Director, Technology Strategic Sourcing & Category Management

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Job Details

Serves as the single accountable owner for an assigned technology category or sub-category within Cencora's global data and technology indirect spend, responsible for its roadmap in both the short and long term. Builds and delivers the category plan, leads sourcing events and supplier negotiations, and manages supplier performance, contract compliance, and third-party risk for that scope. Acts as the defined sourcing business partner to assigned Technology leaders, maintaining a forward view of demand, budgets, and renewals so requirements are planned ahead rather than processed tactically as they land. Translates business and technology demand into sourcing approaches that improve total cost of ownership, service levels, and supply continuity, and secures stakeholder adoption of those strategies. Leads a small team or set of sourcing professionals, and strengthens category processes, tools, and market intelligence to improve decision quality and sustained value delivery.

Responsibilities

• Directs technology category strategies, sourcing plans, renewal calendars, and pipeline priorities for assigned spend areas in alignment with business and technology demand, service, quality, and cost objectives.

• Leads sourcing events, supplier evaluations, negotiations, and award recommendations to secure commercial value and category continuity within policy and control requirements.

• Directs supplier performance, contract compliance, and issue resolution to address service, quality, risk, and continuity concerns across the assigned portfolio.

• Manages category budgets, savings tracking, resource utilization, and delivery plans using financial, consumption, and quality metrics.

• Oversees team performance, assigns and reviews work, coaches development, and supports talent decisions to maintain clear routines, accountability, and escalation paths.

Category Ownership and Operating Model

• Acts as the single accountable owner for the assigned sub-category, including its roadmap, in-year execution plan, and multi-year strategy.

• Defines the sub-category profile, spend baseline, supplier landscape, and risk assessment, and keeps them current as demand shifts.

• Operates within the category-based model rather than a vendor-tier model, segmenting suppliers by value, risk, and criticality instead of by relationship status.

• Supports transition from the legacy vendor-tier structure, including scope clarification, knowledge transfer, and adoption of new ways of working within the assigned area.

• Coordinates with peer category owners, including the MA&D category, where suppliers, agreements, or requirements overlap.

Portfolio and Demand Management

• Serves as the defined sourcing business partner to assigned Technology leaders and their teams for all requirements within the sub-category.

• Runs a standing cadence with business partners to capture project plans, budgets, and demand signals ahead of need, and to flag renewals with enough runway to preserve leverage.

• Maintains a rolling demand and renewal forecast for the sub-category so purchases are planned and proactively managed rather than handled tactically on arrival.

• Aggregates and challenges requirements across teams to reduce duplication, consolidate overlapping suppliers and licenses, and right-size specifications and consumption before sourcing begins.

• Owns assigned vendor relationships within the sub-category, including business reviews, performance discussions, roadmap alignment, and day-to-day escalation.

Category Strategy and Sourcing

• Builds and maintains the category plan, including sourcing approach, supplier strategy, savings targets, and sequencing of initiatives.

• Runs competitive sourcing events end to end, including RFx design, supplier evaluation against business requirements, technical specifications and security standards, scenario analysis, and award recommendation.

• Identifies alternative supplier models, licensing and consumption constructs, and demand management opportunities that reduce total cost of ownership.

• Maintains market and benchmark intelligence for the sub-category, including rate, unit price, and consumption comparisons.

Negotiation and Contracting

• Leads negotiations for assigned agreements, securing commercial and legal terms that optimize total cost of ownership, quality, and service delivery.

• Negotiates commercial constructs with Legal support, including master agreements, statements of work, service levels and credits, subscription and license terms, renewal, true-up, and termination provisions.

• Coordinates with Information Security, Privacy, and Risk on data protection, audit rights, and regulatory requirements before award.

• Escalates material commercial risks, exceptions, and supplier disputes with a clear recommendation.

Supplier and Vendor Management

• Manages supplier performance for the assigned sub-category through scorecards, performance reviews, service level tracking, and corrective action plans.

• Monitors contract compliance and consumption against entitlements, and resolves invoicing, true-up, and audit exposure issues.

• Executes supplier risk assessments and remediation activity in line with the third-party risk framework.

• Identifies contract improvement and renegotiation opportunities, supplier consolidation options, and supplier development actions.

Financial Management and Value Delivery

• Tracks and reports category spend, savings pipeline, and realized value, and validates outcomes with Finance and business partners.

• Builds cost models, bid analyses, and business cases that support fact-based recommendations and negotiations.

• Manages unplanned high-spend demand and major spot buys within policy and control requirements, and works to reduce their frequency through better forward planning.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Partners with Technology, Information Security, Legal, Finance, and business stakeholders to align requirements, specifications, timelines, and handoffs, and provides timely status updates with risks and recommendations.

