If you want to make a difference at the center of health, come join our innovative company and help us improve the lives of people and animals everywhere. The Senior Manager, Technology Category Management owns assigned technology spend sourcing activity within one of three categories: Hardware/Telecom/Cloud, Software, or Technology Services. This is a critical role in delivering savings, risk reduction and supplier performance for the enterprise.
Responsibilities
- Category strategy and pipeline: Define and manage category strategies, sourcing plans and pipeline priorities for assigned technology spend, aligned with business demand, service, quality and cost objectives; analyze spend, demand and market data to identify opportunities such as consolidation, demand management, renegotiation, rate and license optimization and process improvement; build and maintain a prioritized opportunity pipeline.
- Lead sourcing events, supplier evaluations, negotiations and award recommendations, including select enterprise contracts end-to-end with support from Sourcing Managers, to secure commercial value and category continuity within policy and control requirements; guide the team on complex commercial and contractual issues.
- Supplier management: Manage supplier performance, contract compliance and issue resolution across the category portfolio, addressing service, quality, risk and supply concerns; run business reviews, track SLAs and KPIs, monitor financial and cyber risk, and drive innovation and sustainability commitments. Lead QBR with strategic technology suppliers to evaluate performance and drive supplier accountability.
- Coordinate cross-functional stakeholders (business, IT, Legal, Finance, Security, Sourcing and Corporate Program Managers, Regional Sourcing/Country Leads) to align requirements, specifications, timelines and handoffs; serve as primary contact with business, IT and vendor leadership and provide timely status updates with risks and recommendations to senior leadership.
- Financial and performance management: Manage category budgets, savings tracking, resource utilization and short-term delivery plans using financial, capacity and quality metrics; guide team analysis of category performance to improve results.
- Market and technology insight: Maintain current knowledge of market trends, emerging technologies (e.g., cloud, AI, cybersecurity) and vendor capabilities to inform strategy and negotiation positions.
- Process improvement and standardization: Lead process improvements, onboarding, cross-training and local standardization efforts to stabilize throughput, strengthen quality and support adoption of approved tools and practices; review and update category policies, procedures and playbooks.
- Oversee team performance across onshore and offshore locations; AI Adoption: Bridge traditional procurement domain knowledge (strategic sourcing, category management, and procure-to-pay) with scalable AI deployment, driving operational efficiency, cost-out strategies, and automated workflows.
- Support the Director in stakeholder engagement and relationship management, fostering innovation, collaboration and alignment across functions.
- Hardware / Telecom / Cloud: end-user and data center hardware, networking, telecom and carrier services, public cloud and hosting (IaaS/PaaS), consumption and commitment models (e.g., Software: enterprise, SaaS and infrastructure software; platform and ecosystem vendors (ERP, security, data, collaboration, AI)).
- Technology Services: IT consulting, systems integration, application development and managed services, staff augmentation, outsourcing and offshore delivery models.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Information Technology or related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
- 7+ years of experience in strategic sourcing, category management or procurement, with at least 5 years focused on technology categories; experience in the assigned category (hardware/telecom/cloud, software or technology services) required.
- 3+ years of experience leading or coaching team members; experience managing teams across multiple geographies is preferred.
- Demonstrated success negotiating complex, high-value technology contracts and delivering measurable savings.
- Strong understanding of technology commercial models (licensing, subscription, consumption, SOW/T&M/fixed-price, SLAs) and related risk, data privacy and security considerations.
- Ariba, Power BI, Excel).
- 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.
Benefits
- medical
- dental
- vision care
- backup dependent care
- adoption assistance
- infertility coverage
- family building support
- behavioral health solutions
- paid parental leave
- paid caregiver leave
- training programs
- professional development resources
- mentorship programs
- employee resource groups
- volunteer activities
- much more
Salary
Full time Salary Range*
Equal 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.
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.