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About the job

McKesson is an impact-driven, Fortune 10 company that touches virtually every aspect of healthcare. We are known for delivering insights, products, and services that make quality care more accessible and affordable. Here, we focus on the health, happiness, and well-being of you and those we serve – we care.

What you do at McKesson matters. We foster a culture where you can grow, make an impact, and are empowered to bring new ideas. Together, we thrive as we shape the future of health for patients, our communities, and our people. If you want to be part of tomorrow’s health today, we want to hear from you.

Role Overview

The Category Manager, IT Software and Services is responsible for developing and executing strategic sourcing and category management strategies across enterprise technology spend, including software, SaaS, cloud solutions, IT professional services, technology consulting, implementation services, managed services, and other technology-related services.

This role leads the end-to-end sourcing lifecycle, including demand planning, market analysis, competitive sourcing, supplier evaluation, contract negotiation, supplier relationship management, and ongoing cost and performance optimization. The Category Manager will partner closely with IT, Information Security, Privacy, Legal, Finance, and business stakeholders to ensure sourcing strategies support technology roadmaps, business objectives, risk requirements, and financial goals.

The position requires a strategic and commercially focused procurement professional who can manage complex technology agreements, optimize total cost of ownership, mitigate third-party risk, and develop strong relationships with technology leaders and suppliers.

Key Responsibilities

Category Strategy & Planning

Develop and execute comprehensive category strategies for IT software and technology services.

Establish multi-year sourcing plans and category roadmaps aligned with IT strategies, budgets, projects, and anticipated renewals.

Analyze spend, supplier landscape, market conditions, emerging technologies, and industry trends to identify sourcing, consolidation, and cost optimization opportunities.

Develop strategies to reduce supplier fragmentation and leverage enterprise purchasing power.

Maintain visibility into demand and upcoming technology initiatives to enable proactive sourcing rather than reactive purchasing.

This strategic orientation is consistent with your existing Category Manager role, which emphasizes category strategy, market analysis, long-term sourcing plans, measurable value, and alignment with organizational objectives.

Strategic Sourcing & Negotiations

Lead end-to-end sourcing initiatives, including requirements gathering, RFI/RFP development, supplier identification, competitive bidding, evaluation, negotiations, award recommendations, and contracting.

Lead complex commercial negotiations for software and IT services agreements.

Negotiate favorable pricing, licensing structures, service levels, renewal terms, termination rights, payment terms, and other key commercial provisions.

Apply total cost of ownership principles when comparing supplier proposals and commercial models.

Develop negotiation strategies using market intelligence, competitive benchmarks, supplier leverage, and business requirements.

Your current enterprise software description specifically calls for negotiation of licensing models, pricing structures, renewal terms, usage/access rights, data ownership, audit rights, and termination provisions.

Software & Technology Procurement

Manage procurement activities across technology categories such as:

SaaS and cloud-based applications

Enterprise software and licensed applications

Cloud platforms and infrastructure solutions

Data and analytics solutions

Cybersecurity technology

IT professional services

Technology consulting

Software implementation and integration services

Managed IT services

Application development and support

Technical staffing and project-based resources

Other technology-related services

Contracting & Commercial Management

Lead commercial development and negotiation of Master Service Agreements (MSAs), Statements of Work (SOWs), Software/SaaS Agreements, Order Forms, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and related technology agreements.

Partner with Legal and business stakeholders to establish commercially appropriate contractual terms.

Evaluate supplier pricing models, license metrics, resource models, rate cards, deliverables, milestones, service levels, and acceptance criteria.

Establish commercial protections supporting performance accountability and flexibility as business requirements change.

Proactively manage renewals to reduce unnecessary spend and avoid unfavorable automatic renewal conditions.

Stakeholder Partnership

Serve as the strategic sourcing partner to IT and technology leadership.

Partner with stakeholders to understand technology roadmaps, budgets, project pipelines, business requirements, and sourcing priorities.

Collaborate with Information Security, Privacy, Legal, Finance, and other stakeholders throughout supplier evaluation and contracting.

Provide procurement recommendations and commercial insights that support supplier selection and business decision-making.

Facilitate cross-functional sourcing teams and establish clear sourcing timelines, responsibilities, and decision criteria.

Your existing sourcing materials already emphasize partnership with IT, Information Security, Legal, Finance, and business stakeholders, including alignment with technology roadmaps and enterprise architecture requirements.

Supplier & Performance Management

Develop and maintain strategic relationships with key technology suppliers.

