Director, Category Management

: Job Summary: This director level position is responsible for directing and overseeing the development of category/spend strategies for all key categories by leveraging advanced expertise of the markets, suppliers and stakeholder needs; fostering and maintaining relationships with key internal client and supplier leadership; overseeing end-to-end delivery of business needs for categories under management; demonstrating a deep understanding of client initiatives and short, medium, and long-term goals; ensuring alignment of initiatives and strategies with client expectations; managing the adoption of change practices with customers, suppliers and stakeholders to drive strategic programs; and partnering with executive leadership to review and drive decisions. This position is also responsible for directing the RFP process and supplier negotiations; overseeing the development and execution of RFPs to drive the strategic sourcing process; reviewing and leveraging analytics and insights to ensure data-driven decisions; analyzing category spend to understand price drivers and trends; applying cost and supply market analytics; and championing a digital mindset to adopt new technologies in the source to pay space. Essential Responsibilities:

• Prepares individuals for growth opportunities and advancement; builds internal collaborative networks for self and others. Solicits and acts on performance feedback; drives collaboration to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to foster performance improvement. Demonstrates continuous learning; oversees the recruitment, selection, and development of talent; ensures performance management guidelines and expectations to achieve business needs. Stays up to date with organizational best practices, processes, benchmarks, and industry trends; shares best practices within and across teams. Motivates and empowers teams; maintains a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning resource plans with business objectives.
• Provides guidance when difficult decisions need to be made; creates opportunities for expanded scope of decision making and impact. Oversees the operation of multiple units within a department by identifying member and operational needs; ensures the management of work assignment completion; translates business strategy into actionable business requirements; ensures products and / or services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies. Gains cross-functional support for business plans and priorities; assumes responsibility for decision making; sets standards, measures progress, and fosters resolution of escalated issues. Communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts and incorporates them into business plans; prioritizes and distributes resources. Removes obstacles that impact performance; guides performance and develops contingency plans accordingly; ensures teams accomplish business objectives.
• Directs and oversees the development of category/spend strategies for all key categories by leveraging advanced expertise of the markets, suppliers and stakeholder needs; ensuring clear, informed decisions aligned with a multi-year strategy; overseeing end-to-end delivery of business needs for all categories under direction; keeping current on external and internal influences that may impact the larger organization (e.g., Healthcare Reform, macroeconomic issues, etc.); and partnering with executive leadership to review and drive decisions.
• Fosters and maintains long-term relationships with key internal client and supplier leadership by leveraging strong, collaborative partnerships with leaders across the business to gain buy-in and deliver value; demonstrating a deep understanding of client initiatives and short, medium, and long-term goals; partnering with suppliers to identify and pursue opportunities to drive improved quality and delivery performance; assuring alignment of initiatives and strategies with client expectations to drive value, innovation, service/supply resiliency, quality of care and governance; and partnering with key cross-functional stakeholders (e.g., Portfolio Leads, Sourcing, Procurement Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, etc.) to advance Category Management capabilities.
• Directs the RFP process and supplier negotiations, and ensures contracting to deliver strategic value by leveraging advanced negotiation strategies, tactics, and processes in line with situational demands; leading and overseeing contract negotiations in partnership with Legal; and overseeing the development and execution of RFPs to drive the strategic sourcing process.
• Reviews and leverages advanced analytics and insights to ensure data-driven decisions by reviewing the analysis of category spend to understand price drivers and trends; applying cost and supply market analytics to develop and drive category strategies; and championing a digital mindset to adopt new technologies in the source to pay space.
• Oversees the adoption of change practices with customers, suppliers and stakeholders throughout the implementation and/or modification of new or existing strategic programs (e.g., Source to Pay transformation, Category Management training programs, etc.).
• Directs efforts to support KPs Sustainability and Environmental goals and serves as an advocate to further advance results in Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP).

Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum two (2) years supervisory experience.
• Bachelors degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Management Science, Business, Finance, Accounting, Contract Administration, Procurement or a directly related field and minimum nine (9) years experience category management, strategic sourcing, or a directly related field. Additional equivalent work experience in a directly related field may be substituted for the degree requirement. Advanced degrees may be substituted for the work experience requirements.

Additional Requirements: PrimaryLocation : California,Pleasanton,Pleasanton Tech Cntr Building A HoursPerWeek : 40 Shift : Day Workdays : Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri WorkingHoursStart : 08:00 AM WorkingHoursEnd : 05:00 PM Job Schedule : Full-time Job Type : Standard Employee Status : Regular Employee Group/Union Affiliation : NUE-IT-01|NUE|Non Union Employee Job Level : Director/Senior Director Job Category : Supply Chain & Logistics Department : KPIT ADMIN - KPD STRATEGIC TECH - 9601 Travel : Yes, 10 % of the Time Kaiser Permanente is an equal opportunity employer committed to fair, respectful, and inclusive workplaces. Applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic or status.