Sr. Manager, Category Manager, Labor & Professional Services

Position Overview

• Establishes governance frameworks and sourcing standards for major professional services firms, and in contingent labor engagements across the enterprise.
• Drives supplier rationalization and preferred supplier strategies for consulting firms, staffing agencies, and outsourced labor providers.
• Evaluates and creates fit-for-purpose workforce operating models, including direct supplier management, VMS-enabled programs, or scaled MSP partnerships based on organizational size and spend profile.
• Owns a complex, high‑spend category (or portfolio) with global scope and enterprise impact.
• Leads cross‑functional project teams and external partners to deliver multi‑year roadmaps and operating model changes.
• Primary procurement voice with senior/executive stakeholders; presents at executive committees.
• Shapes policy, standards, and governance; mentors and develops the category talent bench.
• Ensures category plans reflect stakeholder goals, market dynamics, and supplier capabilities

• Influences functional leaders; presents recommendations and status at leadership forums.

• Champions adoption of preferred suppliers, standards, and policies across the business.
• Leverages analysis to shape strategic insights and market intelligence frameworks that inform category strategy, RFx prioritization, supplier negotiations, and contract terms
• Scrutinizes variable and complex data to identify and prioritize sourcing and planning opportunities that drive competitive advantage and long-term value
• Leads sourcing waves and supplier business reviews; accountable for savings and value realization.

 

Key Responsibilities

 

Enterprise Strategy & Value Creation

• Craft and socialize a bold, evidence‑based multi‑year category strategy tied to enterprise goals (growth, productivity, risk, ESG). Possible areas of opportunity:
  • Management consulting
  • Temporary staffing
  • Statement-of-work (SOW) services
  • Independent contractor engagements
  • Workforce solutions/MSP programs
• Develop labor rate benchmarking frameworks and market intelligence to improve rate competitiveness, geographic alignment, and workforce planning decisions.
• Identify opportunities to reduce unmanaged spend, rogue staffing engagements, mark-up inconsistencies, and duplicate supplier utilization.
• Identify and deliver step‑change value levers (portfolio simplification, demand challenge, supplier ecosystem redesign, digital automation).
• Stand up structured value tracking with Finance; validate and publish results to executives.

• Build and maintain a living category strategy (demand, market, supplier, risk, and should-cost).
• Translate strategy into an annual sourcing wave plan and prioritized contract pipeline with mitigation actions for expirations/renewals.
• Owns data quality across procurement systems (e.g., sourcing, CLM, P2P) and audit readiness records
• Reviews and performs analytics and market research that inform strategic planning decisions, RFx, negotiation prep, and category direction

• Manage intake queue; validate requirements; set expectations on timelines and next steps
• Maintain project trackers, savings logs, contract records, and supplier profiles for audit readiness
• Create, refresh, publish, and communicate preferred supplier lists and engagement playbooks

 

Critical Sourcing & Complex Negotiation

• Lead negotiations involving:
  • SOW commercial structures
  • Rate card & labor mix structures
  • Volume discounts
  • Delivery accountability
  • Staffing markups & conversion fees
  • Supplier tiering models
• Evaluate and negotiate VMS platform solutions and workforce operating models appropriate for organizational scale, complexity, and spend maturity in the labor space.
• Conduct in-depth market analysis to inform RFx development, supplier negotiations, and contract terms
• Identify and prioritize sourcing opportunities that drive competitive advantage and long-term value
• Own and drive marquee RFx/sole‑source events and renewals with enterprise‑wide implications; negotiate creative commercial constructs (risk‑share, outcome‑based, gainshare).

• Oversee and/or perform total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis to sourcing