Category Management IT Director

This director level position is responsible for directing and overseeing the development of category/spend strategies for all key categories by leveraging advanced expertise of the markets, suppliers and stakeholder needs; fostering and maintaining relationships with key internal client and supplier leadership; overseeing end-to-end delivery of business needs for categories under management; demonstrating a deep understanding of client initiatives and short, medium, and long-term goals; ensuring alignment of initiatives and strategies with client expectations; managing the adoption of change practices with customers, suppliers and stakeholders to drive strategic programs; and partnering with executive leadership to review and drive decisions.
This position is also responsible for directing the RFP process and supplier negotiations; overseeing the development and execution of RFPs to drive the strategic sourcing process; reviewing and leveraging analytics and insights to ensure data-driven decisions; analyzing category spend to understand price drivers and trends; applying cost and supply market analytics; and championing a digital mindset to adopt new technologies in the source to pay space.

• Prepares individuals for growth opportunities and advancement; builds internal collaborative networks for self and others. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; drives collaboration to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to foster performance improvement. Demonstrates continuous learning; oversees the recruitment, selection, and development of talent; ensures performance management guidelines and expectations to achieve business needs. Stays up to date with organizational best practices, processes, benchmarks, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Motivates and empowers teams; maintains a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning resource plans with business objectives.


• Provides guidance when difficult decisions need to be made; creates opportunities for expanded scope of decision making and impact. Oversees the operation of multiple units within a department by identifying member and operational needs; ensures the management of work assignment completion; translates business strategy into actionable business requirements; ensures products and / or services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies. Gains cross-functional support for business plans and priorities; assumes responsibility for decision making; sets standards, measures progress, and fosters resolution of escalated issues. Communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts and incorporates them into business plans; prioritizes and distributes resources. Removes obstacles that impact performance; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; ensures teams accomplish business objectives.


• Directs and oversees the development of category/spend strategies for all key categories by leveraging advanced expertise of the markets, suppliers and stakeholder needs; ensuring clear, informed decisions aligned with a multi-year strategy; overseeing end-to-end delivery of business needs for all categories under direction; keeping current on external and internal influences that may impact the larger organization (e.g., Healthcare Reform, macroeconomic issues, etc.); and partnering with executive leadership to review and drive decisions.


• Fosters and maintains long-term relationships with key internal client and supplier leadership by leveraging strong, collaborative partnerships with leaders across the business to gain buy-in and deliver value; demonstrating a deep understanding of client initiatives and short, medium, and long-term goals; partnering with suppliers to identify and pursue opportunities to drive improved quality and delivery performance; assuring alignment of initiatives and strategies with client expectations to drive value, innovation, service/supply resiliency, quality of care and governance; and partnering with key cross-functional stakeholders (e.g., Portfolio Leads, Sourcing, Procurement Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, etc.) to advance Category Management capabilities.


• Directs the RFP process and supplier negotiations, and ensures contracting to deliver strategic value by leveraging advanced negotiation strategies, tactics, and processes in line with situational demands; leading and overseeing contract negotiations in partnership with Legal; and overseeing the development and execution of RFPs to drive the strategic sourcing process.


• Reviews and leverages advanced analytics and insights to ensure data-driven decisions by reviewing the analysis of category spend to understand price drivers and trends; applying cost and supply market analytics to develop and drive category strategies; and championing a digital mindset to adopt new technologies in the source to pay space.


• Oversees the adoption of change practices with customers, suppliers and stakeholders throughout the implementation and/or modification of new or existing strategic programs (e.g., Source to Pay transformation, Category Management training programs, etc.).


• Directs efforts to support KPs Sustainability and Environmental goals and serves as an advocate to further advance results in Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP).

Qualifications:

• Minimum two (2) years supervisory experience.


• Bachelors degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Management Science, Business, Finance, Accounting, Contract Administration, Procurement or a directly related field and minimum nine (9) years experience category management, strategic sourcing, or a directly related field. Additional equivalent work experience in a directly related field may be substituted for the degree requirement. Advanced degrees may be substituted for the work experience requirements.