Lead/Principal Procurement Manager

About Parloa

Parloa’s mission is to make every customer conversation feel effortless for both customers and the companies serving them. As agentic AI accelerates, Parloans are shaping the foundation of a new era in customer experience — one where customer support is no longer transactions, but meaningful exchanges. It is not just a vision; Parloa has powered over ONE BILLION interactions between global enterprise brands and their customers, with companies like IKEA and Booking.com already deploying Parloa at scale.

About the role:

Join us in redefining customer experience through Agentic AI—and make sure our commercial foundation scales just as fast as we do. As our Lead/Principal Procurement Manager, you will build and lead a modern, business-enabling procurement function that balances commercial rigor with operational speed. You’ll own our global procurement strategy across direct and indirect spend, establish scalable processes, and drive value through smart negotiations, strategic supplier partnerships, and disciplined spend management—without becoming a bottleneck to innovation.

Areas of ownership:

• Own and execute Parloa’s global procurement strategy across all direct and indirect spend categories.

• Lead high-impact commercial negotiations, structuring and closing strategic supplier agreements across SaaS, technology, infrastructure, and professional services with market-leading vendors.

• Design, implement, and continuously improve end-to-end procurement processes (Source-to-Contract and alignment with Procure-to-Pay), ensuring clarity, speed, and compliance.

• Own and continuously optimize our Procure-to-Pay (P2P) platform, driving adoption, data accuracy, automation, and seamless integration with Finance workflows.

• Build upon and scale existing governance structures, policies, and approval frameworks strengthening commercial rigor while maintaining operational agility.

• Drive strong stakeholder alignment on procurement workflows, standards, and decision rights, ensuring early involvement and smooth collaboration across Finance, Legal, IT, Security, and Business teams.

• Create full spend transparency through reporting, analytics, and forecasting, identifying optimization and consolidation opportunities.

• Develop and manage a high-performing supplier portfolio, including structured performance management and risk oversight.

• Lay the foundation for a scalable procurement organization, including systems, templates, playbooks, and team development.

Who you are:

• 5-10+ years of experience in procurement, strategic sourcing, or commercial roles - ideally within SaaS, technology, or high-growth environments.

• Proven track record managing both direct and indirect spend in complex, international organizations including RFx processes and bid evaluations.

• Strong commercial instinct with extensive negotiation experience across enterprise-level contracts.

• Hands-on experience owning and optimizing P2P systems, including driving adoption and process automation.

• Experience evolving procurement governance models and embedding clear processes in fast-scaling organizations.

• Ability to drive cross-functional stakeholder alignment and integrate procurement early in business decision-making cycles.

• Strong financial and analytical acumen with a data-driven approach to spend optimization.

• Clear enabling mindset: you combine structure and governance with pragmatism and business speed.

• Excellent communication and influencing skills across senior stakeholders.

• High ownership, strong prioritization skills, and the ability to operate independently in fast-scaling environments.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?

• Join a diverse team of 40+ nationalities with flat hierarchies and a collaborative company culture.

• Opportunity to build and scale your career at the intersection of customer-facing roles and engineering in a dynamic startup on its journey to become an international leader in SaaS platforms for Conversational AI.

• Deutschland ticket, Urban Sports Club, Job Rad, Nilo Health, weekly sponsored office lunches.

• Competitive compensation and equity package.

• Flexible working hours, 28 vacation days and workation opportunities.

• Access to a training and development budget for continuous professional growth.

• Regular team events, game nights, and other social activities.

• Work from a home and/or our beautiful office(s) in the heart of Berlin or Munich with adjustable desks, social areas, fresh fruits, cereals, and drinks.

Your recruiting process at Parloa:

Recruiter video call → Meet your manager → Expert interview(s) → Bar Raiser

Why Parloa?

Parloa is one of the fastest growing startups in the world of Generative AI and customer service. Parloa’s voice-first GenAI platform for contact centers is built on the best AI technology to automate customer service with natural-sounding conversations for outstanding experiences on all communication channels. Leveraging natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, Parloa creates intelligent phone and chat solutions for businesses that turn contact centers into value centers by boosting customer service efficiency. The Parloa platform resolves the majority of customer queries quickly and automatically, allowing human agents to focus on complex issues and relationships. Parloa was founded in 2018 by Malte Kosub and Stefan Ostwald and today employs over 400+ people in Berlin, Munich, and New York.

When you join Parloa, you become part of a dynamic and innovative team made up of over 34 nationalities that’s revolutionizing an entire industry. We’re passionate about growing together and creating opportunities for personal and professional development. With our recent $350 million Series D investment, we’re expanding globally and looking for talented individuals to join us on this exciting journey.

Do you have questions about Parloa, the role, or our team before you apply? Please feel free to get in touch with our Hiring Team.

Parloa is committed to upholding the highest data protection standards for our clients' and employees' data. All our employees are instrumental in ensuring the utmost care, GDPR, and ISO compliance, including ISO 27001, in handling sensitive information.

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* We provide equal opportunities to all qualified applicants regardless race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, national origin, disability status, socioeconomic background and other characteristics.