Director of Procurement

UnitedHealth Group; Eden Prairie (MN); On-site; USD 135,000 - 231,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits package

Incentive programs

Equity stock purchase

401(k) contribution

Job summary

UnitedHealth Group is seeking a Director of Procurement Effectiveness for Optum Health to lead strategic procurement governance and service improvements across complex care delivery. You will drive customer success, stakeholder relationships, and actionable insights to streamline sourcing and reporting.

The role focuses on governance leadership, process optimization, and executive communication with clinical and regional leaders to enhance the procurement experience and outcomes.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in procurement, sourcing, supply chain, customer success, operations, governance, process improvement, or related business functions
• Experience using data, reporting, and business insights to identify process gaps, cycle‑time issues, service performance trends, and improvement opportunities
• Demonstrated experience managing complex stakeholder relationships across clinical, operational, procurement, legal, compliance, finance, and executive audiences
• Proven ability to lead governance routines, operating reviews, escalation processes, or cross‑functional workstreams in a matrixed organization
• Demonstrated solid communication skills with the ability to translate complex operational issues into clear, executive‑ready updates, recommendations, and action plans
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities, clarify ownership, drive accountability, and move complex issues toward resolution

Responsibilities

• Serve as a Procurement customer success lead for large, complex, or high‑priority Optum Health customer groups
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with clinical governance/operations, care delivery operations, integration teams, category management, enterprise procurement, and executive stakeholders
• Act as the primary Procurement relationship partner for assigned customer segments, ensuring business needs are understood, translated, prioritized, and connected to the appropriate Procurement resources
• Facilitate proactive customer engagement to identify emerging service issues, recurring pain points, and opportunities to improve the Procurement experience
• Support leadership escalations by clarifying root cause, business impact, ownership, next steps, and resolution path
• Lead or support Procurement governance routines across Optum Health, including executive‑level updates, workstream reviews, regional report‑outs and engagement
• Prepare clear, business‑oriented reporting that summarizes request status, bottlenecks, risks, aging items, escalation themes, and recommended interventions
• Partner with Procurement leadership to ensure governance discussions are focused on business outcomes, service performance, customer experience, and decision‑making needs
• Create transparency across multiple workstreams by connecting customer feedback, operational metrics, category activity, and sourcing progress
• Ensure major customer forums result in clear ownership, documented actions, and visible follow‑through
• Own the assessment of Procurement service effectiveness for assigned Optum Health customer groups
• Analyze process performance by customer/CDO, category team, category manager, workstream, and request type
• Identify recurring breakdowns in material request intake, supplier validation, handoffs, comments, approvals, and cycle‑time performance
• Develop recommendations to improve turnaround time, customer communication, request quality, intake discipline, supplier transition support, and stakeholder satisfaction
• Partner with operational teams to implement improvement actions while maintaining clear distinction between strategic process ownership and tactical execution
• Develop and interpret customer‑facing metrics related to request volume, cycle time, aging, handoffs, bottlenecks, ownership, and customer experience
• Use data to identify where Procurement processes are working well and where customer experience is breaking down
• Translate operational data into executive‑ready insights and actionable recommendations
• Partner with category, operations, and governance teams to create reporting that supports prioritization, accountability, and service improvement
• Present findings to Procurement and Optum Health leaders in a concise, financially and operationally relevant manner
• Serve as a senior point of coordination for complex customer escalations requiring Procurement leadership attention
• Triage escalations by business impact, risk, urgency, stakeholder sensitivity, and required decision authority
• Coordinate with category leaders, sourcing teams, operations teams, legal, compliance, clinical stakeholders, and integration partners to move escalated issues toward resolution
• Ensure escalations are documented with clear ownership, decision points, dependencies, and customer communication expectations
• Identify patterns in escalations and recommend systemic changes to reduce repeat issues

Skills

Procurement

Sourcing

Stakeholder management

Governance

Process improvement

Data analytics

Communication

Job description

UnitedHealth Group is a health care and well-being company that's dedicated to improving the health outcomes of millions around the world. We are comprised of two distinct and complementary businesses, UnitedHealthcare and Optum, working to build a better health system for all. Here, your contributions matter as they will help transform health care for years to come. Make an impact with a team that shares your passion for helping others. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

Director, Procurement Effectiveness - Optum Health

The director will serve as a strategic customer success and governance leader for Enterprise Procurement supporting major Optum Health business partners, clinical stakeholders, and complex care delivery organizations. The role is responsible for (i) improving customer experience, (ii) strengthening stakeholder relationships, (iii) increasing visibility into Procurement work intake, and (iv) ensuring sourcing and supplier-related requests are progressing effectively across complex operating environments.

