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Senior Director, Category Management
Primary Location Pleasanton, California
Schedule Full-time
Shift Day
Salary $222600 - $287980 / year
Job Number 1388165
Date Posted 10/24/2025
Job Summary:
This senior director position is responsible for directing and overseeing the development of category/spend strategies for multiple category teams 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 overseeing and championing a digital mindset to adopt new technologies in the source to pay space.
Essential Responsibilities:
- Builds organizational capacity and prepares high potentials for growth opportunities and advancement; builds collaborative networks inside and outside the organization for self and others. Provides framework for soliciting and acting on performance feedback; drives collaboration to set goals and provide open feedback and coaching to foster performance improvement. Models and drives continuous learning and oversees the recruitment, selection, and development of talent; stays current with industry trends, benchmarks, and best practices; ensures performance management guidelines and expectations to achieve business needs. Acts as a thought leader on industry trends, benchmarks, and best practices; shares best practices within and across teams to drive improvement. Motivates and empowers teams; maintains a highly skilled and engaged workforce by aligning cross-functional resource plans with business objectives.
- Provides guidance when difficult decisions need to be made; creates opportunities for expanded scope of decision making and impact across teams. Oversees the operation of multiple units and/or departments by identifying member and operational needs; ensures the management of work assignment allocation and completion; translates business strategy into actionable business requirements; ensures products and / or services meet member requirements and expectations while aligning with organizational strategies. Engages strategic, cross-functional business units to champion and drive support for business plans and priorities; assumes responsibility for decision making; sets standards, measures progress, and ensures resolution of escalated issues. Sets and communicates goals and objectives; analyzes resources, costs, and forecasts and incorporates them into business plans; obtains and distributes resources. Anticipates and removes obstacles that impact performance; addresses performance gaps and implements contingency plans accordingly; ensures teams accomplish business objectives; serves as a subject-matter expert and trusted source to executive leadership; provides influence and consultation in the development of the larger organizational or business strategy.
- Directs and oversees the development of category/spend strategies for multiple category teams 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 senior 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 and champions the adoption of strategic 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 four (4) 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 eleven (11) years experience in 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:
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master's degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Management Science, Business, Finance, Accounting, Contract Administration, Procurement or a directly related field.
- Doctorate degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations, Management Science, Business, Finance, Accounting, Contract Administration, Procurement or a directly related field.
Primary Location: California,Pleasanton,Pleasanton Tech Cntr Building A
Scheduled Weekly Hours: 40
Shift: Day
Workdays: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
Working Hours Start: 08:00 AM
Working Hours End: 05:00 PM
Job Schedule: Full-time
Job Type: Standard
Worker Location: Flexible
Employee Status: Regular
Employee Group/Union Affiliation: NUE-PO-01|NUE|Non Union Employee
Job Level: Director/Senior Director
Department: Po/Ho Corp - Indirect Category Mgmt - 0308
Pay Range: $222600 - $287980 / year
Kaiser Permanente is committed to pay equity and transparency. The posted pay range is based on possible base salaries for the role and does not include the value of our total rewards package. Actual pay determined at offer will be based on years of relevant work experience, education, certifications, skills and geographic location along with a review of current employees in similar roles to ensure that pay equity is achieved and maintained across Kaiser Permanente.
Travel: Yes, 25 % of the Time
Flexible: Work location is on-site at a KP location, with the flexibility to work from home.
Worker location must align with Kaiser Permanente's Authorized States policy.
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.
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