Associate Director, Vendor Strategy and Growth Enablement - Remote
About The Position
The Associate Director, Vendor Strategy and Growth Enablement sits on Optum Behavioral Health’s Growth and Strategic Accounts team and is accountable for shaping how vendor and partnership opportunities support enterprise growth, proposal competitiveness, and strategic accounts across lines of business. This role serves as the growth side owner for evaluating, prioritizing, and advancing vendor backed solutions before they enter enterprise intake, governance, or contracting pathways. The Associate Director ensures vendor opportunities are assessed as strategic assets rather than point solutions and that leadership decisions are supported by clear clinical, financial, operational, and regulatory rationale. Operating with a high degree of judgment and influence, this role integrates growth strategy, Clinical Governance, and enterprise decision making to protect proposal credibility, strengthen UnitedHealthcare growth relationships, and prevent downstream risk.
Requirements
- 7+ years of experience in vendor strategy, partnership strategy, healthcare growth, or related roles
- Experience preparing decision ready materials for senior leaders, governance committees, or executive audiences
- Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross functional initiatives through influence rather than authority
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook
- Demonstrated solid business judgment and ability to evaluate tradeoffs across growth opportunity, financial impact, and risk
- Demonstrated excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Demonstrated solid analytical, organizational, and problem solving capabilities
Nice To Haves
- Experience in behavioral health and managed care environments
- Experience with enterprise governance, vendor intake, or contracting review processes
- Experience partnering with finance or actuarial teams on ROI or medical economics assessments
- Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in highly matrixed, ambiguous environments
Responsibilities
- Serve as the accountable owner for vendor and partnership strategy in support of UnitedHealthcare growth, strategic accounts, and proposal development
- Lead vendor and partnership opportunities through C&S Clinical Governance and related enterprise review pathways, ensuring decisions are informed, timely, and defensible
- Own growth side readiness for enterprise vendor intake and contracting workflows, ensuring assumptions are accurate and complete before entering Mercury or procurement processes
- Translate vendor proposals into executive ready narratives and recommendations across clinical value, financial ROI, regulatory risk, and operational feasibility
- Partner with Clinical Strategy, Medical Economics, Actuarial, Procurement, Legal, Compliance, and market teams to align growth with enterprise requirements
- Surface tradeoffs, gaps, and risks early to improve decision quality and prevent downstream risk
- Anticipate future RFP and market needs and proactively shape vendor readiness to support competitive positioning across LOBs
- Strengthen institutional knowledge, governance discipline, and portfolio visibility related to vendor and partnership strategy
Benefits
- comprehensive benefits package
- incentive and recognition programs
- equity stock purchase
- 401k contribution
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
No Education Listed
