Category Manager Lead

Together we fight for everyone’s opportunity for a better financial future.

We will do this together — with customers, partners and colleagues. We will fight for others, not against: We will stand up for and champion everyone’s access to opportunities. The status quo is not good enough … we believe every individual and every community deserves access to financial opportunities. We are determined to support both individuals and communities in reaching a better financial future.  We know that reaching this future depends on our actions today.

Like our Purpose Statement, Voya believes in being bold and committed to action.  We are committed to a work environment where the differences that we are born with — and those we acquire throughout our lives — are understood, valued and intentionally pursued. We believe that our employees own our culture and have a responsibility to foster an environment where we all feel comfortable bringing our whole selves to work. Purposefully bringing our differences together to positively influence our culture, serve our clients and enrich our communities is essential to our vision.

Are you ready to join a company with a strong purpose and a winning culture? Start your Voyage – Apply Now

Leads the category management plan and sourcing for Voya’s interaction with consulting firms.  Negotiate directly with Voya’s consulting firms to minimize risk and maximize value.  Ownership of the end-to-end indirect sourcing process; from strategy development through contract signature and supplier management. Provide thought leadership and sourcing subject matter expertise to internal customers and matrix partners.  

Job Description and Responsibilities:

• Create detailed negotiation strategies, including points of leverage, identification of all deal variables, and development of appropriate counteroffers

• Advise internal customers on the negotiation plan and gain alignment on strategy, timing, and process steps

• Encourage and lead competitive bidding events (RFP) to expose market pricing and maximize leverage

• Negotiate all commercial terms using Voya’s best practices

• Review supplier contract redlines, provide responsive edits, and independently negotiate all contract terms to completion for governing agreements, amendments, amended/restated agreements, SOWs, and order forms

• Negotiate/draft in real time via video calls with suppliers

• Act as a category subject matter expert to organization across multiple functions, divisions, and geographic locations

• Engage with internal customers and suppliers to support resolution of medium complexity disputes, license audits, and other matters requiring a balance of assertiveness, tact, business acumen, and diplomacy

• Achieve annual savings targets and other performance metrics as assigned

• Partner with internal matrix partners such as finance, information security, risk, legal, insurance, etc.

• Focus on vendor rationalization and strategic supplier management.

• Other duties as assigned

Minimum Knowledge & Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree

• Minimum 4 years of sourcing and supplier management (supplier negotiations) experience.

• Ability to simultaneously lead multiple initiatives while consistently meeting timelines and milestones. 

• Knowledge of business principles such as, demand management, project management, commercial contracting, and GAAP accounting.

• Ability to accurately interpret complex contract language and summarize historical contracts. 

• Business Applications:

  • Microsoft Word: You need to be very familiar with track changes, document security, keeping long/complex documents organized and clean

  • Microsoft Excel: You need to be able to summarize and analyze supplier proposals, provide customers with an understanding of the contract/expense view of each deal, create models of complex licensing to validate supplier proposals, and demonstrate factual basis for savings

  • Microsoft PowerPoint: You need to be able to create visually clean and professional slides for review by customers, stakeholders, and senior leadership.

• Understanding of cost and price analysis techniques

• You need to understand the unique aspects of consulting sourcing as compared to other commodities

• Strong interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills

Preferred Knowledge and Experience:

• Ability to modify supplier paper (for limited circumstances when Voya paper is not used) by modifying supplier terms to reduce risk and improve rights for Voya while knowing what is missing and adding in the necessary Voya standard terms.

• Experience using an intake/workflow application for tracking your active deals (Voya currently uses Salesforce)

• Experience using an ERP application for research: contract repository, PR’s, and PO’s (Voya currently uses Oracle Fusion)

• Experience leading cross-functional collaborative teams (Customer + Sourcing + Matrix Partners + Project Management)

• Experience working in a Fortune 500 company

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Compensation Pay Disclosure:

Voya is committed to pay that’s fair and equitable, which means comparable pay for comparable roles and responsibilities.

The below annual base salary range reflects the expected hiring range(s) for this position in the location(s) listed. In addition to base salary, Voya offers incentive opportunities (i.e., annual cash incentives, sales incentives, and/or long-term incentives) based on the role to reward the achievement of annual performance objectives. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Voya Financial is willing to pay at the time of this posting.

Actual compensation offered may vary from the posted salary range based upon the candidate’s geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer. Salaries for part-time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.

Be Well. Stay Well.

Voya provides the resources that can make a difference in your lives. To us, this means thriving physically, financially, socially and emotionally. Voya benefits are designed to help you do just that. That’s why we offer an array of plans, programs, tools and resources with one goal in mind: To help you and your family be well and stay well.

What We Offer

• Health, dental, vision and life insurance plans
• 401(k) Savings plan – with generous company matching contributions (up to 6%)
• Voya Retirement Plan – employer paid cash balance retirement plan (4%)
• Tuition reimbursement up to $5,250/year
• Paid time off – including 20 days paid time off, nine paid company holidays and a flexible Diversity Celebration Day.
• Paid volunteer time — 40 hours per calendar year

Learn more about Voya benefits (download PDF)

Critical Skills

At Voya, we have identified the following critical skills which are key to success in our culture:

• Customer Focused: Passionate drive to delight our customers and offer unique solutions that deliver on their expectations.
• Critical Thinking: Thoughtful process of analyzing data and problem solving data to reach a well-reasoned solution.
• Team Mentality: Partnering effectively to drive our culture and execute on our common goals.
• Business Acumen: Appreciation and understanding of the financial services industry in order to make sound business decisions.
• Learning Agility: Openness to new ways of thinking and acquiring new skills to retain a competitive advantage.

Learn more about Critical Skills

Equal Employment Opportunity

Voya Financial is an equal-opportunity employer. Voya Financial provides equal opportunity to qualified individuals regardless of race, color, sex, national origin, citizenship status, religion, age, disability, veteran status, creed, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other status protected by state or local law.