• Secures stakeholder adoption of category strategies and awarded agreements, driving contract implementation, compliance, and value capture.

• Supports technology sourcing needs arising from mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and integration activity for the assigned sub-category.

Process, Governance, and Digital Enablement

• Applies procurement governance, delegation of authority, and code of conduct requirements consistently across category activity.

• Drives process improvement, standardization, onboarding, and cross-training to stabilize throughput and strengthen quality.

• Uses AI and automation in sourcing workflows where approved to reduce administrative effort and increase time on strategic category work.

• Supports supplier diversity, ESG, and responsible sourcing objectives within the category supply base.

• Maintains accurate data in procurement systems, including sourcing, contract lifecycle, and spend platforms, so category and demand reporting is reliable.

Team Leadership

• Leads and develops sourcing professionals, assigning and reviewing work, coaching performance, and supporting talent decisions.

• Establishes clear routines, escalation paths, and accountability within the team.

Education and Work Experience

• Bachelor's degree in business, supply chain, computer science, information systems, or a related field, or equivalent experience required.

• Advanced degree (MBA, or master's in supply chain, computer science, or a related field) preferred.

• 10+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, and category management, including 4+ years in technology or data sourcing, or a related field required.

• 5+ years of experience in a management capacity required.

• Demonstrated track record negotiating and managing complex technology supplier contracts and portfolios of $50M+ in annual spend required.

• Experience owning a defined category or sub-category within a category-based procurement or category management operating model required.

• Experience acting as a procurement business partner to technology or business leaders, including building forward demand and renewal visibility, preferred.

• Experience in a large, matrixed global organization preferred.

• Certification in procurement, supply management, or project management (such as CPSM, CIPS, or PMP) preferred.

Skills and Knowledge

• Hands-on expertise in strategic sourcing and contract development for technology and data categories, including SaaS, cloud services, infrastructure, IT services, telecom, packaged software, cyber security, data solutions, and emerging technologies.

• Ability to build and maintain a category roadmap covering both near-term execution and multi-year strategy.

• Strong negotiation skills with a working command of commercial and legal terms in technology agreements.

• Skilled at business partnering, including running a demand and renewal cadence with stakeholders and influencing requirements early.

• Knowledge of vendor management, compliance, governance, and risk management frameworks, including third-party and cyber risk requirements.

• Knowledge of the technology supplier landscape, licensing and consumption models, and industry trends relevant to the assigned categories.

• Ability to translate business and technology requirements into category strategies, sourcing plans, and executable initiatives.

• Strong financial and analytical skills, including cost modeling, bid analysis, ROI evaluation, and data-driven recommendations.

• Effective communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence without authority across functions.

• Ability to manage multiple concurrent initiatives to deadline in a matrixed global environment, and comfort operating while an operating model is still maturing.

• Ability to establish spend baselines, category profiles, risk assessments, controls, performance measures, and KPI reporting.

• Proficiency in procurement tools (such as SAP Ariba or Coupa), contract lifecycle management systems, and data analytics platforms.

• Proficiency in English for business communication across global stakeholders and suppliers.

What Cencora offers

We provide compensation, benefits, and resources that enable a highly inclusive culture and support our team members’ ability to live with purpose every day. In addition to traditional offerings like medical, dental, and vision care, we also provide a comprehensive suite of benefits that focus on the physical, emotional, financial, and social aspects of wellness. This encompasses support for working families, which may include backup dependent care, adoption assistance, infertility coverage, family building support, behavioral health solutions, paid parental leave, and paid caregiver leave. To encourage your personal growth, we also offer a variety of training programs, professional development resources, and opportunities to participate in mentorship programs, employee resource groups, volunteer activities, and much more. For details, visit https://www.virtualfairhub.com/cencora

Full time

Salary Range*

$119,100 - 186,560

*This Salary Range reflects a National Average for this job. The actual range may vary based on your locale. Ranges in Colorado/California/Washington/New York/Hawaii/Vermont/Minnesota/Massachusetts/Illinois State-specific locations may be up to 10% lower than the minimum salary range, and 12% higher than the maximum salary range.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Cencora is committed to providing equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or membership in any other class protected by federal, state or local law.

The company’s continued success depends on the full and effective utilization of qualified individuals. Therefore, harassment is prohibited and all matters related to recruiting, training, compensation, benefits, promotions and transfers comply with equal opportunity principles and are non-discriminatory.

Cencora is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the employment process which are consistent with legal requirements. If you wish to request an accommodation while seeking employment, please call 888.692.2272 or email [email protected]. We will make accommodation determinations on a request-by-request basis. Messages and emails regarding anything other than accommodations requests will not be returned

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Affiliated Companies:

Affiliated Companies: AmerisourceBergen Services Corporation