[Hiring] Head of Procurement @Ashby

Role Description

Hi, I’m Shane and I’m the VP of Finance & Ops at Ashby. We move fast and thoughtfully at Ashby, and we want buying to feel the same way. This role isn’t about becoming the single point of approval for every purchase, but rather it’s about designing the system and judgment that enables our company to move quickly on the small stuff while making sure complicated and higher-risk decisions get the input and oversight they deserve. This is an ownership role. You’ll operate with a significant amount of autonomy in shaping how procurement works at Ashby.

Your initial responsibilities will include:

• Designing, implementing, and administering Ashby’s procurement process from the ground up: fast and frictionless by default, with intelligent escalation pathways that pull in IT, Legal, Security, Finance, and Founder review when the vendor, contract, or spend calls for it.
• Creating a clear, consolidated view of company-wide vendor spend.
• Tuning and administering our existing procurement tool, and evaluating replacement options as it comes up for renewal.
• Leading negotiation and contract structuring on our largest and most complex vendor relationships, either directly or in close partnership with the business leader who owns the relationship.
• Equipping business leaders with the tools and guardrails to own the vendor relationships that make sense for them to own directly.
• Partnering with IT, Legal, Security, and Finance to design the escalation process and ensure it’s working as intended.

Qualifications

• You have significant experience, primarily in procurement or vendor management with a high-growth tech environment.
• You’ve done this before, not just procurement, but procurement at a company that was really moving quickly.
• You think in systems.
• You’re as excited about designing a fast and efficient procurement process as you are about negotiating a critical contract.
• You have a bias towards speed and simplicity.
• You’re allergic to processes that slow everyone down to guard against a small number of edge cases.
• You’re comfortable with ambiguity and building the playbooks on your own.
• You take pride in getting the economics right on a deal but not at the risk of ruining an important vendor relationship.
• You have strong opinions on what good looks like.

Requirements

• While we have a process and some structure in place, there is a lot of greenfield and you’ll need the confidence and perspective to build for the future.
• Whether it’s a review-routing framework or a vendor evaluation methodology, your views are rooted in principled thinking.

Why you shouldn’t apply

• You expect a mature, established process to step into.
• You treat negotiation as a win-at-all-costs game.
• You want to be the approver for every purchase.
• You need close oversight to know what to prioritize.
• Your default is to treat every buying decision with the same level of scrutiny.
• You need a team to feel effective.

Interview Plan

• 30 min with Recruiting
• 45 min Hiring Manager Interview with Shane
• Take-home Assignment
• 45 min Take-Home Debrief with Shane
• Final Round (2.5 hours)

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity.
• 10-year exercise window for stock options.
• Unlimited PTO with four weeks recommended per year.
• Twelve weeks of fully paid family leave in the US.
• Generous equipment, software, and office furniture budget.
• $100/month education budget with more expensive items covered with manager approval.
• Top-notch health insurance for you and your dependents with all premiums covered by us.