SOFT's client is looking for a Procurement Delivery Lead for a long term contract assignment. This role will support high-priority construction sourcing activity for the NE Electric business. This role is ideal for someone who brings strong electric utility or infrastructure construction procurement experience, practical execution discipline, and the ability to introduce meaningful improvements in a fast-paced, stakeholder-heavy environment.
The Procurement Delivery Lead – Electric Capital Construction to support NE Electric capital delivery construction procurement activity. This is a contractor role operating at a manager level as a senior individual contributor. The role will be the right hand to the director and will provide hands-on procurement, sourcing, commercial, bid execution, and process improvement support for complex electric construction work.
The successful candidate will partner closely with Procurement leadership, category managers, project management, engineering, construction, legal, finance, safety, operations, and business stakeholders to plan and execute strategic sourcing events. The role will focus on improving decisions around delivery models, bid readiness, sourcing quality, supplier engagement, commercial discipline, governance, award documentation, and overall procurement execution.
In addition to supporting active sourcing events, this role will be expected to provide thought leadership and strategic improvement capability. The individual will help Procurement scale its operating model to support a significantly growing capital delivery workplan by identifying process improvement opportunities, introducing new ways of working, implementing repeatable tools and templates, and leading execution of practical improvements that increase capacity, consistency, transparency, and stakeholder confidence.
The successful candidate must be comfortable operating in an environment where the work is complex, fast-moving, and not always fully defined. They will be expected to bring structure, pace, clarity, and constructive challenge to sourcing activity while supporting procurement managers and category leads in translating business requirements into executable procurement plans and leadership-ready deliverables.
Key Accountabilities
1. Capital Construction Bid Execution
2. Construction Procurement and Commercial Strategy
3. Thought Leadership and Strategic Improvement
4. Process Improvement, Standardization, and Scalability
5. Procurement Manager and Category Team Support
6. Stakeholder Partnership and Business Alignment
7. Supplier and Market Engagement
8. Governance, Controls, and Documentation
Required Skills and Experience
- 7+ years of experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, commercial management, contract negotiation, supply chain, vendor management, construction contracting, or capital project procurement.
- Significant experience supporting construction sourcing, infrastructure procurement, utility procurement, energy projects, EPC/EPCM environments, capital projects, or complex field services.
- Demonstrated experience developing and managing RFPs, RFQs, bid packages, pricing schedules, evaluation models, negotiation plans, sourcing strategies, and award recommendation materials.
- Strong understanding of construction procurement and contracting considerations, including scope definition, pricing structure, schedule commitments, safety requirements, labor availability, change orders, claims risk, insurance, bonding, warranties, and payment milestones.
- Proven ability to assess supplier capacity, contractor qualifications, market constraints, labor availability, commercial risk, and delivery feasibility.
- Strong commercial acumen and negotiation skills, with the ability to balance cost, risk, quality, schedule, safety, affordability, and stakeholder needs.
- Demonstrated ability to lead process improvement, introduce new ways of working, standardize tools and templates, and implement practical operating model improvements.
- Ability to provide thought leadership, constructive challenge, and strategic recommendations while remaining highly execution-focused.
- Experience working with cross-functional stakeholders, including project management, engineering, construction, legal, finance, risk, safety, operations, and senior leadership.
- Ability to operate independently in a senior individual contributor capacity while influencing managers, stakeholders, suppliers, and cross-functional teams.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare concise, executive-ready updates, sourcing summaries, risk assessments, improvement plans, and decision materials.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to bring structure, prioritization, and follow-through to multiple complex sourcing events and improvement initiatives.
- Experience with procurement tools and systems such as SAP, Ariba, e-sourcing platforms, Excel, PowerPoint, dashboards, and sourcing trackers.
Preferred Experience
- Direct experience with electric utility construction categories such as transmission, distribution, substations, civil construction, underground construction, overhead line work, emergency response, or related capital delivery services.
- Experience working in a regulated utility, energy, public infrastructure, engineering, construction, or capital project delivery environment.
- Familiarity with construction delivery models such as EPC, EPCM, design-bid-build, design-build, alliance contracting, master service agreements, contractor panels, and framework agreements.
- Experience supporting large-scale capital programs with multiple stakeholders, compressed timelines, high spend, complex governance, and significant business visibility.
- Experience improving procurement execution through templates, tools, process discipline, reporting, governance routines, stakeholder communication, and operating model improvements.
- Familiarity with supplier performance management, construction KPIs, contractor scorecards, post-award handoff requirements, and lessons-learned processes.
- Experience helping organizations scale capability during periods of significant workplan growth or capital investment expansion.