IT & Commercial Services Manager (TX)

IT & Commercial Services Manager

Location: Houston, TX Schedule: Hybrid 3 days onsite per week Employment Type: Contract-to-Hire Contract Duration: Approximately 4 months before conversion Hours: 9:00 AM 5:00/5:30 PM Compensation: $60-80/hr on contract Upon conversion up to $160k Work Authorization: U.S. Citizen or Green Card holder

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced IT & Commercial Services Manager to lead the financial and commercial operations supporting a global technology organization. This is not a traditional technical IT leadership position. The role focuses on the business and commercial side of IT, including financial management, budgeting and forecasting, vendor management, procurement, contracts, purchase orders, invoicing, and software licensing.

The ideal candidate has managed IT spend from beginning to end and can serve as a trusted partner to senior IT leadership while working closely with Finance, Accounts Payable, Procurement, Legal, Risk, Cybersecurity, and technology teams.

This individual will have significant ownership and autonomy and should be comfortable managing a multi-million-dollar IT budget, challenging vendors, identifying financial discrepancies, negotiating contracts, and ensuring IT commercial operations remain financially disciplined and audit-ready.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage a multi-million-dollar IT operating and capital budget, including annual budgeting, forecasting, reforecasting, accruals, variance analysis, and budget-vs.-actual reporting.
• Manage CapEx and OpEx expenditures and ensure IT costs are properly categorized and allocated across appropriate GL accounts.
• Own the full IT purchase order lifecycle, including PO creation, approvals, vendor coordination, tracking, reconciliation, and closeout.
• Manage the end-to-end vendor invoice process, validating invoices against contracts, purchase orders, rates, usage, and statements of work.
• Identify and resolve invoice, PO, contract, and budget discrepancies before payment.
• Partner closely with Finance and Accounts Payable on accruals, prepayments, month-end reconciliation, financial close, and payment workflows.
• Serve as a primary point of contact for IT vendors and managed service providers.
• Manage vendor performance, SLAs, escalations, quarterly business reviews, renewals, and commercial relationships.
• Support IT procurement and sourcing activities, including vendor selection, competitive bidding, RFx processes, and negotiations.
• Manage IT contracts throughout their lifecycle, including intake, redlines, negotiations, approvals, renewals, expiration tracking, and contract repository management.
• Partner with Legal and Risk teams on contractual, regulatory, security, and data-protection requirements.
• Manage enterprise software and SaaS licensing, including license inventory, entitlements, true-ups, renewals, compliance, audits, unused licenses, and cost optimization.
• Maintain accurate and audit-ready documentation across contracts, POs, invoices, budgets, licensing, and vendor activity.
• Support internal and external audits related to IT financial controls, vendor management, licensing, and procurement.
• Develop dashboards and executive reporting covering IT spend, forecasts, savings, vendor performance, invoice metrics, licensing, and commercial risks.
• Identify opportunities to automate and improve financial, procurement, invoice, contract, and vendor-management processes.
• Communicate complex financial, contractual, and technology-related information clearly to senior leadership and non-technical stakeholders.
• Help develop the IT commercial services function and support additional staff as the team grows.

Required Qualifications

• 810+ years of progressive experience in IT financial management, IT commercial operations, vendor management, procurement, contracts, or related functions.
• Strong hands-on experience managing IT budgets, forecasts, accruals, variance analysis, and budget-vs.-actual reporting.
• Experience managing significant operating and capital IT expenditures.
• Strong understanding of CapEx vs. OpEx and general ledger allocation.
• Deep understanding of the full purchase order lifecycle, from creation and approvals through reconciliation and closeout.
• Hands-on experience validating vendor invoices against POs, contracts, rates, services, and budgets.
• Demonstrated contract negotiation experience, including contract review, redlining, commercial negotiations, renewals, and expiration management.
• Strong IT vendor-management experience, including performance management, SLAs, QBRs, escalations, and relationship management.
• Experience partnering directly with Finance, Accounts Payable, Procurement, Legal, and IT leadership.
• Experience supporting audits and maintaining accurate financial and commercial documentation.
• Experience with financial planning, ERP, procurement, AP automation, vendor-management, or PO/invoice workflow systems.
• Strong financial acumen and exceptional attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to operate autonomously and confidently interact with senior executives and external vendors.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within a law firm, professional services organization, financial services company, or another complex and highly regulated enterprise environment.
• Experience managing software licensing, SaaS subscriptions, entitlements, true-ups, and license optimization.
• Experience with sourcing and RFx processes.
• Experience supporting third-party risk management and vendor security reviews.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Project or similar project/financial forecasting tools.
• Knowledge of ITIL service-management principles.
• MBA or relevant professional certification such as CITAM, CSAM, CHAMP, CPCM, CSCP, PMP, CMA, CPA, or ITIL certification.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Accounting, Supply Chain Management, Information Systems, or a related discipline preferred. Equivalent professional experience may also be considered.