Regional Procurement Manager, North America

Company Description
Founded in 2017, **TripArc** is a $750 million privately held company powers the top Travel Agencies and Tour Operators in North America. Our expansive and growing network empowers seamless access to a comprehensive range of travel options and services globally with over $750 million transactions annually - all at the industry’s best rates.

As an industry leader in technology, purchasing, finance, HR and marketing, we know how to deliver solutions to travel professionals in the most effective way possible. With deep experience in partnering with two leading brands in the luxury travel space - Kensington Tours and Travel Edge -TripArc has real insight into the needs of tour operators and travel agencies today.
**TripArc's **goals are simple. To make our network of over 1400 travel entities more profitable, efficient and help them create truly unique travel for their clients.

**Job Description**:
Reporting to the Vice President of Procurement DMC, the Procurement Manager DMC, North America role is responsible for executing the procurement strategy for the North American continent by negotiating and procuring contracts, services and block space agreements that meet quality requirements and specifications at the most favorable price for the company. They will be instrumental in sourcing supplier partners and thereby in developing the fledgling North America offerings, which have been defined as a key priority growth opportunity, in cooperation with Travel Edge and Kensington Tours’ Product Teams.

While working mostly independent, this key position will closely cooperate with the Vice President, Procurement DMC (located in Los Angeles) and the DMC Procurement Directors (located in Toronto) in the day-to-day operations of the department and cross-functional teams on procurement initiatives.

**Responsibilities**:

- Negotiate North American DMC, luxury transportation and experiential services contracts. Focus on cost savings, cost avoidance, volume overrides and other value-adds consistent with business targets.
- Ensure all suppliers meet key brand standards for the respective distribution channel/client brand and contract requirements such as amenities, payment, and cancellation terms, liability insurance, and co-op marketing agreements.
- Plan, organize, direct, and control the complete procurement cycle from prospecting through the RFP processes, delivering profitable contracts with new and existing vendor partner and ongoing evaluation of rates and services.
- Present TripArc's unique offering and value proposition to potential partners, be persistent in developing partnership arrangements on favorable contract terms.
- Through constant research and evaluation of numerous target partners, regularly evaluate and re-negotiate existing contract agreements and where appropriate engage additional partners to ensure maximum profitability.
- Review new contracts and concisely summarize key terms and red flags prior to signature by VP, Procurement.
- Manage service level agreements, scope of work, and contract terms with service providers.
- Own and lead business results meeting with partners and the brands to ensure a comprehensive review of results and action items.
- Update and maintain internal tracking of supplier information, content, and contract terms.
- Participate in the Service Level Agreement process (quarterly reviews, scorecard management, complaints tracking and resolution) to address vendor issues in a timely fashion, ensure exceptional quality and operational expectations and in leveraging for rate negotiation.
- Facilitate on location product reviews and in doing so support the implementation of new product and product rationalization with marketing, product, vendors, and other cross-functional teams to conduct.
- Prepare and present department reports for leadership and required stakeholders on a regular basis that track; +/- spend with vendors (COGS), KPI indicators, market conditions, rate increase/decreases from vendors, quality issues, insights and opportunities and descriptions with supporting analysis.
- Effectively coordinate with key internal and external stakeholders to ensure accomplishment of shared business objectives promoting a collaborative team environment.

**Qualifications**:

- Minimum of 5+ years Travel industry supplier relationship management experience
- Strong negotiation instincts - able to deliver results while maintaining supplier engagement.
- Superior time management skills - able to work in a fast paced, changing environment and meet time sensitive deadlines. Flexibility to work across multiple time zones required.
- Demonstrated aptitude for learning new technologies.
- Thrives working in a KPI driven environment with an entrepreneurial culture and identifies with the company values: WE are a team, fail and learn fast, take ownership, earn trust, deal in facts and give back.
- Upbeat personality, a hands-on team player and self-starter who