Every career journey starts with curiosity, and for Petr Stepanko, that curiosity led him to the world of procurement. What began as an unfamiliar field has now become a space where he combines creativity, digital thinking, and teamwork to deliver impact for clients at Sourcing Champions. Here’s a closer look at how Petr found his path, grew through challenges, and continues to shape digital transformation in procurement.
Petr’s Curious Path to Procurement
During his last year of master’s degree in Management of Innovation at Rotterdam School of Management, Petr Stepanko found himself at a career crossroads. Having explored internships across market intelligence, sustainability, and sales, he was no stranger to learning from different perspectives. However, it was during this journey that a new field caught his attention: procurement.
“I feel like [procurement] is an interesting and maybe a little bit mysterious sphere”, said Petr.
Although procurement was unfamiliar territory to Petr at the time, his interest in digital implementation, and a drive to tackle diverse business challenges led him to apply for his first full-time job at Sourcing Champions. The role has proven to be a perfect match for his passions and a powerful driver of his professional growth.
Building Digital Bridges for Clients
Currently working as an S2P digital transformation analyst, Petr is involved in configuring and implementing Ivalua, which, according to him, is “the pinnacle of procurement”. This is also where Petr’s creativity truly comes to life, as Sourcing Champions is committed to customizing digital tools tailored to each client’s needs.
Each day, Petr builds custom workflows, and maintains clean, reliable data, all in support of co-creating digital strategies with clients, a mission that truly inspires him.
“It’s all very exciting,” he says, describing his experience managing ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes as part of data integration projects.
Speaking about Ivalua, Petr highlighted its strength as an all-in-one procurement platform that brings structure and efficiency to clients’ operations. He explained that Ivalua simplifies, unifies, and centralizes the entire procurement process, from supplier onboarding to purchase requisitions, orders, and contract management. The platform reduces manual effort and time, allowing teams to collaborate more effectively and maintain transparency at every stage.
Beyond his core responsibilities, Petr enjoys contributing wherever he’s needed, from drafting documents to preparing client demos. He nicknamed it as “doing all-around type of stuff,” a reflection of his enthusiasm and strong sense of teamwork.
When asked about how he sees his contribution to client success, Petr said, “It’s definitely going to help them have more structure in procurement, more transparency, more options, and more features to actually collaborate with the vendors.”
Yet, he modestly emphasized that each achievement is the result of teamwork. “I’m just one part of a bigger whole”, said Petr.
Learning, Evolving, and Thriving Together
It took Petr only four months after joining the company to earn his Level 3 Ivalua certification, the highest level attainable. This certification enables him to fully configure and customize the platform to meet each client’s unique process and integration needs.
“[It’s a large] amount of information to process”, Petr admitted that this is not an easy feat. Still, through his daily hands-on experience, varied project challenges, and time set aside for learning, he managed to achieve it.
However, he also contributes his exponential learning curve to being within “a very nice collective”. He values not only the technical guidance from colleagues but also the open, collaborative atmosphere that encourages questions, experimentation, and shared learning.
“Everyone is supportive and understanding. They also teach me stuffs if I don’t know.”, said Petr. “I would say that the team plays a great role in my motivation.”
Reflecting on his journey so far, Petr’s story captures what it means to grow within a collaborative and forward-thinking environment. From his first steps into procurement to leading digital implementations, he continues to learn, adapt, and contribute with enthusiasm.
When asked to describe Sourcing Champions in three words, Petr smiled and said,
