Category Manager

Chainalysis is building a modern, scalable procurement function to support the company’s growth. The Procurement team partners with Finance, IT, Security, Legal, Privacy, and business teams to make purchasing decisions that are cost-effective, compliant, and aligned with business needs. We are establishing category strategies, improving spend visibility, and strengthening supplier and contract governance.

In this role, you’ll:

- Build and maintain a complete view of SaaS and software applications, owners, contracts, renewal dates, spend, license counts, and utilization.

- Identify software overlap, redundancy, and shadow IT; develop consolidation plans that reduce vendor count and cost while supporting business continuity.

- Manage the renewal calendar and engage stakeholders 120–180 days ahead of renewals; right-size licenses and negotiate co-terms, multi-year pricing, price protections, and flexible true-down rights.

- Partner with IT, Security, and business owners to assess platform-versus-point-solution choices and develop plans to retire or replace tools.

- Establish intake and approval workflows that review new software purchases for duplication, security, privacy, and cost before commitment.

- Develop and execute category strategies across assigned indirect spend, which may include cloud and infrastructure, professional services, marketing, data providers, facilities, travel, telecom, and HR-related services.

- Lead RFI, RFP, and RFQ processes from requirements gathering through vendor selection, negotiation, and award.

- Negotiate commercial terms and partner with Legal on contract provisions, including SLAs, liability, data protection, termination, and renewals.

- Manage supplier performance and risk through business reviews, scorecards, due diligence, and ongoing coordination with Legal, Privacy, and Security.

- Apply procurement policy and approval requirements, including ensuring an approved PO is in place before signature; maintain accurate supplier and contract records for audit readiness.

- Report spend, savings, sourcing pipeline, and supplier risk to Procurement leadership and Finance, using an agreed methodology for hard savings, cost avoidance, and avoided true-ups.

We’re looking for candidates who have:

- 5+ years of experience in procurement, sourcing, or category management, including meaningful ownership of SaaS or software spend.

- A demonstrated track record of measurable savings through vendor consolidation, license optimization, and negotiation.

- Experience negotiating SaaS and software agreements, including subscription terms, usage metrics, renewals, true-ups, and price protections.

- Working knowledge of commercial contract terms and the ability to partner effectively with Legal.

- Strong analytical skills, including experience with spend analysis, utilization analysis, and business cases in Excel or similar tools.

- The ability to influence engineers, executives, and budget owners and to build alignment across functions without relying on formal authority.

- Clear written and verbal communication skills.

Nice to have experience:

- Working at a high-growth technology company or a company preparing for, or recently through, an IPO.

- Using SaaS management, spend-visibility, procurement, or ERP platforms.

- Managing cloud, data, or infrastructure categories.

- Supporting security, privacy, or third-party risk reviews.

- A CPSM, CIPS, or equivalent professional certification.