Manager, Category Management and Procurement

L.A. Care Health Plan•Los Angeles, CA

About The Position

The Manager, Category Management and Procurement manages and leads the development and execution of multi-year category strategies and implementation of the overall category management and procurement processes for multiple categories and commodities. This position manages continuous improvement and governance of the L.A. Care source-to-pay process. The Manager works closely with key stakeholders and cross-functional teams in developing and executing category plans, strategic sourcing events, supplier performance management (scorecards/quarterly business reviews). The Manager is an expert on all category management, procurement, and relationship management requirements and processes. The position leads and provides consultation to other cross-functional teams with executing cost reduction and related activities across the enterprise. The Manager ensures that the team's collective efforts deliver measurable value (savings, cost avoidance, risk reduction, and service improvements), reduce request for proposal (RFP) and contract cycle time, and increase customer service in support of optimizing L.A. Care operations. This position interfaces with internal and external stakeholders. This position manages all aspects of running an efficient team, including hiring, supervising, coaching, training, disciplining, and motivating direct reports. The Manager also stewards adherence to procurement policy, contracting standards, and audit readiness across assigned categories. Participates and makes recommendation on the department's strategic planning and/or long-term decision-making.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Business or Related Field
In lieu of degree, equivalent education and/or experience may be considered.
At least 6 years of relevant experience managing the full contract lifecycle for service-related categories and commodities.
At least 4 years of experience in leading, supervising, and/ or managing staff, whether directly or indirectly.
Experience drafting, negotiating, red lining, finalizing and managing complex supplier agreements for a wide variety of goods and services.
Strong legal and business acumen with demonstrated ability to manage complex negotiations and relationships.
Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills to secure most favorable terms, prices and/services levels and contract terms.
Ability to provide direction to team members to execute category management, procurement, and contract efforts with outside vendors.
Ability to negotiate and manage relationships and contracts with outside vendors that are in the best interests of L.A. Care.
Tactful, diplomatic in implementing new processes, procedures, and systems across L.A. Care and ability to convince staff and management why changes are needed. Skilled in driving and integrating organizational change across all levels.
Must be proactive, resourceful, and able to find alternative solutions to deliver results.
Demonstrated ability to communicate, problem solve, and work effectively with business, procurement and legal professionals.
Ability to be consultative to internal stakeholders on developing the best category management and strategic sourcing (including contract) options.
Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple projects.
Strong internal stakeholder management skills: capacity to listen, build trusting relationships in all levels of the organization, understand and capture stakeholder's needs and deliver effective solutions.
Good knowledge of legal environment related to purchasing contracts and framework agreements.
Strong analytical skills, with keen understanding of relevant cost drivers.
Demonstrated ability to select, manage, develop and coach others.
Persuasion Skills: Effective negotiator who exhibits high levels of personal integrity and honesty. Skills in planning and coordinating vendor visits and negotiations, and comprehensive knowledge of market conditions. Understanding of the flow and accounting requirements to facilitate document flow and efficiency. Ability to enforce policy compliance.
Strong interpersonal skills for building relationships, fostering teamwork, and creating a positive work environment. Ability to guide and support team members.
Excellent ability to set clear goals, develop strategic plans to achieve those goals, and inspire others to work towards a shared vision.
Skilled in mediating disputes and resolving conflicts in a fair and constructive manner. Must have a deep understanding of financial principles.
Ability and excellent knowledge in developing and managing budgets, forecasting future financial outcomes, and making informed decisions about resource allocation.
Demonstrated ability to make informed decisions.
Deep understanding of the industry, market dynamics, and organizational operations to identify opportunities and navigate challenges. Strong ability and knowledge to analyze market trends, anticipate future changes, and develop long-term strategies that align with the company's goals.

Nice To Haves

Master's Degree in Business or Related Field

Responsibilities

Manages and leads the overall category management and procurement process to ensure high-value execution and integrity of all vendor relationships, pricing and contracts within L.A. Care source-to-pay. Oversees the development and execution of category strategies that align with organizational priorities and deliver measurable savings, efficiency, and compliance. Leverages and optimizes source-to-pay (S2P) systems to improve transparency, accuracy, and cycle time. Ensures vendor data integrity, pricing accuracy, and timely contract execution. Develops requirements, reports, and staff training that reinforce continuous improvement and effective use of procurement systems.
Manage and develops staff, including, but not limited to monitoring of day-to-day activities of staff, monitoring of staff performance, mentoring, training, and cross-training of staff, handling of questions or issues, etc. raised by staff, encourage staff to provide recommendations for relevant process and systems enhancements, among others. Ensures staff are proficient in category management methodologies, procurement policies, and S2P tools. Provides guidance, feedback, and escalation support to enable effective decision-making and issue resolution. Responsible for reporting, budgeting, and policy implementation.
Manages complex, cross-functional sourcing and contracting projects, engaging and updating key stakeholders, developing timelines, leads others to complete deliverables on time and ensures implementation upon approval. Leads Vendor Selection Process/Request for x (RFxs) and negotiations on select high value vendor contracts from cross-functional teams and provides consultative expertise to the team on other vendor RFxs. Ensures documentation, evaluation criteria and award decisions are compliant, transparent and aligned with L.A. Care standards.
Plans, implements and refines systems and procedures to maximize operating efficiency and achieve strategic priorities.
Acts as a subject matter expert (SME) for cross-functional teams on proper category management and procurement execution that balances risks and flexibility. Ensures end-to-end source-to-pay process complies to L.A. Care policies while incorporating best practice for effectiveness, efficiency, and better customer service. Implements end-to-end category management and procurement procedures that are compliant to L.A. Care policies and meet L.A. Care's objectives. Ensures category management and procurement procedures and training materials complement procurement processes. Drives continuous process improvement, automation and adoption of best-practice sourcing governance.
Partners with internal departments to develop effective contract processes, tools, and standard procedures while leveraging the contract management system to its fully extent possible. Responsible for safeguarding the acceptable contract clauses, language, templates, and tools pre-approved by the legal team. Collaborates with key stakeholders to manage risk, maintain compliance and improve contract quality and turnaround time.
Leads and facilitates formal meetings with senior internal staff in developing strategic and tactical plans for category management, vendor relationship management, savings opportunities and/or RFx/contracting strategies that allow L.A. Care to function more effectively. Performs vendor contract inventory analysis and reporting, including contracts expirations, spend and compliance data, for review. These insights inform category plans, sourcing pipelines and vendor consolidation opportunities to strengthen vendor performance and ensure ongoing contract compliance.
Performs other duties as assigned.