Sr Consultant, Procurement Category Management

Nationwide•Columbus, OH

7h•Hybrid

About The Position

This role serves as the enterprise category leader for Claims Management, with primary ownership of both the Material Damage and Expert Services categories. The Sr. Consultant is accountable for developing and executing category strategies and sourcing roadmaps that align supplier capabilities, contracts, and commercial structures with Claims and enterprise objectives. The role leads end-to-end category governance, including supplier segmentation and relationship strategies, complex sourcing initiatives and negotiations, contract management, and performance oversight. Through transformation initiatives such as process improvement, standardization, risk mitigation, and change management, the Sr. Consultant strengthens the resilience, scalability, and long-term effectiveness of the Claims supplier ecosystem. This role acts as the primary strategic partner to Claims and cross-functional stakeholders, shaping demand, challenging assumptions, and influencing decisions through clear, data-driven insights. The Sr. Consultant represents Procurement as a thought leader by connecting external market trends and internal performance data to executive decision-making and enterprise prioritization. In addition, the role provides formal people leadership for a team of 2–4 associates, setting direction, clarifying priorities, and building capability through coaching and mentoring while fostering a high-performance, high-accountability culture. Procuring goods and services necessary to successfully run and grow our business is critical. Whether working to enable the processes that support buying decisions or finding the best supplier, price or contract terms, we bring expertise, skill and talent to the task. As a Senior Consultant, you'll be responsible for finding and acquiring goods and services that deliver long-term value for Nationwide. We'll count on you to find ways to enhance processes and drive efficiency. You'll have opportunities to advise business units on the acquisition of complex, specialized and highly technical products and services, including SAAS software licenses, offshore outsourcing, Marketing, Employee Benefits and more.

Requirements

Undergraduate degree in supply management, procurement, business, finance, accounting, management information systems, economics or related fields strongly preferred.
Procurement, purchasing or project management designations, as applicable.
Typically, 10 or more years of business experience in all aspects of procurement processes, specific to the specialized category, including contract negotiation and project management or equivalent professional experience in other closely related industries.
Proven, specialized knowledge in a technical spend domain (category).
Thorough understanding of supply chain management and procurement policies, programs, practices and procedures.
Knowledge or familiarity of current information technologies.
Demonstrated knowledge in project management concepts and techniques.
Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills to interact and collaborate with all levels in the business units and external suppliers.
Ability to display executive presence and command skills.
Ability to develop and influence relationships with suppliers and top-level leaders.
Ability to negotiate highly complex and integrated business solutions which include, contracts, fee schedules, legal terms and conditions and service level agreements.
Advanced skills in mathematical, financial or statistical concepts to handle all aspects of financial planning and analysis as well as procurement processes.
Analytical and business savvy to develop, recommend and implement innovative and sophisticated solutions.
Demonstrated ability to interpret and understand the most complex legal documents and contracts.
Ability to present such material and information to a variety of audiences.
Advanced proficiency in common office software, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, accounts payable systems.
Ability to keep abreast of current technical category trends.

Responsibilities

Serves as the enterprise category leader for Claims Management, with primary ownership of both the Material Damage and Expert Services categories.
Develops and executes category strategies and sourcing roadmaps that align supplier capabilities, contracts, and commercial structures with Claims and enterprise objectives.
Leads end-to-end category governance, including supplier segmentation and relationship strategies, complex sourcing initiatives and negotiations, contract management, and performance oversight.
Strengthens the resilience, scalability, and long-term effectiveness of the Claims supplier ecosystem through transformation initiatives such as process improvement, standardization, risk mitigation, and change management.
Acts as the primary strategic partner to Claims and cross-functional stakeholders, shaping demand, challenging assumptions, and influencing decisions through clear, data-driven insights.
Represents Procurement as a thought leader by connecting external market trends and internal performance data to executive decision-making and enterprise prioritization.
Provides formal people leadership for a team of 2–4 associates, setting direction, clarifying priorities, and building capability through coaching and mentoring while fostering a high-performance, high-accountability culture.
Partners and collaborates with multiple Business Partners, Finance, Technology and other Procurement team members to manage new, complex sourcing requests, current contract pipelines for multimillion dollar categories and vendor agreements.
Works with reporting teams to develop data analytics and make changes to Procurement policy and procedures to ensure a predictable, easy-to-follow and efficient procurement process.
Conducts extensive, continuous industry research and benchmark analysis within a defined spend category.
Establishes a detailed category strategy for a highly technical domain, monitors purchasing trends and identifies top suppliers and innovations within the category.
Consults with Business Partners and acts as a trusted advisor to manage Business Unit and Procurement relationship, by building forecasts of demand, service levels requirements, Total Cost of Ownership models, contractual and other risk requirements (by category domain, actual and forecasted spend), identifying cost reduction opportunities, and developing recommendations.
Acts as Project Manager executing with business partners, Finance, and Technology.
Facilitates highly complex competitive bid activity, including requests for proposal (RFP), quote (RFQ) or information (RFI), where applicable.
Negotiates the terms of the contract, including conditions, clauses, and service level agreements.
Documents achieved savings for Finance approval.
Assesses supplier risk prior to contract and collaborates with applicable risk partners, including Information Risk Management, Technology Review Boards, Privacy etc., for additional specialized assessments or necessary contract provisions.
Analyzes and aligns Category goals and objectives to maximize usage of top suppliers and best practices in Sustainability.
Mentors and trains new associates on Procurement policy, processes and helps them develop Sourcing Skills.
May perform other responsibilities as assigned.