This position will act as a primary relationship and escalation partner for large or complex customer groups, helping translate business needs into actionable Procurement engagement, governance, reporting, and process‑improvement priorities.

Strategic Purpose of the Role

This role exists to create a more consistent, proactive, and customer‑centered Procurement experience across Optum Health by:

• Serving as a single strategic point of coordination for complex Procurement customer activity
• Improving visibility into procurement requests, supplier verification requests, governance workstreams, and customer escalations
• Strengthening relationships with clinical, operational, integration, and regional business leaders
• Identifying process gaps, cycle‑time issues, handoff breakdowns, and customer pain points
• Driving continuous improvement in Procurement service delivery and customer satisfaction

Primary Responsibilities:

• Customer Success and Relationship Management
  • Serve as a Procurement customer success lead for large, complex, or high‑priority Optum Health customer groups, including major CDOs and regional business partners and Acquired Entities
  • Build and maintain trusted relationships with clinical governance/operations, care delivery operations, integration teams, category management, enterprise procurement, and executive stakeholders
  • Act as the primary Procurement relationship partner for assigned customer segments, ensuring business needs are understood, translated, prioritized, and connected to the appropriate Procurement resources
  • Facilitate proactive customer engagement to identify emerging service issues, recurring pain points, and opportunities to improve the Procurement experience
  • Support leadership escalations by clarifying root cause, business impact, ownership, next steps, and resolution path
• Governance and Operating Rhythm Leadership
  • Lead or support Procurement governance routines across Optum Health, including executive‑level updates, workstream reviews, regional report‑outs and engagement, and customer‑specific operating reviews
  • Prepare clear, business‑oriented reporting that summarizes request status, bottlenecks, risks, aging items, escalation themes, and recommended interventions
  • Partner with Procurement leadership to ensure governance discussions are focused on business outcomes, service performance, customer experience, and decision‑making needs
  • Create transparency across multiple workstreams by connecting customer feedback, operational metrics, category activity, and sourcing progress
  • Ensure major customer forums result in clear ownership, documented actions, and visible follow‑through
• Procurement Service Experience and Process Effectiveness
  • Own the assessment of Procurement service effectiveness for assigned Optum Health customer groups
  • Analyze process performance by customer/CDO, category team, category manager, workstream, and request type
  • Identify recurring breakdowns in material request intake, supplier validation, handoffs, comments, approvals, and cycle‑time performance
  • Develop recommendations to improve turnaround time, customer communication, request quality, intake discipline, supplier transition support, and stakeholder satisfaction
  • Partner with operational teams to implement improvement actions while maintaining clear distinction between strategic process ownership and tactical execution
• Analytics, Reporting, and Business Insights
  • Develop and interpret customer‑facing metrics related to request volume, cycle time, aging, handoffs, bottlenecks, ownership, and customer experience
  • Use data to identify where Procurement processes are working well and where customer experience is breaking down
  • Translate operational data into executive‑ready insights and actionable recommendations
  • Partner with category, operations, and governance teams to create reporting that supports prioritization, accountability, and service improvement
  • Present findings to Procurement and Optum Health leaders in a concise, financially and operationally relevant manner
• Escalation Management and Issue Resolution
  • Serve as a senior point of coordination for complex customer escalations requiring Procurement leadership attention
  • Triage escalations by business impact, risk, urgency, stakeholder sensitivity, and required decision authority
  • Coordinate with category leaders, sourcing teams, operations teams, legal, compliance, clinical stakeholders, and integration partners to move escalated issues toward resolution
  • Ensure escalations are documented with clear ownership, decision points, dependencies, and customer communication expectations
  • Identify patterns in escalations and recommend systemic changes to reduce repeat issues

You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience in procurement, sourcing, supply chain, customer success, operations, governance, process improvement, or related business functions
• Experience using data, reporting, and business insights to identify process gaps, cycle‑time issues, service performance trends, and improvement opportunities
• Demonstrated experience managing complex stakeholder relationships across clinical, operational, procurement, legal, compliance, finance, and executive audiences
• Proven ability to lead governance routines, operating reviews, escalation processes, or cross‑functional workstreams in a matrixed organization
• Demonstrated solid communication skills with the ability to translate complex operational issues into clear, executive‑ready updates, recommendations, and action plans
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities, clarify ownership, drive accountability, and move complex issues toward resolution

Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. In addition to your salary, we offer benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with us, you'll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives. The salary for this role will range from $134,600 - $230,800 annually based on full‑time employment. We comply with all minimum wage laws as applicable.

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income‑does‑deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes - an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.

UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug‑free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.