Sr. Specialist, Procurement System Owner

Job description

Job Description Do you enjoy building systems that people actually want to use? We are looking for a Senior Specialist, Digital System Owner to own and continuously improve a critical enterprise platform that supports how employees buy products and services, engage suppliers, negotiate contracts, and manage sourcing activities across the organization. This role is not about maintaining a system. It is about owning a product. You will be responsible for understanding users, improving experiences, increasing adoption, expanding capabilities, and ensuring the platform continuously delivers value. While SAP Ariba is currently the primary platform, we are not looking for an Ariba expert. We are looking for someone who understands how great systems work and can apply those principles to help shape the future of our digital ecosystem. This is a unique opportunity to influence a global user community, challenge conventional approaches, and turn ideas into measurable business outcomes. What Makes This Role Different Own a business-critical platform rather than simply supporting an application. Work directly with employees, suppliers, category managers, and stakeholders across the globe to understand needs and improve experiences. Shape capability roadmaps, adoption strategies, and future enhancements that drive measurable business value. Combine product ownership with hands-on analytics, problem solving, and technical investigation. Join a high-performing team that values curiosity over assumptions, action over bureaucracy, and measurable impact over theoretical recommendations. Work in an environment where strong ideas can come from anywhere and where people are encouraged to build, experiment, learn, and improve. What You'll Do Act as the business owner for a key enterprise platform and its connected ecosystem. Build a deep understanding of users and continuously improve the experience they receive from the platform. Define and execute a roadmap focused on adoption, usability, capability expansion, and business value. Leverage capabilities across purchasing, sourcing, contract management, supplier management, workflow automation, and analytics to maximize value. Use data, user feedback, SQL, and platforms such as Databricks to identify opportunities, investigate issues, and measure outcomes. Understand system configurations, integrations, workflows, and data structures well enough to independently drive improvements. Partner with business and technology teams to simplify processes, automate manual activities, and deliver scalable solutions. Continuously look for ways to increase the value delivered through existing technology investments. Who You Are You are naturally curious about how systems, data, processes, and people work together. You enjoy understanding user behavior and believe successful systems should be designed around user needs, not simply around process requirements. You are equally comfortable engaging stakeholders, running a SQL query, investigating a workflow, analyzing adoption metrics, or translating feedback into practical improvements. You learn quickly, challenge the status quo, navigate ambiguity comfortably, and enjoy owning problems from identification through implementation. Most importantly, you believe enterprise systems should be intuitive, trusted, well adopted, and continuously improving. What You'll Bring Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Systems, Engineering, Data Analytics, Computer Science, Supply Chain, or a related field. 5+ years of experience owning, implementing, improving, or supporting enterprise systems, digital platforms, or business applications. Experience as a Product Owner, Business Systems Analyst, Platform Owner, System Owner, Application Owner, or similar role. Strong understanding of how systems, users, data, workflows, and business processes interact. Hands-on experience using data and SQL to investigate issues, validate assumptions, and support decision-making. Ability to understand technical concepts, integrations, configurations, and data structures without requiring deep IT specialization. Proven ability to translate business needs into scalable technology solutions. Strong stakeholder management, analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills. A product ownership mindset combined with technical curiosity and a desire to continuously improve systems. Helpful, but Not Required Experience with SAP Ariba, SAP, Workday, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Coupa, Fieldglass, or similar enterprise platforms. Exposure to procurement, sourcing, contracting, supplier management, finance, operations, or other enterprise business processes. Required Skills: Business Acumen, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Data Analytics, Digital Ecosystems, Digital Systems, Driving Continuous Improvement, Product Ownership, Supplier Strategy, System Configuration, Workflow Optimization Preferred Skills: Procurement, Sourcing and Procurement, Supplier Management Current Employees apply HERE Current Contingent Workers apply HERE US and Puerto Rico Residents Only: Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process. As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit: EEOC Know Your Rights EEOC GINA Supplement​ We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively. Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts The salary range for this role is $96,200.00 - $151,400.00 This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs. The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable. We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits. You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting. San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent