Senior Manager, Technology Category Management

Cencora•Harrisburg, PA

5d•$94,500 - $148,060

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Technology Category Management owns assigned technology spend sourcing activity within one of three categories: Hardware/Telecom/Cloud, Software, or Technology Services. The role develops and executes category strategy, partners with business and IT stakeholders to capture value, and leads and coaches the team supporting the category. It is a critical role in delivering savings, risk reduction, and supplier performance for the enterprise. The role’s category focus may include end-user and data center hardware, networking, telecom and carrier services, public cloud and hosting; enterprise, SaaS and infrastructure software; or IT consulting, systems integration, application development, managed services, staff augmentation, outsourcing and offshore delivery models. Cencora states that it provides compensation, benefits, and resources to support an inclusive culture and team members’ well-being, including medical, dental and vision care, family support programs, professional development, mentorship, employee resource groups and volunteer activities.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Finance, Information Technology or a related field.
At least 7 years of experience in strategic sourcing, category management or procurement, with at least 5 years focused on technology categories.
Experience in the assigned category: hardware/telecom/cloud, software or technology services.
At least 3 years of experience leading or coaching team members.
Demonstrated success negotiating complex, high-value technology contracts and delivering measurable savings.
Strong understanding of technology commercial models, including licensing, subscription, consumption, SOW/T&M/fixed-price and SLAs, and related risk, data privacy and security considerations.
Advanced analytical skills and proficiency with spend analytics and sourcing tools such as Ariba, Power BI and Excel.
Excellent communication and executive presence, with demonstrated ability to influence senior business and IT stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

MBA or advanced degree.
Experience managing teams across multiple geographies.
Experience with MA&D sourcing support.
Experience in healthcare, pharma or another regulated industry.
Professional certification such as CPSM, CPP, ISM or similar.

Responsibilities

Define and manage category strategies, sourcing plans and pipeline priorities for assigned technology spend, aligned with business demand, service, quality and cost objectives; develop the annual category plan and contribute to the five-year strategy and long-range plan.
Own category productivity, including cost savings and cost avoidance; analyze spend, demand and market data to identify opportunities such as consolidation, demand management, renegotiation, rate and license optimization, and process improvement; build and maintain a prioritized opportunity pipeline.
Lead sourcing events, supplier evaluations, negotiations and award recommendations, including select enterprise contracts end-to-end with support from Sourcing Managers; guide the team on complex commercial and contractual issues.
Drive delivery of negotiated productivity by validating savings against baseline spend with Finance, ensuring negotiated terms are implemented and adopted by the business, and tracking benefits to completion.
Manage supplier performance, contract compliance and issue resolution across the category portfolio; run business reviews, track SLAs and KPIs, monitor financial and cyber risk, and drive innovation and sustainability commitments.
Lead quarterly business reviews with strategic technology suppliers to evaluate performance and drive supplier accountability.
Coordinate business, IT, Legal, Finance, Security, Sourcing, Corporate Program Managers, and Regional Sourcing/Country Leads to align requirements, specifications, timelines and handoffs.
Serve as the primary contact with business, IT and vendor leadership and provide senior leadership with timely status updates, risks and recommendations.
Manage category budgets, savings tracking, resource utilization and short-term delivery plans using financial, capacity and quality metrics; guide team analysis of category performance.
Maintain knowledge of market trends, emerging technologies such as cloud, AI and cybersecurity, and vendor capabilities to inform strategy and negotiation positions.
Support MA&D and corporate initiatives, including due diligence, synergy identification, Day-1 readiness, vendor rationalization, and post-transaction integration or separation.
Lead process improvements, onboarding, cross-training and local standardization; review and update category policies, procedures and playbooks.
Oversee team performance across onshore and offshore locations; assign and review work, set goals, coach development, support talent decisions, establish routines and accountability, and hold regular team meetings to review progress and remove obstacles.
Bridge procurement domain knowledge—including strategic sourcing, category management and procure-to-pay—with scalable AI deployment to drive operational efficiency, cost-out strategies and automated workflows.
Support the Director in stakeholder engagement and relationship management, fostering innovation, collaboration and cross-functional alignment.