooperative purchasing, we help our 6,000+ member educational institutions save time, contain costs, and redirect critical resources to their core mission of education and research.

We don’t just source contracts - we develop and deliver a comprehensive portfolio of fit-for-purpose products that empower educational institutions nationwide. Unlike traditional procurement organizations that source goods and services for internal use, our sourcing function creates, curates, and optimizes a portfolio of competitively awarded contracts that serve as essential tools for our members. This unique business model demands a leader who thinks like a Chief Product Officer, ensuring that our contract portfolio is not only best-in-class but also strategically designed to drive maximum value for our members, maximum adoption by our members, and mission and financial success for E&I.

For over 90 years, we’ve built strong relationships, a trusted brand, and financial stability. Today, we operate like a high-growth startup—launching innovative contract, technology, data, and service solutions to address the evolving challenges of the education sector. If you are a forward-thinking leader who thrives at the intersection of sourcing, product strategy, and go-to-market execution, we invite you to join us on our mission.

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What Makes E&I Unique

• Mission-Driven Impact: At E&I, your work directly supports the success of educational institutions nationwide, from universities to K-12 schools.
• Growth Culture: We are passionate about the power of culture to create conditions for excellence. We believe in the power of linking arms and lifting each other up in pursuit of common objectives. And we invest heavily in the personal and professional development of every single member of our team.
• Best of All Worlds: We’re ninety years old - but act like a startup. We’re a non-profit cooperative - with a high-growth enterprise mindset. We work hard – and play hard. We love success - but reward failure and the learning that comes from bold ideas and big swings. We combine tradition with innovation, passion with purpose, and ambition with heart. 

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What You Will Do

Under the direction of the Chief Executive Officer, the Sr. Vice President, Sourcing, will be responsible for shaping and executing a contract portfolio strategy that meets member needs, aligns with E&I’s strategic and financial goals, and supports successful market adoption. This role is a strategic leadership position that requires deep strategic sourcing expertise, a product management mindset, and a strong understanding of go-to-market dynamics.

The Sr. Vice President, Sourcing will oversee the entire sourcing lifecycle—ensuring that our portfolio of competitively awarded contracts remains robust and aligned with member needs (which includes meeting public procurement process standards and Federal Uniform Guidance requirements). This position will collaborate closely with the Chief Revenue Officer, supplier partners, and the go-to-market team (sales and marketing) to maximize contract adoption, utilization, and revenue growth.

This position is not just about running an effective sourcing function, it’s about designing and executing a product and sourcing strategy that enhances E&I’s value proposition, competitive position, and market relevance.

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How You Will Do It

Strategic Leadership

• Build and Manage a High-Performing Team: Build, develop, and lead a high-performing teams with a strong developmental culture, fostering continuous learning, accountability, and professional growth while creating an environment of trust, collaboration, and excellence.
• Develop and Execute a Market-Oriented Sourcing Strategy: Shift E&I’s mindset from a traditional sourcing function to a strategic product development engine. Ensure that our contracts meet member needs, financial targets, and go-to-market readiness.
• Portfolio Optimization: Continuously assess and refine E&I’s contract portfolio, ensuring we offer a comprehensive set of high value, competitively differentiated, member-centric solutions that drive member value, adoption and revenue.
• Member-Centric Innovation: Leverage market intelligence, member insights, and industry trends to anticipate emerging needs and proactively develop new contract offerings to address them.
• Financial Acumen: Align sourcing decisions with E&I’s financial model, tying value creation for members with revenue generation for E&I.
• Collaboration with Chief Revenue Officer: Ensure that sourcing, sales, and marketing are tightly aligned—creating a seamless link between contract development and market expertise and adoption.

