Associate VP, IT Procurement & Supplier Management

Humana

8d • $184,800 - $254,100 • Remote

About The Position

Technology is one of the organization’s largest, fastest-changing and most strategically important areas of external investment. The Associate Vice President, IT Procurement & Supplier Management will lead a 40+ associate organization responsible for converting annual technology spend into business capability, innovation, speed, resilience and financial value. The AVP will serve as the senior Procurement partner to the Technology Leadership Team and reshape how Technology, Procurement and the supplier ecosystem work together. The role leads category and supplier management across enterprise software and SaaS, cloud and infrastructure, hardware, telecommunications, technology labor, consulting, managed services and other technology-enabled services. Working across Technology, Finance, Legal, Risk, Privacy, Information Security and Procurement, the AVP will engage earlier in strategy and investment planning, improve supplier economics and performance, strengthen commercial leverage, reduce friction and cycle time, and build a commercially sophisticated, analytically rigorous and technology-enabled team. Success will be measured by whether Technology moves faster, makes better investment decisions and receives greater value, innovation and resilience from its supplier ecosystem.

Requirements

• 15+ years of progressive experience in Procurement, Strategic Sourcing, Category Management, Supplier Management, Technology Finance or related commercial leadership roles.
• Significant leadership responsibility for complex Technology spend and supplier portfolios.
• 7+ years of people leadership experience, including building, transforming and retaining high-performing teams.
• Deep commercial expertise across several Technology domains, such as software and SaaS, cloud and infrastructure, technology labor, managed services, hardware, telecommunications or consulting.
• Demonstrated success leading large Technology portfolios and high-value strategic negotiations. Experience with portfolios approaching or exceeding $1 billion in annual spend is strongly preferred.
• Proven ability to advise CIO-level executives and influence decisions without relying on positional authority.
• Demonstrated ability to translate Technology and business strategies into category, supplier, demand and commercial strategies.
• Strong command of licensing, subscription, consumption, capacity, outcome-based and managed-service commercial models.
• Experience evaluating total cost of ownership, supplier economics, contractual structures, switching costs and value-realization assumptions.
• Demonstrated success in strategic supplier governance, performance improvement, risk mitigation and executive escalation.
• Track record of delivering substantial financial value while balancing speed, service, innovation, resilience and enterprise risk.
• Experience simplifying end-to-end processes, clarifying cross-functional accountability and leading meaningful operating-model change.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a Fortune 500, healthcare, financial services, highly regulated or similarly complex enterprise.
• Advanced degree or relevant professional certification.
• Experience with cloud economics, FinOps, software asset management, technology business management or consumption optimization.
• Experience applying analytics, AI, automation or contract intelligence to improve productivity and decision quality.
• Experience integrating Category Management and Supplier Management into a unified value model.
• Experience leading through significant organizational change or enterprise transformation.

