Assistant Director – Third Party Risk Management and US Contracts

About Harris County and Universal Services:

Harris County Universal Services (Universal Services) is transforming the way the County does business and seeking an Assistant Director Third Party Risk Management and US Contracts to join our team.

Universal Services is the enterprise IT solutions center for the departments and offices of Harris County providing Information Technology Public Safety and Justice Technologies 311 Constituent Engagement Services Fleet Services and Records and Information Governance Services.

Harris County is the third largest and most diverse county in the nation with a population of more than 4.7 million. Harris County Commissioners Court the Countys governing body directs a budget of more than $4 billion providing essential services including flood control infrastructure healthcare housing and justice administration.

This is a great time to join Universal Services as we enhance critical services to Harris County residents and internal customers.

Position Overview:

The Assistant Director third party risk management and US Contract in Universal Services and is the face of all things purchasing on to the organization and its leadership team. The main responsibility of the Procurement Partner is to ensure a strong linkage between procurement strategies and their support of goals. This is accomplished through timely and accurate process between Universal Services and the purchasing department ensuring all strategies and metrics for the procurement function aid in achieving results. This role serves as the front line of procurement to the organization for any procurement needs to support and bring to fruition organizational strategies.

The Assistant Director third party risk management and US Contract will have a strong understanding of longterm strategies priorities and objectives and is responsible to represent them to the procurement category leadership team (and more broadly as required) to shape and support strategic planning. This role will also contribute to bringing procurement ideas/solutions to facilitate achieving the desired results in the most effective way. This role will work laterally across the Universal Services organization to ensure consistency in approach and the sharing of best practices to drive incremental value.

Additionally this role reports to the Senior Director of Special Projects for the procurement function who has oversight for all partnering across the county on behalf of Universal Services and having strong accountability to division leadership ensuring a clear link between procurement priorities and the needs of the organization. This reporting structure enhances real time collaboration strategy shaping and helps facilitate thought leadership to drive outcomes. This role offers extensive collaboration opportunities across the organization. By working closely within procurement and across supply chain finance operations and leadership this role links organizational needs with procurement strategies.

Job Responsibilities:

Stakeholder Management:

• Identify key stakeholders nurture and build positive relationships with a focus on building trust and mutual respect.

• Work to develop a deep understanding of the needs of leadership and other stakeholders to build and execute on strategies that address their needs.

• Ensure procurement value contribution to the business using key performance indicators to track and report progress.

• Understand category strategies and sourcing plans and represent these to the team.

• Provide feedback to the executive leadership team regarding supply market evolution and industry outlooks forward pricing and hedging when applicable.

• Build a strong thirdparty risk assessment program for the IS Contracting

• Support the need for US purchasing process optimization for the department in partnership with the Purchasing Department.

Financial Liaison:

• Provide commercial and financial insight to budget and other key financial information to finance and other leaders to make sure they are fully aware of material price changes and future risks and opportunities.

• Serve as the main communications conduit between the Universal Services and procurement category strategy and buying teams to keep both parties fully informed and avoid any surprises.

• Support stakeholders drive insights from procurement and other data they receive from disparate sources to create value and inform procurement decisions.

Strategic Value Driver:

• Deeply understand key information about Universal Services and the vendor communities.

• Ensure earlystage involvement in strategy development process and anticipate needs of other functions involved in the strategy to help identify sourcing needs. Ensure these are effectively represented and incorporated into procurement category strategies.

• Stay current on external trends to drive value within the business unit and across procurement.

Leadership:

• Represent Procurement on the executive leadership team.

• Serve as a strong leader to direct report team guiding mentoring and developing employees to support requirements and further procurement functional talent strategies including succession planning outcomes.

• Promote strong utilization of procurement tools and new digital practices/tools/ways of thinking to maximize efficiency of the procurement function.

• Continuously contribute to the improvement of the procurement function by monitoring performance steadily raising expectations and adjusting the organization and processes to achieve results.

Harris County is an Equal Opportunity Employer
you need special services or accommodations please call (713)or email.
This position is subject to a criminal history check. Only relevant convictions will be considered and even when considered may not automatically disqualify the candidate.

Education:

• Bachelors degree in related field with commiserate experience.

Experience:

• 7 years of experience in a senior procurement role or senior business management role.

• 3 years of experience leading a team of direct reports.

Knowledge Skills & Abilities:

• Has demonstrated experience in developing or leading teams that have forged relationships in challenging environments to affect change and produce positive business outcomes.

• Has high change agility and a robust track record of implementing change in various environments.

• Has knowledge of sourcing and procurement challenges (procuretopay category management etc.) and best practices (benchmarking shouldcost models TCO etc.) or relevant experience in a related field.

• Is proficient at solving critical business questions using data and logic that support datadriven decision making.

• Stays informed about industry and category trends relevant to procurement and the assigned organizations.

• Demonstrates the ability to draw connections between seemingly disparate pieces of information to extract value across the broader supply chain.

Applicants for this position will be subject to a criminal background check that includes being fingerprinted. This applies to any position with network access to Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) or access to an area where CJIS is received maintained or stored either manually or electronically (i.e. custodian maintenance).

Automatic Disqualification:

• Convictions probation or deferred adjudication for any Felony and any Class A Misdemeanor
• Convictions probation or deferred adjudication for a Class B Misdemeanor if within the previous 10 years
• Open arrest for any criminal offense (Felony or Misdemeanor)
• Family Violence conviction

Education:

• Masters degree in business supply chain management data science statistics social sciences business analytics or in other fields with equivalent experience.

Experience:

• 3 years preferred experience in procurement roles involving strategic sourcing procuretopay supplier performance management or in supply chain management roles.

• 3 years preferred experience in the relevant industry.