Director, Vendor Engagement Strategy

Centene Corporation

20h

About The Position

You could be the one who changes everything for our 28 million members by using technology to improve health outcomes around the world. As a diversified, national organization, Centene's technology professionals have access to competitive benefits including a fresh perspective on workplace flexibility. Position Purpose: Responsible for identifying, evaluating, and integrating external innovations that can drive strategic advantage for the enterprise. This leader serves as the organization's external radar—scanning the global technology landscape for disruptive trends, startups, academic research, and vendor capabilities that advance our business. They translate these insights into actionable opportunities that feed directly into enterprise architecture and strategic planning, ensuring Centene remains ahead of the curve in the AI era.

Requirements

Requires a Bachelor's degree and 12+ years of related experience, including prior management experience.
Or equivalent experience acquired through accomplishments of applicable knowledge, duties, scope and skill reflective of the level of this position.

Responsibilities

Lead a structured, ongoing technology scouting program across startups, research institutions, think tanks, and vendor ecosystems.
Identify and assess emerging technologies, business models, and innovation patterns with potential enterprise impact.
Build and manage an innovation pipeline that aligns with enterprise priorities and domain and product architectural roadmaps.
Collaborate closely with Enterprise Architecture, the CIOs/MTLs and Domain & Product Managers to ensure external insights are translated into strategic design decisions.
Design and oversee pilot programs to test and validate new technologies in partnership with business and IT stakeholders.
Represent Centene in external innovation forums, consortia, and strategic partnerships.
Develop and maintain a knowledge base of emerging trends, competitive intelligence, and innovation benchmarks.
Provide executive-level briefings and recommendations to senior leadership on innovation opportunities and risks.
Performs other duties as assigned.
Complies with all policies and standards.