Software Category Lead Expert

You will join Group Procurement & Sourcing division. Our mission is to increase AXA Group competitiveness by optimizing the end-to-end Procurement cycle of external spend (excluding Insurance procurement), while building a high performance and risk-managed supplier based. We have a global and entity Procurement presence with 2 different mandates:

As Group, we:

·Leverage our purchasing power through global deals & key supplier relationship management

·Define & share vendor risk framework & outsourcing policies

·Provide and manage global Procurement tools

·Drive responsible Procurement across AXA

·Engage the Procurement community

As Group Operations (GO) support function, we:

·Optimize the external spend by managing categories and suppliers, and challenging the demand to support AXA GO strategy

·Implement vendor risk framework and policies at AXA GO

·Develop and use local & global Procurement tools

·Develop responsible Procurement at AXA GO

Our division is composed of several departments with respective accountabilities: 

·Procurement Partnerships

·Procurement General Expenses & Real Estate 

·Procurement IT & Security

·Procurement Cesame

·Procurement Transformation 

The department / team

The Software Category Team is made of 7 senior people located in France specialized in software purchase and who also manage the global relationship with certain key software vendors.

About the job

As a Senior Software Buyer, your main objectives are

·Setting the strategy for software contracts you are in charge with internal stakeholders of IT (Technology Office, Product Owners, Chapter all engaged with help of Sourcing Business Partners), Cesame and the Sourcing Business Partners taking into account account (whilst challenging) business needs, market trends and risks. Benefits will to be delivered on a dynamic basis in terms of cost, , innovation, service support with the right level risk( special attention to compliance exposure). The strategy will anticipate and encompass key contract renewals.

·Challenging the needs in a constructive dialog with internal requesters and the Sourcing Business Partner,

·Defining the negotiation strategy and drive it while involving internal stakeholders including AXA Senior Exec

·Linkingwith community of software Buyers: the software team will ensure proper links with the Opco procurement team (including CPO) to develop transparency on common work/vendors/challenges and support local projects in a pull mode.

·Ensuring constant market knowledge and vendors trends, detecting disruption in the market and vendor strategies in order to anticipate and mitigate risks as well as seize opportunities.

Main missions

Your responsibilities include:

·Ensure upstream procurement involvement within the IT stakeholders thru Sourcing Business Partners for GO (Group Operations) or thru the network of AXA Companies buyers in order to deliver value & get saving & minimize AXA risk exposure,

·Proactively manage contract lifecycle: renegotiation, alternative, compliance etc..

·Challenging the needs: the Senior Software Buyer will challenge the needs and have a dialog with business Areas to set the right conditions to optimize benefits. Levers will include specification/test to open to alternative solutions/alternative vendors, reuse of excess licenses available, change in deployment to optimize number of licenses,

·Gather needs throughout AXA Services and AXA Group for massification purposes and getting best deals for the AXA Group,

·Define negotiation strategy with internal stakeholders, involve these stakeholders including AXA Exec when driving the negotiations with Vendors,

·Drive the contractual negotiations with Vendors and internal stakeholders (Legal, Compliance, Data Privacy, Security, Resilience). For AXA Companies, in PULL mode, the SW buyer may be in support / advising mode to another AXA Company SW buyer

·Provide the Procurement network Group wide with key information about the negotiated deals, being able to promote these deals to ensure AXA Companies adherence to them,

·Drive the development of new market opportunities (new suppliers, technologies, substitution products, etc.) for creating/ensuring an heatly competition between vendors for the benefits of AXA,

·As may be assigned, lead a Vendor Management at global level or local AXA services level (for a specific vendor), ensuring relevant alignment to Vendor Management framework and managing the relationship at the various levels, including organizing Exec Review Meeting with AXA Senior Exec,

·Collaborate with the CESAME (Central Software Asset Management) team in order to capture potential risk in pricing model and deployment and build in compliance,

·In case of Audit, support the CESAME team to mitigate and negotiate,

·Participate to the elaboration of the strategy for the SW Category, involving internal stakeholders and Sourcing Business Partners,

·Propose and implement levers for reducing or avoiding costs through vendors competition,

Actively supports the IT community in their everyday transformation

Your Profile

We are looking for someone with the following experience and skills:

Experience

·Master Degree in Procurement or MBA level

·Significant experience (> 10 years) in IT Procurement with at least 3-5 years in SW negotiations

·Exposure to large, multi-country company

Technical skills

·Negotiation skills, including with monopolistic like vendors,

·Ability to design / articulate negotiation strategies,

·Broad understanding of IT evolution especially on software (move from on premise to SaaS, cloud computing impacts licenses modile etc),

·Deep knowledge of Software pricing models (software metrics, SLA for SaaS solution),

·Knowledge of key Software contractual clauses and stakes,

·Awareness Software Asset Management and deployment,

·English - Fluent in speaking and writing - another European language is a plus.

Soft skills / transversal skills

·Good Communication & team work to be able to work on agile mode & across the IT experts community,

·Excellent collaboration,

·Strong colleagues/internal customers & business focus, result orientation,

·Creative mindset to innovate & challenge to get competitive deals delivery,

·Ability to work with leadership team on top of overall IT community,

·Ability to work in constant international environment.

About AXA

As a world-leading insurance company, we act for human progress by protecting what matters. With 153,000 employees in 54 countries working with 105 million customers, we’ve created a truly dynamic and vibrant community. Inclusion and diversity link closely with our values, and together we’re nurturing a culture of
respect, for each other, for our customers and the communities around us. Join AXA and you’ll feel like you belong, are included and can thrive. You’ll be able to shape the way you work and truly grow your potential as you seek out new opportunities, push boundaries and benefit people in critical moments of their lives. This is your chance to build the tomorrow you want. Know you can.

About the Entity

AXA is becoming a sustainable tech-led company and at AXA Group Operations we are one of the major catalysts for this transformation. 

We set the tone by triggering and empowering the evolution of our insurance business model through technology and innovation, driving its concrete implementation globally at speed, with a high quality of advisory and execution.

We are present across 17 countries with committed, highly qualified teams. We leverage technology, data, sourcing, security and investment allocation in a global way, but also achieve economies of scale and synergies when necessary.

At AXA Group Operations, we want to be recognized in three fields of action:

State-of-the-art Data Technology to drive customer experience State-of-the-art Procurement & Sourcing to drive efficiency and better manage risks High-Performing Global Team for stronger partnerships with AXA entities 
What We Offer

We bring together the expertise, cultural diversity and creativity of over 8,000 employees worldwide and we’re committed to equal opportunities in all aspects of employment (gender, LGBT+, disabled persons, or people of different origins) and to promoting Diversity & Inclusion by creating a work environment where all employees are treated with dignity and respect, and where individual differences are valued.

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