Jacob Smusz is Manager, HR Contingent Worker & Program Transformation at Nissan North America, where he leads enterprise workforce strategies focused on contingent labor, supplier governance, compliance, and program transformation. With more than 15 years of experience in workforce management and talent strategy, Jacob oversees the Nissan Advance Third-Party Workforce Program, driving initiatives that enhance operational efficiency, mitigate risk, optimize supplier performance, and align workforce solutions with business objectives.
Throughout his career, Jacob has partnered closely with Procurement, Legal, Finance, HR, and technology teams to implement scalable workforce programs, improve governance, and leverage data driven decision making. His expertise includes contingent workforce management, MSP and VMS strategy, workforce analytics, supplier management, and large-scale transformation initiatives, including SAP Fieldglass implementation.
Recognized for his collaborative leadership style and practical approach to solving complex workforce challenges, Jacob is passionate about building agile, compliant, and future-ready workforce solutions that deliver measurable business value.
Day 1
2:20 PM NEW FOR CONNECT 2026 INTERACTIVE WORKING GROUP: Statement Of Work In Practice — A Buyer's Playbook
SOW now represents roughly 39% of MSP spend — the highest share on record — and most enterprise programs are still figuring out how to manage it. The contingent program runs on rate cards and tenure. SOW runs on deliverables and outcomes. The two collide at intake, at classification, at supplier selection, and at the boundary between procurement, legal, HR, and the business. In this buyer-led working group, attendees walk through the SOW lifecycle as it actually plays out inside enterprise programs — where it lives in the org, how it's governed, which engagements should be SOW versus staff aug versus IC, and what "good" looks like in 2026.
Actionable Takeaways
- Apply a classification-at-intake framework to distinguish SOW, staff aug, IC, and EOR engagements before contract terms get locked in
- Identify the three or four supplier-evaluation criteria that matter most for outcome-based SOW versus time-and-materials SOW
- Build a short governance map of where SOW decisions live across procurement, legal, HR, and the business — and where the handoffs typically break
Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Jacob.
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