Senior Manager, Professional Services (US)
USA - Remote
Full-time
Permanent employee
About Us
In a fast-paced global environment procurement can provide a real strategic challenge. At Keelvar we work hard on optimization and game theory, applying it to strategic sourcing. Keelvar was founded in Europe's largest AI research lab by a team of computer scientists and engineers specialising in AI. Powered by unique artificial intelligence, designed by our category experts, our mission is to help procurement teams globally to scale sourcing excellence. Keelvar is an award-winning, category leading, global sourcing optimization and autonomous sourcing vendor, optimising over $200bn+ in spend annually.
Role Overview
As Senior Manager, Professional Services, you will lead our US consulting and support team who own the quality, pace and commercial performance of everything we deliver for North American customers. Our consultants run complex sourcing events in Keelvar, build and tune automation for Autonomous Sourcing, and act as the sourcing expertise behind our customers' biggest category decisions. You will set how that work is scoped, staffed and delivered, and you will stay close enough to the work to be credible in a design session with a customer's sourcing leadership.
This is a player-coach role. You will lead and develop a team of five consultants, and you will personally lead a share of our most strategic engagements. You will partner closely with Customer Success, Sales and Engineering, and you will have real influence over how our services offering grows as the business scales in the US.
The role is fully remote but candidate must be located in the following states.
Preferred locations: Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania
Additional locations considered: Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, California or Colorado.
This is a player-coach role. You will lead and develop a team of five consultants, and you will personally lead a share of our most strategic engagements. You will partner closely with Customer Success, Sales and Engineering, and you will have real influence over how our services offering grows as the business scales in the US.
The role is fully remote but candidate must be located in the following states.
Preferred locations: Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania
Additional locations considered: Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, California or Colorado.
What the work looks like
● Lead, coach and grow the US Professional Services team, owning hiring, onboarding,
development plans and performance for your consultants.
● Own delivery quality across US engagements, from sourcing event design and
optimization scenario strategy through to award recommendations that customers act on.
● Personally lead a selection of strategic and complex engagements, particularly new logos,
large multi-round events and first deployments of Autonomous Sourcing.
● Scope and price services engagements, write statements of work, and help manage
utilization, margin and delivery forecasts for the US team.
● Build repeatable delivery playbooks, templates and accelerators so that what we learn on
one engagement raises the quality of every engagement after it.
● Act as the senior escalation point for US customers, diagnosing issues early and
resolving them before they reach the customer's leadership team.
● Partner with Sales as the services expert in pre-sales conversations, shaping the delivery
approach and services component of new opportunities.
● Work with Customer Success, support and Engineering to close the loop between what
customers need in delivery and what we build in the product.
● Bring the voice of delivery into product planning, with clear evidence from engagements
about where the product should go next.Own US customer support and helpdesk: make
sure tickets are triaged, worked and resolved within SLA, set clear support objectives for
the team, and contribute hands-on to the queue when it matters.
● Lead internal initiatives to improve how the PS function runs, including better dashboards
and reporting on delivery and support performance, and more automation of the repetitive
work in our consulting and support processes.
● Design and roll out AI-powered automation and tooling that helps our consultants and
support team work faster and to a higher standard, from event preparation and bid
analysis to ticket triage and knowledge retrieval.
● Track and report support performance (SLA attainment, ticket volumes, resolution times,
customer satisfaction), and use what the data shows to fix recurring issues at the root,
whether in our process, our documentation or the product.
development plans and performance for your consultants.
● Own delivery quality across US engagements, from sourcing event design and
optimization scenario strategy through to award recommendations that customers act on.
● Personally lead a selection of strategic and complex engagements, particularly new logos,
large multi-round events and first deployments of Autonomous Sourcing.
● Scope and price services engagements, write statements of work, and help manage
utilization, margin and delivery forecasts for the US team.
● Build repeatable delivery playbooks, templates and accelerators so that what we learn on
one engagement raises the quality of every engagement after it.
● Act as the senior escalation point for US customers, diagnosing issues early and
resolving them before they reach the customer's leadership team.
● Partner with Sales as the services expert in pre-sales conversations, shaping the delivery
approach and services component of new opportunities.
● Work with Customer Success, support and Engineering to close the loop between what
customers need in delivery and what we build in the product.
● Bring the voice of delivery into product planning, with clear evidence from engagements
about where the product should go next.Own US customer support and helpdesk: make
sure tickets are triaged, worked and resolved within SLA, set clear support objectives for
the team, and contribute hands-on to the queue when it matters.
● Lead internal initiatives to improve how the PS function runs, including better dashboards
and reporting on delivery and support performance, and more automation of the repetitive
work in our consulting and support processes.
● Design and roll out AI-powered automation and tooling that helps our consultants and
support team work faster and to a higher standard, from event preparation and bid
analysis to ticket triage and knowledge retrieval.
● Track and report support performance (SLA attainment, ticket volumes, resolution times,
customer satisfaction), and use what the data shows to fix recurring issues at the root,
whether in our process, our documentation or the product.
