Procurement Lead
Remote • San Francisco • FullTime
Posted 28d ago
Remote Work Policy
Fully remote
Employment Type
FullTime
Categories
Applied AI Engineer
About the job
Baseten is seeking a Procurement Lead to establish and build the company's procurement function from the ground up. This is a foundational role with high ownership, focused on defining and implementing scalable purchasing workflows, vendor relationships, and procurement policies. The goal is to make procurement a source of leverage for the business, freeing up business owners' time and capacity while building necessary guardrails for growth. This role requires close partnership with Finance, Legal, Security, Compliance, IT, and business owners across the company, with success measured by team support and unblocked progress.
Responsibilities
- Design and implement the company's first company-wide procurement process, approval routing, and workflows.
- Establish procurement policies, including spend thresholds, approval authority, and competitive bidding requirements.
- Design scalable procurement processes that do not add friction or slow down team purchasing.
- Define procurement's operating model and roadmap for future scaling.
- Build out procurement workflows within the existing P2P platform, including requisition, approval, and purchase order processes.
- Develop reporting and visibility into company-wide spend by category, vendor, and department.
- Own vendor onboarding, due diligence, and risk assessment, partnering with Security, Compliance, and Legal.
- Lead or support strategic sourcing, RFPs, and contract negotiations.
- Build a vendor management framework covering performance, risk, and renewals.
- Partner with cross-functional teams to understand purchasing needs and build fitting workflows.
- Act as a trusted advisor on sourcing strategy, RFPs, and vendor selection.
- Establish procurement controls to support audit readiness, SOX compliance, and security/data privacy requirements.
Requirements
- 8+ years of progressive procurement experience, including building or significantly maturing a procurement function at a high-growth technology company.
- Proven experience designing procurement processes, policies, and systems from the ground up.
- Experience running RFPs and vendor selection processes.
- Experience with strategic sourcing and vendor contract negotiation across multiple spend categories.
- Experience partnering with Security, Compliance, and Legal on vendor risk assessments.
- Comfort operating with significant ambiguity and building structure.
- Strong cross-functional partnership skills.
- Based in San Francisco or New York, with the ability to work in-person 3+ days per week.
Benefits
- Competitive compensation, including meaningful equity
- 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents
- Flexible PTO policy including company wide Winter Break
- Paid parental leave
- Fertility and family-building stipend
- Company-facilitated 401(k)
- Exposure to a variety of ML startups, offering unparalleled learning and networking opportunities.