Senior Contracts & GPO Manager

Essity•Charlotte, NC

About The Position

The Contract & GPO Manager is responsible for leading and optimizing the organization’s contracting and GPO account execution to drive compliant revenue growth, margin performance, and customer access. This role provides strategic and operational leadership across commercial contracts, GPO relationships, and government accounts while managing and developing a high performing team. The role has direct responsibility for 4 Contract Support Specialists and 3 GPO Managers, ensuring strong cross functional alignment with Sales, Marketing, Pricing Finance and Legal. We’re looking for people who embody our values, aren’t afraid to challenge, innovate, experiment, and move at a fast pace. We’re always looking for ways to improve our products and ourselves. If this is you, we’d love to talk.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred
7–10+ years of experience in contracts, GPO management, pricing, or commercial operations (healthcare/medtech preferred)
Proven people leadership experience
Strong understanding of GPO and IDN contracting environments
High attention to detail with strong executive communication skills

Responsibilities

Leadership & People Management Lead, coach, and develop a team of 7 direct reports, fostering accountability, capability development, and continuous improvement. Set clear performance objectives, monitor execution, and ensure workload prioritization aligns with commercial strategy. Build a collaborative, service‑oriented culture that enables Sales and Key Account teams to win while maintaining compliance and margin discipline.
Contracting & Commercial Excellence Own the end‑to-end contract lifecycle, including contract review, approval, implementation, maintenance, and renewal. Ensure contract terms, pricing, rebates, and eligibility are executed accurately and consistently across systems and customers. Partner with Legal, Pricing, and Finance to mitigate risk, ensure compliance, and protect profitability. Drive standardization, simplification, and process efficiency across contracting workflows.
GPO Strategy & Execution Lead the organization’s GPO strategy and execution, ensuring alignment with commercial priorities and therapy area growth strategies. Manage relationships with national and regional GPOs, overseeing contract compliance, performance tracking, and opportunity identification. Support GPO Managers in negotiations, contract implementation, and performance optimization. Translate GPO agreements into actionable field guidance and ensure effective downstream execution.
Cross‑Functional Partnership Serve as the central commercial interface between Sales, Marketing, Pricing Finance, Legal and IT for all contract and GPO‑related matters. Enable Sales and Strategic Accounts with clear contract guidance, tools, and training. Support deal structuring and complex negotiations while balancing growth, risk, and margin objectives.