Senior Principal Strategist, Strategy & Planning

Value Apothecaries; United States; On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

Cencora is seeking a senior leader to transform the Enterprise Infrastructure & Cloud (EIC) into a product-led operating model. You will drive productization across Network & Access, Digital Workplace, Cloud Platform Engineering, IT Operations, and Architecture, aligning ~850 staff and a $150M plan to product roadmaps and performance metrics.

You will serve as advisor to the SVP of EIC and coordinate with Cyber Security, Finance, HR, Procurement, and Legal to redefine roles, rituals, and

Responsibilities

• Leads the transformation of the EIC organization from project- and ticket-based delivery to a product operating model across domains such as Network & Access, Digital Workplace, Cloud Platform Engineering, Private Hosting, IT Operations & ITSM, MA&D, and Architecture.
• Owns the EIC product taxonomy, product owner roles, funding models, and operating cadence, coordinating with Information Security and application teams to redesign roles and rituals.
• Manages the EIC workforce plan (staffing and contractor mix), workforce forecasting, and talent reviews in partnership with HR and Finance.
• Oversees the end-to-end delivery portfolio, including intake, prioritization, resourcing, dependency management, milestone tracking, and executive reporting, with governance forums for trade-offs.
• Represents EIC in enterprise technology investment prioritization, managing a multi-hundred-million-dollar funding envelope against demand from six tech organizations, and maintaining a Jira/ServiceNow delivery dashboard.
• Owns the EIC operating and capital plan (~$166M) including budgeting, forecasting, variance analysis, and SOX/compliance controls.
• Drives cost optimization programs and vendor management to improve economic outcomes and value realization across the EIC portfolio.

Job description

Our team members are at the heart of everything we do. At Cencora, we are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures, and every person here is essential to us being able to deliver on that purpose. 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.

Job Profile Summary

Leads the operating engine of Cencora's global Enterprise Infrastructure & Cloud (EIC) organization and drives its transformation to a product operating model enabled by AI Ops. Owns how EIC plans, funds, staffs, and delivers through a product lens: a ~850-person global workforce plan aligned to product teams, a ~$150M operating and capital plan tied to product funding, and an EIC delivery portfolio driven by product roadmaps. Leads the transition of every EIC domain from project- and ticket-based delivery to the product model, defining the product taxonomy, product owner accountabilities, and operating cadence, and advancing adoption from the current 60%+ baseline to full coverage. Serves as principal advisor and force multiplier to the SVP of EIC and as the connective tissue between EIC and the Office of the CDIO, Cyber Security, Finance, HR, Procurement, and Legal. Success is measured by whether EIC operates as a product organization that delivers on commitment, on budget, with the right people in the right seats, and whether the enterprise's technology spend, supplier base, and investment portfolio are demonstrably better governed as a result.

Job Description

• Product Transformation: Leads the transition of the ~850-person EIC organization from a project- and ticket-based model to a product operating model spanning Network & Access, Digital Workplace, Cloud Platform Engineering, Private Hosting, IT Operations & ITSM, MA&D, and Architecture, advancing coverage from the current 60%+ baseline to full adoption in alignment with the GDATS maturity model.
• Defines and maintains the EIC product taxonomy, including product boundaries, product owner accountabilities, funding model, and operating cadence, and extends it to products jointly owned with Information Security and application organizations; partners with domain leaders to redesign roles, rituals, and decision rights.
• Talent Strategy & Position Management: Owns the EIC global workforce plan of ~520 employees and ~325 contractors, including the position roster, approved headcount envelope, insource/outsource mix aligned to the defined Talent Strategy.
• Governs requisition approval, backfills, contractor-to-employee conversion, organizational design, and span-of-control discipline with HR and Finance; maintains a rolling view of skills supply and demand as the organization shifts from infrastructure operations to platform and software engineering; leads succession planning and talent review preparation for the EIC leadership team.
• Project & Portfolio Management: Owns the EIC delivery portfolio end to end, including intake, prioritization, resourcing, dependency management, milestone tracking, and executive reporting, and runs the governance forums where portfolio trade-offs are made.
• Represents EIC in the enterprise technology investment prioritization process, where an ~$80M+ annual funding envelope is allocated against ~$135M+ of demand from six technology organizations; builds and maintains the EIC delivery dashboard, sustaining 90%+ of work visible in Jira or ServiceNow.
• Financial Management: Owns the ~$166M EIC operating and capital plan, including annual budget build, monthly forecast, variance analysis, accrual discipline, and year-end landing, and ensures EIC financial controls withstand SOX audit and internal control review.
• Delivers committed savings targets and builds the business cases and investment narratives that secure funding for EIC's strategic agenda, translating infrastructure and cloud economics into unit cost, cost-to-serve, and run/grow/transform terms the business understands.
• Enterprise Hardware & Software Program: Runs the enterprise hardware and software spend reduction program on behalf of the company: ~$400M of annual addressable spend, a 5-10% reduction target over 24 months, seven workstreams, and cross-functional leads from Enterprise Architecture, Finance/FP&A, Procurement, Software Asset Management, IT Finance, and Information Security.
• Owns the EIC renewal portfolio of ~$320M across ~835 agreements and ~273 publishers and OEMs through a rolling 18-month renewal calendar; enforces the PADU disposition framework with Enterprise Architecture and reports savings on a Finance-validated basis only.
• Sourcing & Vendor Management: Establishes and runs the EIC vendor performance management framework, including scorecards, QBRs, service-level accountability, and escalation paths, in partnership with Procurement, and drives supplier consolidation and standardization where it improves economics or outcomes.
• Office of EIC: Runs t