Conduct supplier business reviews and monitor contractual commitments, service levels, pricing, and overall supplier performance.

Identify opportunities for supplier consolidation, renegotiation, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Manage supplier escalations involving commercial or contractual issues.

Support supplier segmentation and strategic supplier management initiatives.

Risk, Security & Compliance

Partner with Information Security, Privacy, Legal, and other stakeholders to identify and mitigate third-party technology risk.

Ensure appropriate review of cybersecurity, data privacy, regulatory, and compliance requirements during sourcing and contracting.

Evaluate risks related to software licensing, supplier access to company information, data ownership, audit rights, and regulatory obligations.

Maintain appropriate sourcing and contracting documentation to support procurement governance and audit readiness.

Risk management is already an important component of your current role descriptions, particularly software licensing, data privacy, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and third-party risk.

Financial & Value Management

Identify and deliver measurable cost savings, cost avoidance, demand management, and supplier consolidation opportunities.

Analyze supplier proposals and pricing structures to identify opportunities to improve commercial value.

Partner with Finance to validate sourcing benefits and financial impacts.

Track category spend, sourcing activity, contract renewals, savings, and other applicable procurement metrics.

Minimum Requirement

Degree and typically requires 7+ years of relevant experience.

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain Management, Information Systems, Finance, or a related discipline.

Critical Skills

5–7 years of procurement, strategic sourcing, or category management experience , with significant experience sourcing enterprise technology.

Demonstrated experience negotiating complex enterprise software, SaaS, and IT services agreements.

Strong understanding of software licensing, subscription pricing, technology services contracting, and supplier commercial models.

Demonstrated ability to lead competitive RFPs and complex supplier negotiations.

Strong analytical, financial, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.

Ability to influence and collaborate with senior business and technology stakeholders.

Strong written and verbal communication skills.

The 5–7 year experience level is consistent with the Category Manager qualifications in your existing job description.

Preferred

Master’s degree, MBA, or advanced supply chain/procurement education.

CPSM, CSCP, CIPS, or similar procurement/supply chain certification.

Experience sourcing technology within a large, complex or highly regulated organization.

Familiarity with contract lifecycle management, procurement, spend analytics, and supplier management platforms.

Core Competencies

IT Category Strategy

Strategic Sourcing

Software & SaaS Negotiation

IT Services Procurement

Complex Contract Negotiation

Supplier Relationship Management

Total Cost of Ownership Analysis

Financial & Commercial Analysis

Third-Party Risk Management

Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Awareness

Stakeholder & Executive Engagement

Supplier Performance Management

Cross-Functional Leadership

Negotiation & Influencing

Continuous Improvement

Salary: 109,500.00 - 146,000.00 - 182,500.00 USD Annual with 20% MIP Target comp approx. 130-135K with 20% MIP

We are proud to offer a competitive compensation package at McKesson as part of our Total Rewards. This is determined by several factors, including performance, experience and skills, equity, regular job market evaluations, and geographical markets. The pay range shown below is aligned with McKesson's pay philosophy, and pay will always be compliant with any applicable regulations. In addition to base pay, other compensation, such as an annual bonus or long-term incentive opportunities may be offered. For more information regarding benefits at McKesson, please click here.

Our Base Pay Range for this position

$109,500 - $182,500

McKesson has become aware of online recruiting-related scams in which individuals who are not affiliated with or authorized by McKesson are using McKesson’s (or affiliated entities, like CoverMyMeds or RxCrossroads) name in fraudulent emails, job postings or social media messages. In light of these scams, please bear the following in mind:

McKesson Talent Advisors will never solicit money or credit card information in connection with a McKesson job application.

McKesson Talent Advisors do not communicate with candidates via online chatrooms or using email accounts such as Gmail or Hotmail. Note that McKesson does rely on a virtual assistant (Gia) for certain recruiting-related communications with candidates.

McKesson job postings are posted on our career site: careers.mckesson.com .

McKesson is an Equal Opportunity Employer

McKesson provides equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, age, genetic information, or any other legally protected category. For additional information on McKesson’s full Equal Employment Opportunity policies, visit our Equal Employment Opportunity page.

McKesson is committed to being an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and offers opportunities to all job seekers including job seekers with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to assist with your job search or application for employment, please contact us by sending an email to (United States) Disability_Accommodation@McKesson.com or (Canada) Accessibility@mckesson.ca . Resumes or CVs submitted to this email box will not be accepted.

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