Director Analyst-Direct Spend Procurement Technology (Remote-Ireland, Remote-UK)

About the role

Gartner Analysts are industry thought leaders who create must‑have insights, market predictions and best practices for a broad range of world‑leading organizations. A Director serves as a leader within Gartner’s Business and Technology Insights (BTI) group. Utilizing research and analytical skills, a Director plays a significant role in producing pragmatic and provocative insights which Gartner clients consume and apply to propel their business toward key objectives. They are a trusted source of advice for clients, reinforcing Gartner’s value every day by engaging them via in‑person meetings, virtual meetings, sales support visits and Gartner conferences to discuss complex client challenges and offer appropriate recommendations.

Topics that would be expected to be covered:

• Technologies impactful to direct procurement: source‑to‑pay (S2P) suites, procure‑to‑pay suites (P2P), supplier risk management, multitier visibility, supplier management, vendor managed inventory (VMI), supplier collaboration, commodity risk trading platforms, and should‑cost modeling.
• How to best select procurement technology for direct spend.
• How to develop a successful procurement technology vision, strategy, and digital roadmap.
• How to transform procurement digital capabilities.
• Current state capabilities of AI in direct procurement, use cases for AI in direct procurement and AI’s impact on the future of direct procurement.
• Current state capabilities of AI in supplier risk management, use cases for AI in supplier risk and AI’s impact on the future of supplier risk management.
• How to plan for and facilitate the implementation of direct procurement and supplier risk management technology in the context of a broader supply chain technology strategy.
• How to exact ROI from procurement technology investments, including AI.

What you will do:

• Create innovative, thought provoking, and highly leveraged “must‑have insights” content.
• Develop new insights and ideas through thought leadership and offer compelling, actionable approaches to client’s needs and requests that accelerate the client’s ability to act.
• Develop in‑depth analysis to identify the root cause of a client’s barriers or overall needs and reframe thinking to drive strategy forward.
• Demonstrate thought leadership in establishing Insights positions across a team of analysts.
• Bring provocative, independent insights to Gartner leaders that can evolve the course of a research agenda.
• Research, analyze and predict market trends and shifts to provide clients and vendors with actionable insights.
• Provide clients and prospects with actionable advice aligned to their designated content area via virtual or face‑to‑face interactions.
• Create and deliver high value presentation materials on and off stage for Gartner events, industry and professional association conferences, and client briefings.
• Support BTI and Sales: provide sales support serving as voice of the market to help Insights teams create content and to drive engagement with clients to make progress against their critical priorities to grow their business.
• Provide high quality and timely content peer review.
• Build credibility as an industry expert to represent Gartner insights, methodology and strategy.
• Actively participate in innovation, ideation, and research discussions and collaborate effectively with peers in the Insights community.
• Identify research process improvements or develop new processes that help the team and BTI provide excellent service delivery.
• Be a mentor and a coach by supporting more junior team members.
• Be client‑centric while actively seeking to help clients engage regularly and often with Gartner insights and interaction.

What you will need:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience; Graduate degree preferred.
• 10+ years of working with procurement technologies associated with delivering successful procurement transformation for Direct Spend categories is required.
• Experience leading strategic transformation projects that focus on digital enablement for direct materials procurement is required.
• Strong familiarity with solutions that support direct materials sourcing and procurement such as SAP Ariba, GEP, Ivalua, Oracle, Levadata, and SourceDay is required.
• Experience integrating procurement technology with ERPs, MRPs, or other supply chain technologies to support end‑to‑end supply chain strategy (i.e. BOM, risk, planning, supplier collaboration, logistics, etc) is required.
• Strong familiarity with Supplier Risk Management solutions such as Everstream Analytics, Exiger, apexanalytix, Prewave, and Resilinc is preferred.
• A perspective on what emerging technologies and vendors are most relevant for direct procurement and how they will impact the function.
• An ability to articulate the role procurement and sourcing technology plays in delivering business value across the supply chain.
• Demonstrate executive presence; can immediately establish credibility with executives and additional stakeholders.
• Strong organizational skills; ability to work under tight deadlines and produce high quality deliverables.
• Demonstrate excellence in research and writing ability.
• Strong written and verbal proficiency, analytical and presentation skills; ability to engage clients and respond effectively to questions.
• Proficient in analyzing and synthesizing data; can effectively apply patterns and frameworks while drawing and defending conclusions to client challenges.
• Subject matter expertise; comfortable presenting at large and small‑scale speaking engagements.
• Strong business and financial acumen.
• Deep knowledge of the global and competitive landscape within subject area as well as the interplay in that market.
• Ability to work independently, while also being intrinsically motivated to collaborate across teams and support the workflow of others, in a multicultural global team.
• Learning agile and adept with navigating highly matrixed environments.
• Ability to represent Gartner’s research methodology and strategies effectively at all levels.
• Willingness and ability to travel up to 20% (where applicable).