Strategic Procurement Manager

About Persona

Persona is the configurable identity platform built for businesses in a digital-first world. Verifying individuals and organizations is harder — but more important — than ever, with AI enabling fraudsters to launch sophisticated accounts at scale and regulations evolving rapidly.

We’ve built Persona to support practically every use case and industry — that’s why we’re able to serve a wide range of leading companies. For example, Instacart relies on Persona to verify shoppers who onboard onto their platform before delivering groceries to your doorstep. Meanwhile, OpenAI relies on Persona to keep bad actors out, protecting one of the world’s most powerful AI platforms from large-scale abuse in a time when AI is reshaping the way we work and live.

We’re growing rapidly and looking for exceptional people to join us!

We’re looking for a Strategic Procurement Manager to lead strategic sourcing, vendor management, and contract negotiations across Persona. This role will sit at the intersection of Product, Engineering, and Finance, ensuring that our teams have access to the right technology and tools while staying within budget and maximizing value from our vendor relationships. You will report to the Director of Strategic Finance.

You will own the full procurement lifecycle for critical technology, infrastructure, and data partnerships, from identifying new vendors and negotiating contracts to managing renewals and ensuring spend is aligned to company strategy. A love of all things data and taking full ownership of the nitty gritty details is an absolute must for this role, as you will be the primary owner of key technology inputs for our product.

Strategic Procurement & Vendor Management

• Build and maintain internal vendor tracking systems across all product and platform offerings

• Lead end-to-end procurement processes for a wide range of contracts — from niche data vendors to large-scale infrastructure projects

• Negotiate commercial and legal terms to secure favorable pricing, SLAs, and risk protections

• Partner with legal to drive contract review and manage redlines with vendors.

• Collaborate with Product and Engineering leads to understand technical requirements and long-term roadmap needs.

Budgeting & Financial Planning

• Work closely with the Finance team to build annual budgets for third-party spend and track costs against forecasts.

• Provide visibility to budget owners on spend trends, renewal timelines, and savings opportunities.

Renewals & Contract Lifecycle Management

• Own the renewal calendar, ensuring proactive negotiations and alignment with technical stakeholders well ahead of contract deadlines.

• Continuously evaluate vendor performance, pricing competitiveness, and opportunities to consolidate or optimize spend.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as a primary point of contact for vendors and internal stakeholders

• Lead vendor calls and business reviews to ensure alignment on deliverables, service levels, and innovation opportunities.

• 3+ years in procurement, strategic sourcing, vendor management, or a similar function (preferably in technology, SaaS, or data-heavy environments).

• Strong interest in diving deep into contract / vendor structures, understanding how vendor choices impact financials, and taking ownership over the data that leads to procurement decisions

• Comfortable partnering with technical stakeholders (engineering, product) and understanding complex requirements.

• Analytical mindset with experience in budget tracking and cost optimization.

• Excellent project management skills; able to juggle multiple high-impact negotiations and renewals at once.

• Strong communication and relationship-building skills — both with vendors and internal partners.

• Negotiation and contract management experience, including working closely with legal and finance teams.

Nice to Have

• Experience with SaaS and data licensing agreements.

• Familiarity with privacy, data protection, and compliance considerations (e.g., GDPR, SOC 2, DPA).
  Background in scaling procurement processes at a fast-growing tech company.

Full-time Employee Benefits and Perks

For full-time employees (excluding internship and contractor opportunities), Persona offers a wide range of benefits, including medical, dental, and vision, 3% 401(k) contribution, unlimited PTO, quarterly mental health days, family planning benefits, professional development stipend, wellness benefits, among others. While we believe competitive compensation and benefits are a critical aspect of you deciding to join us, we do hope you consider why our core values and culture are right for you. If you’d like to better understand what it’s like working at Persona, feel free to check out our reviews on Glassdoor.