Director, Technology Strategic Sourcing & Category Management

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. Apply today! Job Details Serves as the single accountable owner for an assigned technology category or sub-category within Cencora's global data and technology indirect spend, responsible for its roadmap in both the short and long term. Builds and delivers the category plan, leads sourcing events and supplier negotiations, and manages supplier performance, contract compliance, and third-party risk for that scope. Acts as the defined sourcing business partner to assigned Technology leaders, maintaining a forward view of demand, budgets, and renewals so requirements are planned ahead rather than processed tactically as they land. Translates business and technology demand into sourcing approaches that improve total cost of ownership, service levels, and supply continuity, and secures stakeholder adoption of those strategies. Leads a small team or set of sourcing professionals, and strengthens category processes, tools, and market intelligence to improve decision quality and sustained value delivery. Responsibilities Directs technology category strategies, sourcing plans, renewal calendars, and pipeline priorities for assigned spend areas in alignment with business and technology demand, service, quality, and cost objectives. Leads sourcing events, supplier evaluations, negotiations, and award recommendations to secure commercial value and category continuity within policy and control requirements. Directs supplier performance, contract compliance, and issue resolution to address service, quality, risk, and continuity concerns across the assigned portfolio. Manages category budgets, savings tracking, resource utilization, and delivery plans using financial, consumption, and quality metrics. Oversees team performance, assigns and reviews work, coaches development, and supports talent decisions to maintain clear routines, accountability, and escalation paths. Category Ownership and Operating Model Acts as the single accountable owner for the assigned sub-category, including its roadmap, in-year execution plan, and multi-year strategy. Defines the sub-category profile, spend baseline, supplier landscape, and risk assessment, and keeps them current as demand shifts. Operates within the category-based model rather than a vendor-tier model, segmenting suppliers by value, risk, and criticality instead of by relationship status. Supports transition from the legacy vendor-tier structure, including scope clarification, knowledge transfer, and adoption of new ways of working within the assigned area. Coordinates with peer category owners, including the MA&D category, where suppliers, agreements, or requirements overlap. Portfolio and Demand Management Serves as the defined sourcing business partner to assigned Technology leaders and their teams for all requirements within the sub-category. Runs a standing cadence with business partners to capture project plans, budgets, and demand signals ahead of need, and to flag renewals with enough runway to preserve leverage. Maintains a rolling demand and renewal forecast for the sub-category so purchases are planned and proactively managed rather than handled tactically on arrival. Aggregates and challenges requirements across teams to reduce duplication, consolidate overlapping suppliers and licenses, and right-size specifications and consumption before sourcing begins. Owns assigned vendor relationships within the sub-category, including business reviews, performance discussions, roadmap alignment, and day-to-day escalation. Category Strategy and Sourcing Builds and maintains the category plan, including sourcing approach, supplier strategy, savings targets, and sequencing of initiatives. Runs competitive sourcing events end to end, including RFx design, supplier evaluation against business requirements, technical specifications and security standards, scenario analysis, and award recommendation. Identifies alternative supplier models, licensing and consumption constructs, and demand management opportunities that reduce total cost of ownership. Maintains market and benchmark intelligence for the sub-category, including rate, unit price, and consumption comparisons. Negotiation and Contracting Leads negotiations for assigned agreements, securing commercial and legal terms that optimize total cost of ownership, quality, and service delivery. Negotiates commercial constructs with Legal support, including master agreements, statements of work, service levels and credits, subscription and license terms, renewal, true-up, and termination provisions. Coordinates with Information Security, Privacy, and Risk on data protection, audit rights, and regulatory requirements before award. Escalates material commercial risks, exceptions, and supplier disputes with a clear recommendation. Supplier and Vendor Management Manages supplier performance for the assigned sub-category through scorecards, performance reviews, service level tracking, and corrective action plans. Monitors contract compliance and consumption against entitlements, and resolves invoicing, true-up, and audit exposure issues. Executes supplier risk assessments and remediation activity in line with the third-party risk framework. Identifies contract improvement and renegotiation opportunities, supplier consolidation options, and supplier development actions. Financial Management and Value Delivery Tracks and reports category spend, savings pipeline, and realized value, and validates outcomes with Finance and business partners. Builds cost models, bid analyses, and business c