Director, Procurement

Job Description:

Director Procurement

Location: Salt Lake City UT or San Francisco CA Hybrid Reports to: VP VMO & Procurement

Rakuten International oversees 7 businesses with over 4000 employees globally. The brand is recognized for its leadership and innovation in e-commerce digital content advertising entertainment and communications bringing the joy of discovery and access to more than 1 billion members across the world. Our teams deliver on the companys mission to delight merchants and customers through innovation optimism and teamwork.

Job Summary: Rakuten International is seeking a Director Procurement to lead and elevate our procurement and vendor management capabilities. Sitting at the intersection of strategic sourcing commercial execution governance and operational excellence this role drives value across the full supplier lifecycle from sourcing and contracting through renewals data stewardship and supplier engagement. The right candidate brings a builders mindset: someone who owns outcomes operates with accountability and transparency and actively champions the adoption of automation and AI where they create real measurable business value. This is not a policy-enforcement role. It requires sound judgment trusted relationships and a relentless focus on results. This role also requires the ability to challenge assumptions evaluate business rationale and help ensure supplier investments remain aligned with organizational priorities and expected outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

Procurement & Vendor Lifecycle Management

• Lead competitive sourcing supplier evaluations commercial negotiations and contract execution across multiple spend categories.
• Own renewal planning and actively drive contractual obligation management ensuring informed value-driven decisions ahead of key milestones.
• Evaluate purchasing and renewal decisions against business requirements utilization strategic alignment and expected ROI.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to business stakeholders balancing cost risk and quality with a clear bias toward business outcomes.
• Identify and capture opportunities to improve commercial terms reduce unnecessary spend and maximize supplier value.

Data Governance & Operational Integrity

• Improve the quality completeness and accessibility of supplier contract and spend data to support smarter decisions.
• Support supplier governance onboarding documentation lifecycle management and ESG-related reporting requirements.
• Partner with Internal Audit Finance and Legal to maintain procurement controls process documentation and audit-ready records.
• Prepare and continuously improve executive and governance reporting: QBRs Risk Compliance Committee presentations and business reviews.

Modernization & Strategic AI/Automation

• Proactively identify and advance automation and AI opportunities that drive practical scalable improvements across the procurement lifecycle.
• Champion process modernization with a disciplined approach: pilot measure and scale initiatives that demonstrate clear business value.
• Contribute to the organizations long-term procurement technology and capability roadmap.

Global Partnership & Alignment

• Collaborate with Rakuten Group headquarters and regional stakeholders to align on policies standards and global procurement priorities.

Qualifications:

Preferred:

• Experience leading procurement transformation automation or AI-driven process improvement initiatives.
• Background in governance ESG risk management or control frameworks.
• Experience operating within globally governed or matrixed organizations.

Leadership Attributes:

• Ownership & Accountability: Takes full ownership of outcomes not just activities. Stays actively engaged in the details drives follow-through and holds themselves and others to high standards.
• Strategic & AI Mindset: Sees beyond the transaction. Connects procurement decisions to business strategy and actively seeks ways to leverage technology automation and AI to scale impact.
• Intellectual Honesty: Provides balanced evidence-based assessments. Comfortable surfacing problems challenging assumptions and delivering difficult messages with clarity and respect.
• Credibility Through Execution: Earns trust by doing the work not just directing it. Maintains direct awareness of contracts renewals and operational priorities rather than managing solely through delegation.
• Collaborative Influence: Builds trusted relationships across business functions. Leads through partnership not authority while maintaining clear standards and sound judgment.

Minimum Requirements:

• 10 years of experience in procurement strategic sourcing vendor management or related disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience leading commercial negotiations managing complex renewals and driving supplier accountability.
• Track record of evaluating business cases ROI and value realization for purchasing and renewal decisions.
• Experience with procurement platforms (Coupa Ariba or similar).
• Strong background in executive reporting governance and audit-support activities.
• Bachelors Degree advanced degree or relevant certification (CPSM CSCP CPM) a plus.

Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

Always improve Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen
Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
Hypothesize - Practice - Validate Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge set clear goals and engage your team

At the time of posting Rakuten expects the base compensation for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors including the skills qualifications and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for discretionary bonus health vision dental insurance 401k matching PTO Volunteer Time Off (VTO) and other employee benefits as the company implements.