Senior Category Manager, Indirect Procurement

Job Summary:

Executes and implements effective procurement strategies, from initial identification of procurement needs through delivery, for indirect goods and services. Develops short-term and long-term strategies that align with the Company goals for reducing costs and meeting financial expectation, while managing vendor relationships and new product innovation. Responsible for negotiating, coordinating, and assuring that assigned indirect spend categories and services are purchased at the lowest possible cost with the right level of quality. Assesses near-term and long-term plans to establish that supplier priorities are balanced with business needs; consults with Sr. Management, and other subject matter experts to develop alternative solutions; advises on options, risks, total cost of ownership, and business impacts. Provides oversight of work quality and constructive feedback to direct and indirect reports, where applicable.

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

Job Responsibilities:

• Directs and executes strategic sourcing strategies, best practices, and initiatives that support aggressive improvements in supplier quality, total cost effectiveness, enhanced service levels, improved coordination, delivery, pricing, lead-times, payment, risk compliance and other areas as identified.
• Executes category sourcing strategies including development and execution of RFI’s and RFP’s, documents bid events through correspondence to suppliers; develops selection criteria and drives the selection of suppliers in collaboration with a cross-functional teams; conducts supplier negotiations and ongoing supplier management.
• Actively seeks ways to streamline business processes; researches and provides information on industry category trends and best practices. Provides procurement input to maximize procurement leverage, optimizes project design and minimizes project durations and cost.
• Develops negotiation strategies, gains alignment from stakeholders, leads cross-functional, category-based negotiation teams, and implements appropriate supplier risk analysis. Directly negotiates with suppliers that require a detailed strategic plan and have a direct correlation with Walgreens operational needs and goals.
• Uses current spend information/data and business knowledge to identify sourcing projects for individual subcategories and develops an overall cost reduction plan. Demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of business requirements and category ownership by creating and defending category strategies and decisions with sound analytics. Delegates analytic tasks to key support functions; and synthesizes results.
• Develops supplier score card to measure supplier performance against agreed upon key performance indicators, tracks compliance and supports formal management reporting to director and other members of senior management. Benchmark, track, and analyze annual performance metrics and sourcing trends against budget on a monthly basis to demonstrate continuous improvement and progress against strategic objectives. Implement supplier management programs with key suppliers including metrics, performance goals, and improvement initiatives.
• Monitors supplier performance to ensure that delivery dates and technical and contractual requirements are met. Participates in strategic meetings with suppliers and business leaders to ensure execution of defined strategies. Manages day-to-day on-going category supplier relations and seeks outgrowth or revision opportunities within supply base. Acts as the internal point of contact for supplier management and complaint resolution; conducts regular supplier meetings and implements improvement strategies with suppliers. Creates, nurtures, and enhances supplier relationships.
• Aggressively manages category performance by adhering to internal Savings goals and reviewing financial models for commodity type items. Ensures spend portfolio for reoccurring managed spend is balanced through coordinated sourcing waves and leveraged with Capital project sourcing activities.
• Drives consolidation of spend and seeks out synergies across Business Units where applicable, by forming and leading cross-functional strategic sourcing teams to develop and implement category/commodity strategies and to drive cost from individual spend sub-categories. Champions weekly category review meetings with cross-functional teams to manage category performance.

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 4 years of procurement, retail, catalog, finance and/or banking experience OR Master’s degree and at least 2 years of indirect procurement experience OR High School Diploma/GED and at least 7 years of experience in procurement, retail, catalog, finance and/or banking.
• Experience working with business and/or procurement lifecycles and best practices.
• Experience in negotiations and developing/executing on strategies.
• Experience collaborating with internal and external resources to develop strategies that meet department goals within budget and established timelines.
• Experience managing people, projects and/or cross functional teams.
• At least 2 years of experience contributing to financial decisions in the workplace.
• At least 2 years of direct leadership, indirect leadership and/or cross-functional team leadership.
• Willing to travel up to/at least 10% of the time for business purposes (within state and out of state).

Preferred Qualifications

• MBA or other advanced degree or CPM certification.
• At least 3 years of experience in negotiating deals.
• Advanced level skill in Microsoft Excel and data analytics (for example: using functions, inserting and working with pivot tables, analyzing and summarizing large data sets, generating complex financial models and business cases).
• Intermediate level skill in Microsoft PowerPoint (for example: applying a theme, formatting character spacing, inserting a picture, changing slide layout and theme colors, adding transitions, customizing slide numbers, changing chart style and/or formatting font).
• Intermediate level skill in Microsoft Word (for example: inserting headers, page breaks, page numbers and tables and/or adjusting table columns)
• Ability to leverage AI such as ChatGPT to streamline productivity and enhance communication
• Consulting experience and/or experience with the photocopy industry a plus

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

The Salary below is being provided to promote pay transparency and equal employment opportunities at Walgreens. The actual hourly salary within this range that you will be offered will depend on a variety of factors including geography, skills and abilities, education, experience and other relevant factors. This role will remain open until filled. To review benefits, please click here jobs.walgreens.com/benefits. If you are applying on a job board or unable to click on the link, please copy and paste this URL into your browser jobs.walgreens.com/benefits.
Salary Range: $115400 - $196200 / Salaried