Remote Senior HR Total Rewards & Payroll Sourcing Lead

American Red Cross; Chicago (IL); Remote; USD 135,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental Vision plans

HSAs & FSAs

PTO starting at 19 days/year

Holidays 11 paid

401K with up to 6% match

Paid Family Leave

Employee Assistance

Short + Long Term Disability

Service Awards and recognition

LI-EH1

Job summary

The American Red Cross seeks a Senior Category Manager to own end-to-end strategy, sourcing, and supplier management for HR Total Rewards and Payroll spend. You will partner with HR, Total Rewards, Payroll Operations, Finance, and GC to align strategy with objectives and deliver value.

The role is 100% remote from anywhere in the United States, with an east coast schedule and regular virtual collaboration. Strong negotiation, governance, and leadership across cross-functional teams are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Management, HR, or related field (MBA a plus)
• 10 years of progressive procurement/category management experience, with direct experience sourcing HR/HCM, benefits, payroll, or related professional services categories
• Demonstrated experience negotiating large, complex service contracts.
• Strong understanding of HR Total Rewards and Payroll vendor landscape (Workday, Alight, benefits carriers)
• Familiarity with data privacy and compliance considerations specific to HR/payroll data
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills
• Strong problem-solving, collaboration and influence skills
• Strong analytical skills, spend analysis, TCO modeling, business case development
• Adept negotiation skills in pay for performance and shared risk allocation in agreements
• Ability to lead cross-functional business meetings, develop and deliver clear presentations and communicate with stakeholders
• Solid business acumen coupled with understanding of business structures, processes, and information flow in an organization with multiple lines of business
• Appearance on video is required by Microsoft Teams and similar means on a daily and frequent basis for meetings.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute multi-year category strategies for HR Total Rewards and Payroll spend, informed by market intelligence, spend analysis, and stakeholder priorities
• Lead complex sourcing events (RFI/RFP/RFQ) for benefits carriers, payroll processing/HRIS platforms, and related services
• Negotiate contracts, pricing, and SLAs with major providers (e.g., benefits administration platforms, payroll processors, compensation survey vendors)
• Manage supplier relationships and performance through structured QBRs, scorecards, and SLA governance
• Identify and deliver cost savings, cost avoidance, and process efficiencies; track and report against savings targets
• Partner with HR/Total Rewards and Payroll leadership as primary procurement business partner - embed early in planning cycles and technology roadmaps
• Assess and mitigate supplier risk (financial, operational, data security/privacy given sensitivity of payroll/benefits data, compliance with ERISA, ACA, state payroll regulations, etc.)
• Manage contract lifecycle including renewals, amendments, and terminations
• Mentor or provide guidance to junior category managers/analysts as needed

Skills

Procurement strategy

Stakeholder management

Executive communication

Negotiation

Analytical think­ing

Sourcing

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business/HR or related field

MBA (plus)

Tools

Workday

Alight

Job description

The American Red Cross seeks a Senior Category Manager to own end-to-end strategy, sourcing, and supplier management for HR Total Rewards and Payroll spend. You will partner with HR, Total Rewards, Payroll Operations, Finance, and GC to align strategy with objectives and deliver value.

The role is 100% remote from anywhere in the United States, with an east coast schedule and regular virtual collaboration. Strong negotiation, governance, and leadership across cross-functional teams are required.