Category Manager - Senior

About the role

6 months contract (Temp to hire)

Position Summary The Senior Category Manager, Professional Services serves as the strategic business partner and enterprise owner for an assigned portfolio of categories. Categories may include Professional Services, Human Resources, Health Insurance Benefits, Risk Services, Financial Services, and Marketing and Communications. The role is accountable for developing and executing multi\-year category strategies that maximize value across the University of California through cost optimization, risk mitigation, service quality, supplier innovation, sustainability, accessibility, and long\-term stakeholder outcomes. The Senior Category Manager partners closely with Systemwide leadership, campus stakeholders, Sourcing Operations and Contracting, UC Legal, and suppliers to develop category strategies, prioritize sourcing initiatives, guide supplier relationships, and drive adoption of systemwide agreements. The role serves as the primary procurement advisor for assigned categories and aligns sourcing priorities with UC's strategic objectives and business needs across campuses, medical centers, and affiliated locations. The Senior Category Manager owns the long\-term business strategy for the category portfolio. Working collaboratively with Strategic Sourcing, the role defines what should be sourced, why, when, and how success will be measured while supporting sourcing activities through category expertise, market intelligence, business requirements, supplier strategy, and stakeholder alignment. The Senior Category Manager provides strategic direction, market expertise, stakeholder alignment, and category leadership throughout the sourcing lifecycle while partnering with Strategic Sourcing, which is responsible for administration of sourcing events, solicitation management, and contract execution. The Senior Category Manager continuously evaluates market conditions, supplier capabilities, campus priorities, regulatory changes, and industry trends to ensure category strategies remain responsive to evolving University needs. Success is measured by sustainable value delivery, increased spend under management, stakeholder adoption, supplier performance, and continuous improvement over the full lifecycle of the category portfolio. The position requires travel up to 25% and can be based on the nearest UC campus to residence. Key Responsibilities · 30% — Category Strategy \& Portfolio Management Develop and execute comprehensive 3\-5 year category strategies for assigned Professional Services categories by analyzing spend, supplier markets, stakeholder requirements, industry trends, risk, regulatory considerations, and University priorities. Establish category roadmaps that prioritize sourcing initiatives, supplier engagement, implementation activities, and measurable value outcomes. Continuously evaluate category performance and refresh strategies based on changing business needs, supplier capabilities, and market conditions. · 25% — Executive Stakeholder Partnership \& Business Engagement Serve as the primary strategic procurement advisor to Systemwide and Campus stakeholders. Build trusted relationships across campuses, medical centers, UC Legal, Finance, Risk Services, IT Security and other functional leaders to understand business priorities, influence demand planning, and align category strategies with institutional objectives. Lead cross\-functional governance teams to achieve consensus and drive enterprise\-wide adoption of strategic initiatives. · 20% — Supplier Relationship Management \& Value Creation Develop strategic supplier relationships that extend beyond contract administration to maximize long\-term value. Establish supplier segmentation strategies, lead executive business reviews, monitor supplier performance, identify innovation opportunities, manage supplier risk, and collaborate with suppliers on continuous improvement initiatives that enhance service quality, operational performance, and mission outcomes. · 15% — Strategic Sourcing Partnership

Partner with Sourcing and Contracting Team to translate category strategies into sourcing initiatives. Provide market intelligence, business requirements, supplier landscape analysis, evaluation strategies, implementation considerations, and stakeholder alignment to support sourcing events. Participate in supplier negotiations and award recommendations as the category subject matter expert while Strategic Sourcing leads procurement execution and contract administration. · 10% — Performance Measurement \& Continuous Improvement Measure and communicate category performance through defined key performance indicators including spend under management, supplier performance, agreement adoption, stakeholder satisfaction, value realization, sustainability, supplier diversity, accessibility, and operational improvements. Recommend policy, process, and governance enhancements that strengthen category performance and advance Systemwide Procurement's strategic objectives. Experience Required Qualifications · Min 8 years of experience in strategic sourcing, supply chain management, health insurance industry, public procurement or related experience such as Global 1000 enterprise sales or product management. Preferred Qualifications · Min 4 years of experience in sourcing Risk Services and Health Insurance Services and contract negotiations/management. Skills and Abilities Required Qualifications · Provide thought leadership, coaching, and mentorship to procurement professionals, contribute to the evolution of category management practices, and champion continuous improvement initiatives across UC Systemwide Procurement. · Demonstrated high level of category expertise in assigned Professional Services categories. Experience in building and maintaining credibility as an expert with key stakeholders. · Demonstrated experience working in a collaborative team environment. Demonstrated ability to lead through influence independent stakeholder teams through complex initiatives and multi\-party negotiations. Ability to influence alignment on business objectives, promote best practices and exchange of information among technical and business collaborators. Demonstrated knowledge of and experience using various proven negotiation methods, and the ability to critically analyze a negotiation. Experience with cost modeling and related financial analyses, or experience in mathematical modeling of large data sets including operations research methodologies such as regression analysis or linear programming. Demonstrated knowledge in the development of opportunity assessments, category profiles, and strategic sourcing plans. Demonstrated ability to lead and advise cross\-organization workgroups. · Demonstrated strong written and verbal communication skills, including the effective presentation of strategies and progress to clients, stakeholders and leadership. Advanced listening and communication skills, including the ability to present information in a clear and concise manner verbally and in writing. Strong leadership presence and demeanor. Demonstrated ability to facilitate focused and effective meetings both in\-person and virtual. Very strong customer service and interpersonal skills and the ability to coordinate work with others, both internally and externally, to accomplish tasks. · Demonstrated experience in use of Microsoft suite of productivity applications with a minimum of 3 years experience with preparing spreadsheets for analytical purposes. Demonstrated ability to analyze problems, identify and consider potential solutions, and make timely recommendations. Works with others to effectively address issues when they occur. Excellent organization skills, including meeting facilitation and decision making.

Preferred Qualifications · Demonstrated understanding of and ability to comply with a complex array of University policies and state and federal laws that govern procurement and health insurance contracting. Knowledge of the specific category field in higher education or other highly decentralized organizations, including suppliers, funding models, services, and industry trends. Strategic Leadership · Enterprise category strategy development · Executive stakeholder engagement and influence · Business case development · Change management and organizational influence Business Acumen · Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) · Market intelligence and benchmarking · Financial analysis · Risk management · Supplier innovation Supplier Management · Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) · Executive Business Reviews · Supplier performance management · Continuous improvement · Joint Business Planning Analytics · Spend analytics · Data visualization · KPI development · Market trend analysis · Performance reporting Education Required Qualifications · Bachelor's degree in related area and/or equivalent experience/training. Licenses and Certifications Preferred Qualifications · Certified Professional in Supply Chain Management or other industry recognized professional certification. Travel Requirements 25% Travel to UC locations across California.

Pay: $50\.00 \- $80\.00 per hour

Application Question(s):

* its a 6 months contract role Temp to hire role so are you comfortable?

Experience:

* professional Services: 8 years (Preferred) * Food services: 4 years (Required)

Willingness to travel:

* 25% (Required)

Work Location: In person