Associate Manager, Procurement COE

Job summary:

The Associate Manager, Procurement Center of Excellence works under the direction of the department head or assigned designee on specific projects to support strategy and development of Procurement procedures, processes, and tools across Walgreens. Contributes to planning, development, management and implementation of strategic initiatives to drive improvements in operational efficiency, simplify business procedures and digitize processes. Sustains the continuous growth of procurement by pursuing simplicity, standardization, improvement upon Procurement spend and data knowledge and by exploiting opportunities offered in new technologies and industry best practices. Assists with ensuring cross-divisional strategic and information system alignment, generates effective communication, builds stakeholder relationships, and maintains objectivity and equity among coworkers, stakeholders, and suppliers.

This role is based in our Deerfield, IL office and is on‑site four days a week. #LI-NL1

Job Responsibility:

• Assists in creating strategies for procurement procedures, processes and tools across Walgreens.
• Acts as a Center of Excellence advisor and assists in developing a robust Learning and Development strategy and materials to drive compliance and efficiency across Walgreens for goods not for resale.
• Develops and communicates creative rollout strategies, change management plans, training, reports, policies, and standard operating procedures.
• Assists in the development of the professional competency and technical capability of the category team and managers to maximize individual impact and positive contribution to procurement sourcing and category management
• Creates strategies, tools, and guidelines to improve access to procurement processes, analytics and insight across Group Procurement and wider Group. Provides thought leadership to Group Procurement colleagues to develop robust category strategies by sharing industry best practices.
• Assists with the coordination of multiple Procurement Transformation work streams to ensure consistency across vision and strategy, policy and process, technology and organization.
• Assists in the development of cost-benefit, return-on-investment, and business case analysis to aid in decisions on program investments and system implementations where applicable.
• Proactively seeks new opportunities to add value, through a deep understanding of procurement practices, economics, market, and technology trends.
• Analyzes requirements and complex procurement situations to formulate solutions to problems.
• Develop and mentor staff through on-boarding, open communication, training and development opportunities and performance management processes; fosters a diverse and inclusive workplace.

About Walgreens
Founded in 1901, Walgreens ( has a storied heritage of caring for communities for generations and proudly serves nearly 9 million customers and patients each day across its approximately 8,500 stores throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and leading omni channel platforms. Walgreens has approximately 220,000 team members, including nearly 90,000 healthcare service providers, and is committed to being the first choice for retail pharmacy and health services, building trusted relationships that create healthier futures for customers, patients, team members and communities.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and at least 2 years of experience in procurement, supply chain, operations process experience, communications, training development, process improvement, process implementation, and/or strategy development OR High School/ GED and at least 4 years of experience in procurement, supply chain, operations process experience, communications, training development, process improvement, process implementation, and/or strategy development.
• At least 2 years of experience in category management, operations, supply chain, strategy, process improvement/implementation, training, communications, and/or applying procurement practices/strategies.
• Experience designing and building training materials and comfortable speaking in front of small and large groups, as well as facilitating and setting up meetings.
• Experience establishing and maintaining relationships with individuals at all levels of the organization, in the business community and with vendors.
• Experience in diagnosing, isolating, and resolving complex issues and recommending and implementing strategies to resolve problems.
• Intermediate level skill in Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
• Willing to travel up to/at least (10%) of the time for business purposes (within state and out of state).

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree and at least 5 years of procurement process experience OR High School Diploma/GED and at least 8 years of procurement process experience.
• Proficiency with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technology and software such as Microsoft, SAP Ariba, Icertis, Oracle, Coupa, ServiceNow, ServiceChannel, etc.
• Experience in co-creating Learning and Development curriculum for procurement processes and systems.
• Process Improvement, Project Management experience or certifications (ex. SixSigma, PMP).

We will consider employment of qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Salary Range: $86400 - $138200 / Salaried