Central 1 cooperatively empowers credit unions and other financial institutions to deliver banking choice to Canadians. Central 1 provides critical services at scale to enable a thriving credit union system. We do this by collaborating with our clients, developing strategies, products and services to support the financial well-being of their more than 5 million diverse customers in communities across Canada. For more information, visit www.central1.com.
What we offer:
- Work-life flexibility
- Hybrid work environment
- Variable annual incentive plan
- Generous annual vacation allotment
- Top-notch flexible benefits plan including family building and gender affirmation
- Retirement Plan, matched contributions at 6%
- Access to a learning platform and educational assistance support
- Access to a virtual wellness platform
- Career development opportunities
- Wellness Flex Fund to support personal interest and activities
- Day off to volunteer in your community and other paid time off options
- Corporate discounts
*subject to employment agreement
Job Summary:
Join Central 1 as a Senior Sourcing Manager and play a key role in shaping how we manage our most strategic supplier relationships and investments. You’ll lead high-impact, enterprise-wide sourcing initiatives and complex commercial negotiations, while partnering with senior leaders to drive strong business outcomes. You’ll help strengthen supplier performance, governance, and risk management, provide strategic guidance on key sourcing decisions, and mentor procurement professionals. This is an opportunity to influence procurement strategy and deliver meaningful value across the organization.
What you'll be doing:
Strategic Leadership & Enterprise Influence
- Develop and lead enterprise sourcing strategies for critical supplier categories supporting Central 1's strategic objectives and technology roadmap.
- Influence business investment decisions through market intelligence, supplier insights, benchmark data, and commercial recommendations.
- Act as the procurement lead for high-profile initiatives, strategic projects, and major third-party engagements.
- Provide subject matter expertise and strategic guidance to senior leaders regarding supplier markets, sourcing approaches, and commercial risk.
- Identify opportunities to improve enterprise-wide supplier leverage, reduce spend fragmentation, and maximize commercial outcomes.
- Support annual procurement planning and development of the enterprise sourcing pipeline.
Tier 1 & Tier 2 Supplier Ownership
- Serve as Procurement Relationship Executive for assigned strategic suppliers.
- Lead executive governance discussions and business reviews with strategic supplier leadership teams.
- Drive supplier performance, innovation initiatives, continuous improvement programs, and value realization activities.
- Coordinate executive escalation and remediation activities for critical supplier issues.
- Evaluate and challenge supplier strategies, pricing models, commercial structures, and operational performance.
Commercial Negotiations & Contracting
- Lead negotiations for complex technology, professional services, software, cloud, payment, and operational services agreements.
- Drive favourable, commercial terms, pricing structures, service commitments, and contractual protections.
- Collaborate with Legal and Risk teams to address contractual, regulatory, privacy, cybersecurity, and operational risk requirements.
- Manage renewals and renegotiations to maximize enterprise value while minimizing risk.
Supplier Risk & Governance
- Support third-party risk management activities for critical suppliers.
- Ensure sourcing activities comply with procurement policies, regulatory expectations, and internal governance frameworks.
- Assess financial, operational, cybersecurity, concentration, and resiliency risks during sourcing and contract renewal activities.
- Support ongoing supplier governance and remediation activities for high-risk suppliers.
Stakeholder Partnership
- Develop strong relationships with senior business leaders and executives.
- Act as a trusted advisor on procurement strategy, sourcing approaches, market intelligence, and supplier capabilities.
- Influence business decisions through data-driven analysis and market insights.
- Facilitate alignment among multiple stakeholder groups with competing priorities.
Leadership & Team Development
- Mentor, coach, and provide functional leadership to Sourcing Managers and other procurement team members.
- Lead complex negotiations and sourcing activities that may involve multiple sourcing resources and stakeholders.
- Share best practices and establish sourcing standards across the Procurement function.
- Support development of procurement capabilities, tools, templates, governance processes, and training programs.
- Act as deputy to the Director of Procurement when required.
Continuous Improvement
- Contribute to procurement transformation initiatives and process improvements.
- Work with the team to develop sourcing policies, governance standards, templates, and best practices.
- Mentor junior sourcing professionals and support knowledge sharing across the Procurement team.
- Track and report sourcing outcomes, savings, risk reduction, and supplier performance metrics.
What you'll have:
- 10+ years of progressive experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, vendor management, or commercial management.
- Experience leading large, enterprise-level sourcing initiatives, ideally managing annual spend of $25M+.
- Strong negotiation and commercial management skills, including negotiating complex contracts with strategic suppliers and senior stakeholders.
- Proven ability to influence and advise senior executives on supplier strategy, risk, commercial decisions, and business outcomes.
- Experience managing strategic suppliers across areas such as technology, SaaS, cloud, payments, outsourcing, cybersecurity, and professional services.
- Strong understanding of third-party risk, supplier governance, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience.
- Strong financial and analytical skills, including developing business cases, financial models, and commercial recommendations.
- Ability to build strong relationships and influence across the organization, while navigating complex or ambiguous situations.
- Experience coaching, mentoring, or leading procurement professionals.
- Ability to lead strategic initiatives and organizational change while working independently on high-profile, business-critical priorities.
- Experience in financial services, banking, payments, fintech, or another regulated industry is strongly preferred.
Salary range: $110,000-$134,000 plus a variable pay incentive of 14%-21%
The salary represents the job rate determined for the successful candidate who is fully competent in the role. The actual salary will vary depending on market conditions and relevant job-related factors such as knowledge, skills, qualifications, experience, and education/training.
Central 1 does not use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to screen, assess, or select applicants during our recruitment process. This job posting is for an existing, specific vacancy within our organization. All applications will be considered exclusively for the position described in this posting.
Central 1 is an equal opportunity employer and committed to building an inclusive workforce by creating an environment where everyone feels like they belong and has the opportunity to be successful. We welcome all applicants to join our diverse workforce and we will provide an accessible candidate experience including, but not limited to accommodations to interview sites and alternate formats upon request to our Recruitment team.
