Contingent Workforce Management, Principal

Blue Shield of California; California; Hybrid; USD 149,000 - 223,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Shield of California is seeking a Principal, Contingent Workforce Management to lead strategy, governance, and oversight for the enterprise contingent workforce across the Ascendiun Family. You will own the design and implementation of a scalable program, including a system like VNDLY, and partner with Finance, HR, and IT to drive workforce planning and cost efficiency.

The role requires extensive cross-functional collaboration, executive communication, and change management skills to align

Qualifications

• Requires a bachelor’s degree or High School Diploma/GED and 4 years of additional relevant experience in lieu of a degree.
• Requires at least 10 years of prior relevant experience in workforce planning, human capital planning, business planning, contingent workforce management, procurement/vendor management, HR operations, finance partnership, or a related field.
• Requires the ability to operate autonomously with limited oversight and manage complex, ambiguous, cross-functional work.

Responsibilities

• Advise management on the design, implementation, and ongoing effectiveness of an enterprise contingent workforce management program, including governance, controls, decision rights, policies, business and financial effectiveness, and leadership reporting.
• Serve as the product owner for the contingent workforce management technical system solution (e.g., VNDLY), leading the design, build, testing, implementation and ongoing improvement in partnership with business technology and vendor stakeholders.
• Set enterprise standards with Global Business Services, Finance, HR Business Partners, Talent Acquisition, People Analytics and Reporting, and business leaders for how contingent workforce requests are reviewed, approved, tracked, and evaluated against workforce plans, financial plans, risks, and business priorities.
• Embed contingent workforce planning into enterprise human capital planning routines, ensuring leaders have a complete view of employees, temporary employees, consultants, contractors, statement-of-work resources, and business process outsourcing resources when making workforce, investment, and operating model decisions.
• Monitor enterprise contingent workforce utilization, mix, tenure, current and forecasted costs, criticality, supplier dependency, policy adherence, and risk indicators; translate findings into recommendations that improve cost control, workforce design, compliance, supplier strategy, and operational effectiveness.
• Develop and maintain enterprise reporting, dashboards, scorecards, and decision tools that measure contingent workforce effectiveness, value, risk, process health, adoption, and alignment to business priorities.
• Lead enterprise review routines to identify long-term, high-cost, high-risk, or business-critical contingent work that may be appropriate for conversion to employee or temporary employee roles, in partnership with HR Business Partners, Finance, Talent Acquisition, and business leaders.
• Establish repeatable enterprise operating routines, documentation, training, and stakeholder communications that improve process consistency, accountability, compliance awareness, and end-user experience.

Skills

Bachelor's degree

10+ years experience

Workforce planning

Contingent workforce management

Vendor management

HR operations

Data analysis

Executive communication

Change management

Workday/VNDLY experience

Education

Bachelor's degree or HS Diploma/GED with 4 years experience in lieu

Tools

Workday

VNDLY

Vendor management system

HR technology ownership

Job description

Your Role

This role supports the Ascendiun Family of Companies. The People & Engagement Strategy & Planning team advances the enterprise strategy for being a great place to work, human capital planning, financial management, and operating priorities that help leaders make clear, data-informed workforce decisions across business lines, functions, and companies.

Job Description

This role supports the Ascendiun Family of Companies. The People & Engagement Strategy & Planning team advances the enterprise strategy for being a great place to work, human capital planning, financial management, and operating priorities that help leaders make clear, data-informed workforce decisions across business lines, functions, and companies.

The Contingent Workforce Management, Principal will report to the Director, People & Engagement Strategy & Planning. In this role, you will lead strategy, planning, governance, and oversight for contingent workforce management across the Family of Companies. You will be accountable for how contingent workforce demand is reviewed, approved measured, and integrated into broader human capital planning and business objectives, creating clear controls and visibility for leaders, HR Business Partners, Finance, Global Business Services, Talent Acquisition, and other stakeholders.

Responsibilities

In this role, you will:

• Advise management on the design, implementation, and ongoing effectiveness of an enterprise contingent workforce management program, including governance, controls, decision rights, policies, business and financial effectiveness, and leadership reporting.
• Serve as the product owner for the contingent workforce management technical system solution (e.g., VNDLY), leading the design, build, testing, implementation and ongoing improvement in partnership with business technology and vendor stakeholders.
• Set enterprise standards with Global Business Services, Finance, HR Business Partners, Talent Acquisition, People Analytics and Reporting, and business leaders for how contingent workforce requests are reviewed, approved, tracked, and evaluated against workforce plans, financial plans, risks, and business priorities.
• Embed contingent workforce planning into enterprise human capital planning routines, ensuring leaders have a complete view of employees, temporary employees, consultants, contractors, statement-of-work resources, and business process outsourcing resources when making workforce, investment, and operating model decisions.
• Monitor enterprise contingent workforce utilization, mix, tenure, current and forecasted costs, criticality, supplier dependency, policy adherence, and risk indicators; translate findings into recommendations that improve cost control, workforce design, compliance, supplier strategy, and operational effectiveness.
• Develop and maintain enterprise reporting, dashboards, scorecards, and decision tools that measure contingent workforce effectiveness, value, risk, process health, adoption, and alignment to business priorities.
• Lead enterprise review routines to identify long-term, high-cost, high-risk, or business-critical contingent work that may be appropriate for conversion to employee or temporary employee roles, in partnership with HR Business Partners, Finance, Talent Acquisition, and business leaders.
• Establish repeatable enterprise operating routines, documentation, training, and stakeholder communications that improve process consistency, accountability, compliance awareness, and end-user experience.

