Strategic Sourcing Senior Manager, Temporary Labor & Talent Acquisition Service – Contract
About The Position
The Interim Strategic Sourcing Senior Manager, Temporary Labor & Talent Acquisition Services, will play an enterprise-wide role in helping Vertex secure flexible workforce capacity and external talent-acquisition expertise. The role partners with Talent Acquisition, HR, business leaders, Legal, Finance, Procurement Operations, and suppliers to source, manage, and optimize recruitment solutions, including staffing agencies, managed service providers, recruitment process outsourcing, contingent and executive search, and related talent-services partnerships. The Senior Manager develops and executes sourcing strategies, leads complex sourcing events and commercial negotiations, manages supplier performance and governance, and encourages adoption of scalable workforce and recruitment solutions. The role requires translating business needs, market insight, and supplier capabilities into practical solutions that create value, manage risk, and improve hiring-manager and candidate experiences. It may also support selected consulting-services sourcing projects as strategy in that area develops. This is a W-2 contract assignment for six months, covering a leave of absence, with a hybrid schedule of three days onsite at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston. The position is offered through a third-party agency partner. The stated pay range is $80–$84 per hour, and the role is eligible for overtime pay in accordance with federal and state requirements.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree required.
- 7–10 years of strategic sourcing, procurement, or category-management experience, including complex sourcing events, negotiations, and supplier management.
- Experience in contingent labor, staffing suppliers, MSP programmes, recruitment services such as contingent search or executive search, RPO solutions, or related workforce solutions.
- Knowledge across multiple geographies, with particular focus on US and UK markets.
- Demonstrated ability to manage senior stakeholders, influence decisions, navigate difficult conversations, and build trusted relationships.
- Strong commercial, analytical, project-management, communication, and presentation skills.
- Experience developing sourcing strategies, conducting market research and benchmarking, and identifying cost savings and broader value opportunities.
- Strong supplier relationship and performance-management capability, including governance and business-review processes.
- Experience working in a regulated environment.
- Solid knowledge of ERP, e-sourcing, business-intelligence, and reporting tools.
- Ability to manage multiple complex projects independently while collaborating with Legal, Finance, Compliance, Procurement Operations, HR, Talent Acquisition, and business stakeholders.
- Can-do, AI-ready mindset, ability to thrive in ambiguity, and ability to identify practical ways to improve sourcing outcomes.
Nice To Haves
- Pharmaceutical or life-sciences experience.
- Exposure to VMS platforms and systems such as Coupa or iCertis.
- Consulting-services procurement and SOW experience.
- Broader HR-services or recruitment-procurement experience.
- Experience across the extended-workforce ecosystem, including FMS and related workforce models.
- CCWP or contingent-workforce programme-management certification.
Responsibilities
- Lead category management for Temporary Labor and Talent Acquisition Services, including MSPs, staffing suppliers, RPO, contingent search, executive search, and related workforce solutions.
- Develop and execute category and sourcing strategies aligned with business, HR, and Talent Acquisition priorities across geographies and complex spend areas.
- Lead end-to-end sourcing initiatives, including requirements definition, RFx development, supplier evaluation, competitive bid analysis, stakeholder alignment, negotiation planning, and contract execution.
- Conduct market research, benchmarking, pricing analysis, and supplier assessments, and turn findings into actionable recommendations.
- Identify and deliver cost savings, commercial value, and continuous-improvement opportunities.
- Manage strategic supplier relationships, performance management, governance meetings, Executive Business Reviews, and supplier-improvement plans.
- Lead complex negotiations covering SOWs, MSAs, amendments, renewals, pricing, service levels, and other commercial terms.
- Partner with Business Owners and risk subject-matter experts to identify, assess, and mitigate sourcing risks.
- Influence stakeholders and support adoption of workforce strategies, operating models, tools, and process improvements, including VMS and hiring-manager journey enhancements.
- Support selected consulting-services and SOW sourcing projects as needed.
