What Strategic Sourcing - Indirect contributes to Cardinal Health

Sourcing is responsible for creating and managing diverse strategic supplier partnerships that drive enterprise value with innovation, optimized cost and competitive advantages that benefit customers, suppliers and patients. The sourcing team develops and executes strategic plans by leveraging market intelligence, industry knowledge and cross-functional collaboration. Competitive advantage is created through category strategy, supplier selection and management, contract negotiation, supply chain optimization and risk mitigation.

This role is responsible for developing and executing strategic sourcing plans for specific categories of spend within an organization. This role involves conducting market analysis to identify opportunities and risks, leading sourcing initiatives such as RFPs and negotiations, and managing supplier relationships to ensure optimal performance. He or she collaborates closely with internal stakeholders to align procurement strategies with business needs, tracks financial performance including cost savings and budget compliance, and ensures adherence to regulatory and contractual requirements. Additionally, he or she must focus on continuous improvement by identifying process efficiencies and staying informed on industry trends and innovations to drive long-term value beyond cost reduction.

Job Summary

The Director, Indirect Procurement - IT will serve as a senior leader responsible for architecting and executing enterprise-wide sourcing strategies across the hardware, labor, and software categories. With oversight of approximately $800 million in annual spend, this role demands a high level of strategic acumen, operational rigor, and cross-functional influence. The director will be charged with identifying cost optimization opportunities, driving supplier performance, and implementing procurement best practices that enhance process efficiency and compliance.

This individual will act as a trusted advisor and strategic partner to the IT organization, collaborating closely with technology leadership to align sourcing initiatives with long-term business and digital transformation goals. He or she will lead the development and deployment of comprehensive category strategies that support innovation, scalability, and risk mitigation, while ensuring alignment across diverse stakeholder groups including finance, legal, and business unit leaders.

The ideal candidate will bring a proven track record in complex software negotiations, particularly with major global vendors such as Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Google, and other tier-one providers. They will possess deep expertise in contract structuring, licensing models, and negotiation tactics that deliver measurable savings and strategic value to the organization.

In addition to software sourcing, this role requires substantial experience in negotiating labor agreements for staff augmentation, system integration services, and outsourcing engagements. The candidate will also be responsible for leading strategic sourcing efforts across a broad portfolio of categories including hardware, network infrastructure, telecommunications, and desktop technologies, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture and operational priorities.

Finally, this role requires mastery of value-based negotiations, including competitive bidding, collaborative sourcing, and supplier development, to optimize total cost of ownership and drive sustainable value for the organization.

Responsibilities

Leadership

• Manages and mentors a team of sourcing professionals across multiple sub-categories

• Makes decisions that have an extended impact on work processes, systems, organization, as well as outcomes, and stakeholders

• Interacts with internal and/or external leaders, including senior management

• Builds strong cross functional relationships to enable achievement of goals and deliver on commitments

• Persuades others into agreement in sensitive situations while maintaining positive relationships, influencing without authority

• Deals with prioritization and scope ambiguity, and the corresponding indirect procurement execution capacity

• Supports the development and management of indirect procurement?s organizational budget

• Attracts, retains and develops talent

Transformation

• Drives process enhancements and deploy new tools to improve sourcing efficiency and compliance

• Identify and deploy organizational changes as required to optimize overall team?s performance

• Liaises with Cost Management team to support the execution of cost savings initiatives

• Facilitates systems, processes and organizational changes across Indirect Procurement globally

• Supports mergers and acquisitions activities by leading businesses integrations on behalf of Indirect procurement

Category Strategy & Execution

• Develop and execute long-term sourcing strategies for hardware, labor, and software categories, including SaaS, on-prem, and cloud solutions

• Lead RFx processes, vendor evaluations, and contract negotiations, especially with large vendors such as Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Google, and similar

• Optimize supplier tiering and categorization to align with enterprise goals and optimize productive of sourcing team members

• Maintains knowledge of current trends, supplier capability and innovation practices in the market, assisting IT is the development of labor, hardware and software categories strategies

Stakeholder Engagement & IT Partnership

• Act as a strategic partner to IT, Enterprise Architecture, and Finance teams to ensure sourcing decisions support business needs

• Lead (cross-functional) sourcing teams and enterprise initiatives from strategy development through implementation

• Develops functional strategy, that includes diversity, sustainability, risk assessment, financial impact and overall business continuity

• Champions culture of compliance for all procurement policies and tools

Qualifications

• Bachelor?s degree in business, Supply Chain, Finance and Accounting, Engineering or related fields preferred; MBA a plus

• 12+ years of strategic sourcing and category management experience, with a strong focus on software sourcing and negotiations, preferred

• Proven success managing large teams and complex spend portfolios

• Effective communication skills via written and presentation scenarios

• Manage risk and resolve conflicts with third parties through alignment of strategic interests

• Ability to find appropriate balance between lowest price / savings and long-term business value

• Solid business background combined with strategic vision and strong leadership helps influence internal business executives as well as external business partners

• Deep understanding of procurement systems, contract law, and supplier performance management

• Experience in process improvement/ enhancement and organizational design/ change

• Strong financial acumen and data-driven decision-making capabilities

• Experience working internationally including aligning with business leaders across the globe

• Has managed and enforced disciplined process, with the focus on enhancing indirect procurement processes and systems to optimize the performance of the team while maximizing savings

• Strong financial and project management acumen

• Excellent analytical skills with Advanced Excel or analytical tools experience

• Can execute on short-term initiatives and develop long term-applications, strategy

• Ability to balance and maintain core indirect procurement processes while aligning to the enterprise strategy and direction

• Can make recommendations based on partial data

• Experience with SAP Ariba and SAP ERP systems

• Knowledge and practical experience in the healthcare industry including pharmaceuticals and medical products distribution and/ or health care providers (e.g., hospitals, clinics, MSOs)

• Ability to maintain a regular presence in Dublin, OH HQ

What is expected of you and others at this level

• Provides leadership to managers and experienced professional staff; may also manage front line supervisors

• Manages an organizational budget

• Develops and implements policies and procedures to achieve organizational goals

• Assists in the development of functional strategy

• Decisions have an extended impact on work processes, outcomes, and customers

• Interacts with internal and/or external leaders, including senior management

• Persuades others into agreement in sensitive situations while maintaining positive relationships

Anticipated salary range: $135,400-$208,100

Bonus eligible: Yes

Benefits: Cardinal Health offers a wide variety of benefits and programs to support health and well-being.

• Medical, dental and vision coverage

• Paid time off plan

• Health savings account (HSA)

• 401k savings plan

• Access to wages before pay day with myFlexPay

• Flexible spending accounts (FSAs)

• Short- and long-term disability coverage

• Work-Life resources

• Paid parental leave

• Healthy lifestyle programs

Application window anticipated to close: 10/3/25 *if interested in opportunity, please submit application as soon as possible.

The salary range listed is an estimate. Pay at Cardinal Health is determined by multiple factors including, but not limited to, a candidate?s geographical location, relevant education, experience and skills and an evaluation of internal pay equity.

Candidates who are back-to-work, people with disabilities, without a college degree, and Veterans are encouraged to apply.

Cardinal Health supports an inclusive workplace that values diversity of thought, experience and background. We celebrate the power of our differences to create better solutions for our customers by ensuring employees can be their authentic selves each day. Cardinal Health is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, pregnancy, veteran status, marital status, creed, status with regard to public assistance, genetic status or any other status protected by federal, state or local law.