What we are looking for
● 5 to 8 years' experience across strategic sourcing, procurement consulting, supply chain
or enterprise software delivery, with time on both the consulting and the practitioner side.
● Experience leading others, whether as a line manager or as the senior person
accountable for a team's delivery quality. This may be your first formal management role,
and we'll support you into it.
● Exposure to the commercial side of delivery: scoping engagements, writing statements of
work, or working to utilization and margin targets.
● Deep hands-on familiarity with sourcing events: multi-round bidding, lotting, bid sheet
design, constraints and scenario analysis. You can design an event, not only manage a
plan to run one.
● Experience with sourcing or source-to-contract software, either as a vendor, an
implementation partner or an advanced in-house user.
● A sound foundation in data analysis and comfort with the commercial logic behind an
award recommendation. Strong Excel skills including formulae and pivot tables.
● Experience applying AI tools to real delivery work, and the judgment to know where
automation helps and where it does not.
● You are a strong communicator who is credible with a Director or VP of Procurement, and
you thrive in an environment of mutual respect, openness and collaboration.
● You are comfortable in a small, growing team where leaders still do the work. You enjoy
getting things done at a quick pace.
● Experience running or contributing to a customer support or helpdesk function, including
working to SLAs, managing a ticket queue and using a tool such as Zendesk, Jira Service
Management or similar.
● Experience applying AI tools to real delivery or support work, and the judgment to know
where automation helps and where it does not. Experience building dashboards or
automating workflows (for example with BI tools, scripting, low-code platforms or AI
agents) is a strong plus.
● You are a creative problem solver and enjoy a technical challenge.
● Willingness to travel to customer sites in North America on occasion.
● A bachelor's degree in business, supply chain, engineering, data science or a related field
is preferred.
or enterprise software delivery, with time on both the consulting and the practitioner side.
● Experience leading others, whether as a line manager or as the senior person
accountable for a team's delivery quality. This may be your first formal management role,
and we'll support you into it.
● Exposure to the commercial side of delivery: scoping engagements, writing statements of
work, or working to utilization and margin targets.
● Deep hands-on familiarity with sourcing events: multi-round bidding, lotting, bid sheet
design, constraints and scenario analysis. You can design an event, not only manage a
plan to run one.
● Experience with sourcing or source-to-contract software, either as a vendor, an
implementation partner or an advanced in-house user.
● A sound foundation in data analysis and comfort with the commercial logic behind an
award recommendation. Strong Excel skills including formulae and pivot tables.
● Experience applying AI tools to real delivery work, and the judgment to know where
automation helps and where it does not.
● You are a strong communicator who is credible with a Director or VP of Procurement, and
you thrive in an environment of mutual respect, openness and collaboration.
● You are comfortable in a small, growing team where leaders still do the work. You enjoy
getting things done at a quick pace.
● Experience running or contributing to a customer support or helpdesk function, including
working to SLAs, managing a ticket queue and using a tool such as Zendesk, Jira Service
Management or similar.
● Experience applying AI tools to real delivery or support work, and the judgment to know
where automation helps and where it does not. Experience building dashboards or
automating workflows (for example with BI tools, scripting, low-code platforms or AI
agents) is a strong plus.
● You are a creative problem solver and enjoy a technical challenge.
● Willingness to travel to customer sites in North America on occasion.
● A bachelor's degree in business, supply chain, engineering, data science or a related field
is preferred.
What you can expect from us
At Keelvar, we are proud to offer flexible working and great benefits, including:
● Medical Insurance
● 401k
● Paid family related leave
● Up to 27 days of annual leave per annum.
● Additional day off for your birthday!
● Flexible working hours with a positive approach to work - life balance.
● An inclusive, collaborative, innovative culture.
● Generous leave offerings including 2 CSR days.
● A clear development path: Regular 1-1s with your manager and a defined career ladder
so you know what your learning and development looks like at Keelvar.
If you really like the sound of the role but don't match every listed criteria exactly, we still want to hear from you. You could be the exact fit for this or any of our other roles.
We are a diverse group and we intend to continue to attract and retain diverse talent in our
organisation. We're committed to an inclusive and diverse Keelvar. We do not discriminate
based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, civil or family status, age, disability, or race.
● Medical Insurance
● 401k
● Paid family related leave
● Up to 27 days of annual leave per annum.
● Additional day off for your birthday!
● Flexible working hours with a positive approach to work - life balance.
● An inclusive, collaborative, innovative culture.
● Generous leave offerings including 2 CSR days.
● A clear development path: Regular 1-1s with your manager and a defined career ladder
so you know what your learning and development looks like at Keelvar.
If you really like the sound of the role but don't match every listed criteria exactly, we still want to hear from you. You could be the exact fit for this or any of our other roles.
We are a diverse group and we intend to continue to attract and retain diverse talent in our
organisation. We're committed to an inclusive and diverse Keelvar. We do not discriminate
based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, civil or family status, age, disability, or race.