Who You'll Work With

You'll work at one of our US offices and be a part of the External Worker Category team within McKinsey & Company's Optimize function whose vision is to enable colleagues and the firm to live our purpose confidently by creating leading solutions and experiences across our supplier ecosystem.

The External Worker category team plays a critical role in making responsible buying easy by ensuring we have a best in class end to end process for sourcing contingent labor through our preferred suppliers and increasing category adoption and compliance.

What You'll Do

You will have an opportunity to lead a critical $250M+ IT professional services portfolio in the firm across hundreds of suppliers, supporting the external worker/services procurement category.

Your performance will be evaluated against key metrics, including the realization of an IT professional/external worker category strategy supporting the business (i.e., innovation), financial impact, adherence to sustainable procurement & risk standards, and the strategic growth of the category.

You will develop and implement the long term direction of IT professional services/external worker category management, aligning initiatives with the firm's strategic goals. You will be involved in developing strategic plans, leading cross-functional teams, fostering high-impact supplier partnerships, and driving innovation and efficiency across the procurement process.

You will also keep a risk first view and safeguard our firm by governing and managing third party risks. You will be instrumental in embedding sustainable procurement practices to promote responsible sourcing and long-term value creation.

You will communicate vision and strategy to firm leaders to increase awareness of services and priorities. You will also recommend innovative solutions and improvement opportunities to firm leadership based on analysis of technology, professional services, and external worker trends, key metrics, including colleague satisfaction, policy compliance, spend and vendor performance.

You will develop and oversees strategic relationships both internally and with key external parties (e.g., vendors, industry experts, peers in other organizations) to build/maintain cutting-edge industry knowledge and leverage best practices to shape innovative strategies and solutions. You will also maintain strong links with stakeholders to ensure Optimize is strongly integrated with firm's/practice's agenda including offerings, integrated client approaches, recipes, assets and delivery of knowledge to CST's.

You will have a growth mindset and demonstrate leadership that meets the function and firm's needs, deliver as 'One Optimize', driving integration and collaboration within Optimize, operates as role model for developing talent in/outside of Category Management through coaching, feedback and providing growth opportunities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, supply chain management, or a related field; master's degree or professional certification is a plus
• 7+ years of experience in IT procurement, with a contingent labor focus and category management experience
• Commanding knowledge of current and emerging IT solutions, including AI, software, SaaS, cloud services, and hardware, with the ability to converse fluently with IT experts and leaders
• Commanding knowledge of current and emerging IT solutions, IT professional services, and contingent labor services, including negotiation SOW/contracts and rate cards
• Excellent people leadership skills - you are an outstanding people leader who attracts and develops a group of highly talented colleagues
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work across functions at all organizational levels
• Experience influencing senior leadership in a consensus-based culture, able to drive change, meet deadlines, and inspire confidence among senior leadership
• Ability to manage multiple points of view and perspectives towards syndicated solution; results oriented, highly equipped at delivering measurable outcomes and overcoming challenges
• Comfort with navigating ambiguous situations with thoughtfulness and pragmatism
• Strong problem solving, structuring, communications and client service capabilities
• An entrepreneurial, action and growth-oriented mindset
• Mastery of Excel and PowerPoint