About DAT

DAT Freight & Analytics is an award-winning employer of choice and a next-generation SaaS technology company that has been at the leading edge of freight and logistics innovation for nearly five decades. Founded in 1978, DAT operates the largest freight marketplace in North America — processing 250 million+ load posts annually and maintaining one of the largest repositories of freight market transaction data in the world. On a defined path to $1 billion in revenue, DAT deploys a suite of software solutions, machine learning models, and intelligent automation tools that help brokers, carriers, and shippers price freight accurately, source capacity, reduce risk, and operate more efficiently. With nearly 700 teammates across offices in Denver, CO; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Springfield, MO; Toronto, ON; and Bangalore, India, DAT combines the credibility of a multi-decade market leader with the drive of a company that is not done disrupting the industry it helped build. For more information, visit www.DAT.com

Application Deadline: 11/30/2026

The Opportunity

DAT Freight & Analytics (“DAT”) is the backbone of the transportation industry. Currently a $500M powerhouse on a rapid trajectory to $1B, we have acquired four companies in the past 18 months and are scaling our infrastructure to match our ambition.

We are seeking a Senior Manager of Procurement and Vendor Management to own the entire “Procure to Pay” (P2P) function across DAT. DAT currently manages a portfolio of >$30M of commercial contracts, and this is a build role: you will have executive sponsorship and a clear mandate to design and stand up modern procurement infrastructure and governance from the ground up over your first 18 months.

What You’ll Do

Department Ownership: Build and lead the center of excellence for procurement and vendor management. Lead your team of a Procurement Ops Manager and Procurement Specialist to streamline day-to-day operations and controls while you focus on high-level strategy and integration.
P2P Workflow in NetSuite: Partner with FP&A, Accounting, and our NetSuite admin to operationalize the Procure-to-Pay workflow inside our NetSuite ERP, including establishing Tropic as our system of record for spend tracking.
Vendor Strategy & Benchmarking: Drive world-class negotiations with technology and indirect spend vendors. Utilize Tropic and other benchmarking data to ensure optimal commercial terms and service levels.
Legal/Contracts & CLM Partnership: Lead the integration of a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) platform with our Tropic workflow, in close collaboration with DAT's Legal/Contracts team.
Contract Risk Triage & Negotiation: Personally review and negotiate key commercial contract terms across DAT's vendor portfolio (SaaS agreements, MSAs, DPAs), performing a first-pass red-flags analysis — indemnification, Artificial Intelligence clauses, liability, data protection, termination, auto-renewal — before handing contracts to the Legal/Contracts team, so review cycles move faster and risk is caught earlier, not later.
M&A Integration: Direct the procurement integration for our four recent acquisitions, identifying immediate cost synergies and migrating legacy contracts into the DAT ecosystem.
Cross-Functional Leadership: Act as a key advisor to department heads, providing spend visibility and ensuring procurement is viewed as a strategic partner rather than a hurdle.

Strategic Evolution

SaaS Ecosystem Optimization: Partner closely with the Technology team to audit and rationalize the software stack across all business units and acquired entities, identifying vendor consolidation opportunities created by our four acquisitions over the past 18 months, eliminating redundancies and capturing immediate EBITDA improvements.
AI Council Partnership: Serve as procurement's representative on DAT's AI Council, partnering with Architecture and InfoSec to govern the selection, onboarding, and ongoing review of third-party AI tools and platforms — and bring procurement's recommendation on vendor selection, contract terms, and risk for AI-related spend, which is growing faster than DAT's current governance can track.