Qualifications

• Requires a bachelor’s degree or High School Diploma/GED and 4 years of additional relevant experience in lieu of a degree
• Requires at least 10 years of prior relevant experience in workforce planning, human capital planning, business planning, contingent workforce management, procurement/vendor management, HR operations, finance partnership, or a related field.
• Requires the ability to operate autonomously with limited oversight and manage complex, ambiguous, cross-functional work.
• Requires experience leading large, complex cross-functional initiatives of strategic importance, including process redesign, governance creation, stakeholder alignment, implementation planning, and change management.
• Requires strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, including the ability to interpret workforce, financial, supplier, process, and operational data and translate it into actionable recommendations.
• Requires knowledge of contingent labor regulations, compliance impacts, and risk mitigation
• Requires demonstrated ability to influence stakeholders across functions and levels, including senior leaders, HR Business Partners, Finance, Global Business Services, Talent Acquisition, People Analytics, Law, technology partners, and business leaders.
• Requires strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to create executive‑ready narratives, presentations, dashboards, and decision materials.
• Requires ability to establish processes, controls, and operating routines that improve visibility, consistency, compliance accountability, and user experience.
• Requires demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, make sound recommendations in ambiguous environments, and maintain a high level of organization and follow‑through.
• Workday, VNDLY, vendor management system, or HR technology product ownership experience strongly preferred.
• Experience partnering with internal and external technology organizations to address technical development needs through contingent workforce strategies strongly preferred.

Hybrid

This role requires employees to be in-office based on our hybrid workplace model, balancing purposeful in‑person collaboration with flexibility. For most teams, this means coming into the office two days each week.

Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location will work with their manager to determine in‑office time based on business need.

About Us

About Blue Shield of California and the Ascendiun Family of Companies

As of January 2025, Blue Shield of California became a subsidiary of Ascendiun. Ascendiun is a nonprofit corporate entity that is the parent to a family of organizations including Blue Shield of California and its subsidiary, Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan; Altais, a clinical services company; and Stellarus, a company designed to scale healthcare solutions. Together, these organizations are referred to as the Ascendiun Family of Companies.

At Ascendiun, we believe in a brighter future for healthcare. As the parent to a family of four innovative healthcare companies, we’re reimagining what’s possible. Ascendiun is guided by the goal of transforming a dysfunctional American health care system into one worthy of our family and friends and sustainably affordable for everyone.

To achieve our mission, we foster an environment where all employees can thrive and contribute fully to address the needs of the various communities we serve. We are committed to creating and maintaining a supportive workplace that upholds our values and advances our goals.

Our Values

• Honest. We hold ourselves to the highest ethical and integrity standards. We build trust by doing what we say we're going to do and by acknowledging and correcting where we fall short.
• Human. We strive to listen and communicate effectively, and showing empathy by understanding others’ perspectives.
• Courageous. We stand up for what we believe in and are committed to the hard work necessary to achieve our ambitious goals.

Our Workplace Model

We believe in fostering a workplace environment that balances purposeful in‑person collaboration with flexibility - providing clear expectations while respecting the diverse needs of our workforce. Our workplace model is designed around intentional in‑person interaction, collaboration, connection, creativity and flexibility:

• For most teams, this means coming into the office two days per week.
• Employees living more than 50 miles from an office location, out of state employees, and employees in certain member-facing roles should work with their manager to determine in‑office time based on business need.
• For employees with medical conditions that may impact their ability to work in‑office, we are committed to engaging in an interactive process and providing reasonable accommodations to ensure their work environment is conducive to their success and well-being.

The Company reserves the right to require more presence in the office based on business needs, and requirements are subject to change with periodic reviews.

Physical Requirements

Office Environment - roles involving part to full time schedule in Office Environment. Based in our physical offices and work from home office/deskwork - Activity level: Sedentary, frequency most of work day.

Please click here for further physical requirement detail.

Equal Employment Opportunity

External hires must pass a background check/drug screen. Qualified applicants with arrest records and/or conviction records will be considered for employment in a manner consistent with Federal, State and local laws, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status or disability status and any other classification protected by Federal, State and local laws.

JOB INFO

Job Identification : 20262052

Job Category : Business Operations

Posting Date : 2026-10-12T23:03:56+00:00

Job Schedule : Full time

Locations : Oakland, CA, United States

CA, United States

Pay Range for California : $148940.00 to $223300.00

Pay Range for Bay Area : $167896.00 to $251720.00

Note : Please note that this range represents the pay range for this and many other positions at Blue Shield that fall into this pay grade. Blue Shield salaries are based on a variety of factors, including the candidate experience, location (California, Bay Area, or outside California), and current employee salaries for similar roles.

Role can be filled by a candidate requiring sponsorship : No