Sr. Category Manager – HR/Benefits

Owens & Minor is a global healthcare solutions company providing essential products, services and technology solutions that support care delivery in leading hospitals, health systems and research centers around the world. For over 140 years, Owens & Minor has delivered comfort and confidence behind the scenes, so healthcare stays at the forefront, helping to make each day better for the hospitals, healthcare partners, and communities we serve. Powered by more than 14,000 teammates worldwide, Owens & Minor exists because every day, everywhere, Life Takes Care™. Global Reach with a Local Touch 140+ years serving healthcareOver 14,000 teammates worldwideServing healthcare partners in 80 countriesManufacturing facilities in the U.S., Honduras, Mexico, Thailand and Ireland40+ distribution centersPortfolio of 300 propriety and branded product offerings1,000 branded medical product suppliers4,000 healthcare partners served

About the role

The Senior Manager, Indirect Category Management leads category strategies, sourcing programs, supplier management activities, and complex procurement initiatives for assigned Indirect spend categories. This role partners with business leaders to understand requirements, improve supplier value, deliver cost savings, and strengthen procurement process discipline. The Senior Manager provides direct leadership to assigned procurement resources, including coaching, prioritization, work allocation, performance feedback, and professional development. The ideal candidate is a strategic procurement leader capable of independently partnering with executive stakeholders, leading complex workforce, benefits, and contingent labor negotiations, delivering measurable financial results, and influencing enterprise talent and workforce strategies. They possess deep expertise in contingent labor, managed service providers (MSPs), vendor management systems (VMS), recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), staffing suppliers, employee benefits, wellness programs, learning and development, and broader HR services procurement, while balancing cost optimization, workforce quality, employee experience, compliance, supplier performance, and risk management.

Responsibilities

• Category Strategy: Develop and execute multiyear category strategies that support business objectives and procurement value targets. Responsible for development and actionable opportunity pipelines.
• Develop actionable strategic sourcing plans, initiative pipelines, and category roadmaps for assigned Indirect categories.
• Monitor and utilize market intelligence, supplier segmentation, and business demand patterns, and risk mitigation plans to inform sourcing strategy.
• Actively own contingent labor, MSP, VMS, RPO, talent management/development, benefits, learning and HR services categories.
• Strategic Sourcing & Negotiations: Lead end-to-end sourcing events, including stakeholder alignment, supplier selection, RFP/RFQ execution, analysis, negotiations, and award recommendations.
• Develop negotiation strategies that address commercial value, service expectations, risk, contract flexibility, and supplier performance.
• Develop partnership with CHRO and HR leadership on workforce strategy and deliver on targeted negotiations.
• For negotiations that need to be led by stakeholders, actively support benefits sourcing and workforce optimization initiatives.
• Partner with Legal, Finance, Compliance, and business stakeholders to support contract review and business decision-making.
• Supplier & Financial Management: Manage key supplier relationships and support supplier performance reviews, issue resolution, and continuous improvement efforts.
• Deliver annual P&L Reduction and P&L Protection targets through sourcing, negotiation, demand management, supplier optimization, working capital, savings pipeline, benefit validation, and budget impact.
• Track sourcing results, validate benefits with Finance as appropriate, and support leadership reporting.
• Team Leadership: Directly supervise Category Managers, Analysts, Specialists, or other assigned procurement team members.
• Provide coaching, feedback, talent development planning, workload prioritization, governance and performance management.
• Mentor team members on category strategy, sourcing discipline, stakeholder engagement, and negotiation preparation.
• Promote collaboration, accountability, process alignment, and consistent procurement standards within the team.
• Stakeholder Management: Develop executive stakeholder relationships with the CHRO and their leadership team across various HR domain areas.
• Drive organizational alignment to position Procurement as a strategic business partner and work with stakeholders to effectively implement labor rate management, supplier consolidation and contingent labor governance.
• Lead complex cross-functional initiatives, influencing senior leaders to achieve enterprise objectives and maximize value.
• Champion change management efforts to ensure adoption of procurement strategies, processes, and technologies.
• Balance stakeholder priorities with governance, risk management, and business requirements to support informed decision-making.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement across Procurement and business functions.
• Digital Procurement & Analytics Capability: Demonstrates a strong ability to leverage digital procurement technologies, data analytics, and process automation to drive business value to improve decision-making and enhance stakeholder outcomes.
• Possess hands-on experience utilizing procurement platforms and analytical tools to support category strategy,