Manager, Supplier Relationships

This is a role for someone who treats a supplier relationship as a long game, not a transaction to close and forget. 

The Manager, Supplier Relationships sits inside HHMI's Procurement team, supporting every lab and administrative group across the Institute. Whoever needs a supplier vetted, a contract negotiated, or an escalated problem resolved gets the same level of support, whether they sit at Headquarters or in a lab three time zones away. Procurement at HHMI runs at real scale, and the tools available to do it well, including AI-assisted contract review and spend analysis, are moving fast. This role is expected to keep pace with them and bring the rest of the sourcing team along. 

The role runs the full sourcing cycle: researching the market, issuing RFPs, collaborating with the Office of General Counsel (OGC) to negotiate contracts, and managing the relationship after signature, using AI throughout to move faster while relying on sound judgment for the calls that matter. It also involves directing a team, translating procurement strategy into day-to-day work, and giving people the kind of feedback that actually changes how they perform. 

This position works on a hybrid schedule, reporting in-person three days a week to our headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland.  

How to Apply  

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit a resume along with a cover letter describing their interest in this role and how their experience aligns with it.  

We encourage qualified candidates who are eligible to work in the United States to apply. Please note, we are not able to sponsor a visa for this position at this time.  

What you will actually do 

• Own the sourcing cycle. Lead market research, RFP development, and supplier selection from open to close, using AI tools to speed up the process and sound judgment to close it out. 

• Set the AI agenda. Work with procurement leadership to decide how AI fits into sourcing and supplier management, and keep the team’s AI priorities aligned with where the Institute is headed. 

• Negotiate and manage contracts. Negotiate pricing, service levels, and terms; manage renewals; and run regular supplier performance and risk evaluations. 

• Direct the sourcing team. Assign work, hold it to productivity, efficiency, and accuracy targets, and coach a small team through the decisions they face day to day. 

• Coordinate the supplier lifecycle. Manage requests to add, change, or retire suppliers, and set up the administrative and catalog support that keeps ordering running once a contract is signed. 

• Partner across the Institute. Work with the OGC to keep competitive sourcing fair, ethical, and consistent, and with purchasing leadership and stakeholders to turn business needs into procurement requirements. 

• Read the data and act on it. Track spend, benchmark cost, and calculate ROI on sourcing decisions, using AI to speed up the analysis and sound judgment to decide what it means. 

• Keep the process current. Review procurement policies, RFP templates, and due diligence questionnaires on a regular cycle, and update them as the work and the tools change. 

What we are looking for 

• A negotiator's instinct. Knowing what a strong SLA looks like versus a weak one, and how to walk into a renewal with leverage instead of hope. 

• AI alongside judgment, not instead of it. Comfortable using AI tools to speed up contract review, spend analysis, and supplier research, and knowing when to trust the output and when to check it yourself before it goes external. 

• A real coaching habit. Able direct a team's work, give feedback that changes behavior, and hold people to a standard without micromanaging them. 

• Institutional fluency. Eight or more years in procurement, ideally somewhere with the complexity of an academic or research institution, developing the ability to move a sourcing decision through OGC and stakeholders without losing the thread. 

• Hard conversations, done well. Able to hold a supplier accountable in a difficult conversation, or push back on an internal stakeholder's ask, without burning the relationship. 

• Fluent in the numbers. Cost analysis, spend benchmarking, and ROI calculations are part of how this person thinks through a sourcing decision, not an afterthought handed off to someone else.  

Nice to have 

• Experience with contract management software beyond core Microsoft Office tools. 

• Exposure to sourcing or procurement in a research or academic setting. 

What this role is not 

• A role where AI makes the call. AI is used throughout sourcing, contracting, and spend analysis, but the decisions on pricing, risk , and supplier wins remain owned by the Manager, Supplier Relationships.  

• A purely tactical buying role. This is not just processing purchase orders. It is setting sourcing strategy, running RFPs, and sitting at the negotiating table.  

• A role you run solo. Every competitive sourcing process here moves through the OGC and depends on stakeholders across the institute. This role keeps that coordination moving, rather than working in isolation.  

Practical details 

This role is based at HHMI Headquarters and reports to the Director, Procurement. It requires a bachelor's degree , CPM, CPSM, or CPIM certification, and eight or more years of progressively responsible procurement experience, preferably in an academic or research environment.