Operational Excellence:

• End-to-End Sourcing Leadership: Oversee the entire sourcing lifecycle from developing and maintaining a long-term strategic roadmap, to identifying opportunities, running competitive solicitations that result in awards to top suppliers, negotiating market leading contracts, and implementing contracts and managing strong supplier performance.
• Supplier Relationship Management: Cultivate strategic, trust-based relationships with suppliers to co-develop solutions that create value for members and drive revenue growth for E&I.
• Contract Performance & Accountability: Implement robust metrics and analytics to measure the efficacy of the sourcing process, contract success, supplier performance, and member adoption (in partnership with GTM).
• Agility & Continuous Improvement: Foster an adaptive, high-performing procurement function that can pivot quickly in response to market shifts and member needs.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Go-to-Market Alignment

• Work in Lockstep with Sales & Marketing: Ensure seamless integration between contract development and sales execution, ensuring that appropriate feedback loops exist between functions, and sourcing strategies are informed by go-to-market strategies and vice versa.
• Support Business Development: Partner with the Chief Revenue Officer to ensure E&I’s contracts are positioned as compelling solutions for institutional decision-makers.
• Education & Thought Leadership: Represent E&I as a thought leader in cooperative procurement, speaking at industry events and engaging with member institutions to evangelize the value of cooperative purchasing and E&I.
• Team Development: Foster a high-performance and deliberately developmental culture that embraces continuous learning, collaboration, and personal and professional growth.  

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What We’re Looking For

Technical Skills

• Strategic Portfolio Management: Expertise in developing and managing a contract portfolio that balances risk, innovation, and financial performance to meet organizational objectives.
• Product Management Mindset: Ability to think beyond procurement and treat contracts as strategic products that must be designed, positioned, and marketed effectively.
• Sourcing Execution: Expertise in running competitive RFP processes that yield best-in-class contracts and supplier performance.
• Financial Acumen: Strong understanding of procurement economics, revenue forecasting, and financial modeling.
• Go-to-Market Integration: Experience working closely with sales and marketing to develop market-based sourcing strategies and drive adoption of contract solutions.
• Supplier Negotiation & Partnership: Proven track record of securing high-value, strategic supplier agreements that drive mutual success.
• Market Intelligence & Competitive Positioning: Ability to assess market trends, member needs, and competitive offerings to inform portfolio strategy.
• Analytics & Performance Management: Proficiency in using data-driven insights to measure sourcing and team effectiveness.
• Procurement Technologies & Systems: Deep expertise in e-procurement platforms, contract management systems, spend analytics tools, and supplier management technologies, with the ability to leverage data and automation to enhance procurement efficiency, visibility, and decision-making.

Behavioral Competencies

• Strategic Thinker: Sees the big picture and connects sourcing strategy to business growth and financial outcomes.
• Cross-Functional Collaborator: Works seamlessly across departments, aligning sourcing with sales, marketing, finance, and member engagement, creating a climate of shared objectives, collaboratively developed solutions, and shared success.
• Member-Centric Mindset: Deep understanding of educational procurement needs and the ability to design solutions that drive adoption and impact.
• Change Leader: Champions innovation and continuously seeks better, faster, and more effective ways to serve members.
• Resilient & Adaptive: Thrives in a fast-moving, evolving environment with an entrepreneurial mindset.
• Influential Communicator: Strong executive presence with the ability to inspire internal teams, supplier partners, and members.
• Action Oriented: Embraces new opportunities and challenges with urgency, energy, and positivity.

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Experience & Education

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, or related field. MBA preferred.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience in procurement, sourcing, or supply chain leadership, preferably within a cooperative, GPO, or procurement services organization.
• Experience leading procurement as a revenue-driving function rather than just a cost-savings function strongly preferred.
• Experience partnering with sales and marketing teams to drive go-to-market success for procurement solutions.
• Track record of high-impact supplier negotiations and strategic supplier partnerships.
• Deep familiarity with higher education procurement dynamics and cooperative purchasing models preferred.

Travel Requirements

• Occasional travel to member institutions, conferences, and internal meetings held throughout the USA (15%)

Time to Act!

• If you’re ready to redefine procurement as a strategic product function and drive meaningful impact in the education sector, we want to meet you! Apply now and help us shape the future of cooperative purchasing and education.