Responsibilities

• Serve as Technology’s Strategic Commercial Partner: Serve as the senior Procurement relationship leader and trusted commercial advisor to the Technology Leadership Team. Translate Technology strategy, architecture, investment priorities and multi-year roadmaps into integrated category, supplier and commercial strategies. Connect Technology planning and funding decisions with Procurement’s sourcing pipeline, renewal calendar and value commitments. Engage before requirements and supplier preferences are fixed, helping leaders evaluate make, buy, partner, renew, consolidate and exit alternatives. Shape demand, challenge unnecessary complexity and clarify the total cost, risk and strategic implications of commercial decisions. Bring external market intelligence, supplier perspectives and competitive alternatives into Technology planning. Deliver concise, decision-ready executive recommendations covering value, cost, risk, contractual exposure, optionality and tradeoffs. Establish Procurement as an extension of Technology leadership rather than a downstream execution function.
• Accelerate Execution and Simplify the Experience: Lead the overall Technology-Procurement commercial experience while maintaining clear decision rights across enterprise functions. Identify and remove bottlenecks across intake, sourcing, due diligence, contracting, approvals and renewals. Establish transparent service levels, ownership, escalation paths and performance measures. Create differentiated pathways based on value, complexity and risk so routine work moves quickly and consequential decisions receive appropriate rigor. Use intake, orchestration, analytics and automation to improve transparency, data quality and cross-functional coordination. Reduce fire drills through disciplined demand and renewal planning, early risk identification and clear executive decision calendars. Build a culture of urgency, accountability and practical problem-solving focused on measurable speed-to-value.
• Lead Category Strategy and Enterprise Value Creation: Own enterprise strategies for software and SaaS, cloud, infrastructure, hardware, telecommunications, technology labor, consulting and managed services. Develop multi-year category strategies grounded in Technology roadmaps, architecture direction, consumption data, market intelligence, benchmarks, cost drivers and emerging technologies. Maintain a forward-looking portfolio of sourcing, renewal, optimization, demand-management and supplier-transformation opportunities sufficient to meet enterprise-value commitments. Drive value beyond price through license and consumption optimization, demand reduction, supplier and application rationalization, labor productivity, commercial-model redesign, contractual value recovery, working capital, risk reduction and supplier innovation. Partner with Technology Finance to connect commitments, utilization, consumption and forecasts with realized financial outcomes. Evaluate total Technology economics, including implementation, integration, migration, support, adoption, exit costs and technical-debt implications. Personally lead or sponsor the organization’s most complex, highest-value and highest-risk Technology negotiations. Build negotiation strategies using supplier economics, benchmarks, competitive alternatives, contractual rights, switching costs and enterprise-wide leverage. Establish disciplined renewal planning that creates leverage well before deadlines and eliminates surprise renewals. Partner with Finance to establish credible baselines and ensure commercial outcomes translate into measurable enterprise impact.
• Shape the Technology Supplier Ecosystem: Lead Supplier Managers responsible for strategic and enterprise-critical Technology suppliers. Segment suppliers based on criticality, value, dependency, concentration, switching complexity and risk. Define the strategic role each critical supplier should play in the future Technology ecosystem. Establish executive governance, supplier scorecards, performance expectations, issue-management disciplines and joint value plans. Hold suppliers accountable for service, contractual commitments, commercial competitiveness, productivity, innovation and business outcomes. Coordinate relationships with suppliers serving multiple areas of the enterprise to create one company position and stronger negotiating leverage. Use strategic suppliers to identify emerging capabilities, market shifts and innovation opportunities. Partner across Technology and Risk functions to address cybersecurity, resiliency, concentration, financial, operational, data and fourth-party risks. Establish credible remediation, transition and exit strategies when supplier performance, economics, risk or strategic fit falls short.
• Build a High-Performance, Technology-Enabled Team: Lead and develop a 40+ associate organization of Category Managers, Supplier Managers and procurement professionals. Set clear expectations for strategic partnership, commercial judgment, speed, accountability, executive communication and enterprise impact. Shift the team from processing demand to shaping decisions, anticipating opportunities and influencing Technology strategy. Build deep capabilities in Technology markets, cloud and consumption economics, software licensing, technology labor, total-cost analysis, category strategy, complex negotiation, supplier economics and executive influence. Increase capacity by simplifying work, standardizing repeatable activities, leveraging shared services and automating work before adding resources. Embed AI, analytics and digital tools into strategy development, negotiation preparation, contract analysis, supplier monitoring and risk identification, with clear human accountability. Hold leaders accountable for outcomes, stakeholder experience, commitments, talent development and organizational health. Strengthen succession readiness and develop leaders who can independently advise senior executives and constructively challenge assumptions.
• Modernize the IT Procurement Operating Model: Design an integrated operating model connecting Category Management, Supplier Management, sourcing, contracting, Procurement operations, Finance and enterprise centers of excellence. Clarify accountabilities, decision rights and handoffs to eliminate duplication and unnecessary layers. Create an authoritative executive view of Technology demand, active engagements, renewals, supplier performance, contractual exposure, risks and required decisions. Establish a disciplined operating cadence covering category strategy, pipeline, value delivery, cycle time, renewals, supplier performance, risk and talent. Use analytics, market intelligence, contract intelligence and AI to identify opportunities and risks proactively. Improve adoption of preferred suppliers and commercial standards while simplifying the stakeholder experience. Partner with the Chief Procurement Officer and Procurement Leadership Team to advance Procurement as an enterprise force multiplier that improves decisions, accelerates execution and creates greater value.

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• time off (including paid time off, company and personal holidays, paid parental and caregiver leave)
• short-term and long-term disability
• life insurance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive
• Education Level: Associate degree