Mgr - IT Product Lead (CRM / GPO)

Our team members are at the heart of everything we do. At Cencora, we are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures, and every person here is essential to us being able to deliver on that purpose. If you want to make a difference at the center of health, come join our innovative company and help us improve the lives of people and animals everywhere. Apply today!

Job Details

SUMMARY:

Under the direction of the IT Group Product Owner, the IT Product Lead - CRM serves as the technical lead and product owner for the CRM and client portal products supporting core Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) operations. This role is accountable for the end-to-end technology delivery of solutions built on Salesforce Service Cloud and Experience Cloud, including API integrations with other enterprise cloud platforms. In partnership with the Business Product Owner for CRM, the IT Product Lead ensures that products are delivered in alignment with business priorities, customer requirements, technical roadmaps, security standards, and service-level commitments.

The IT Product Lead - CRM requires hands-on technical leadership - guiding architecture decisions, backlog prioritization, and engineering best practices - while collaborating with IT and business stakeholders to drive continuous improvement, value realization, and long-term product strategy. This role will establish product plans, technical roadmaps, work with technical architects to ensure a forward-looking design strategy within the Salesforce ecosystem, and collaborate with business and IT leaders on long-term strategies to maintain and enhance the product(s).

The IT Product Lead - CRM is expected to demonstrate general knowledge and capabilities in all areas of the operating model and application lifecycle management. This role will provide coaching and guidance to a cross-functional team and must have a strong understanding of product design, product ownership, continuous delivery, lean practices, agile practices and execution, operations, and development/engineering. This role is accountable for maintaining service costing and resource budgets for their product(s). This role supports highly complex GPO business processes - including contract management, member relationships, and client portal operations - that require cross-team support outside of the immediate product team and will require managing and leveraging resources from architecture, release/change management, infrastructure, network, and other systems in support of the product.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

Strategy / Planning

• Plans for future changes to the CRM and client portal products to meet GPO customer and business priorities

• Works collaboratively with other product owners, customer relationship managers, and capacity planners to forecast demand for Salesforce-based solutions

• Partners with IT and business leaders to identify and prioritize initiatives based on GPO business needs and timetables

• Maintains liaison relationships with GPO business partners and IT partners to provide effective technical solutions within the Salesforce ecosystem

• Drives continuous improvement in all areas impacting the CRM and portal products, including Salesforce platform optimization and API integration reliability

• Develops business-focused concepts, including risk assessments, cost-benefit analyses, strategic initiatives, and task/defect fix prioritization

• Aligns with IT strategy and architecture teams to define and maintain the long-term Salesforce product strategy roadmap, including Service Cloud, Experience Cloud, and integration architecture

• Fosters an environment of Design Thinking across the product team

• Develops and maintains product roadmaps that incorporate new features, technical debt reduction, and product end-of-life or retirement planning

• Works with Release Management and other product owners to ensure that products are reflected in business plans

• Interfaces with GPO clients regarding product offerings, costs, value propositions, and onboarding processes - particularly for the client portal

• In conjunction with the Business Product Owner, develops customer communications strategy that facilitates and promotes awareness of significant events for the product(s)

• Benchmarks and manages IT metrics established for the product team

Technical Leadership

• Serves as the technical lead for the CRM product team, providing hands-on guidance on Salesforce architecture, design patterns, and engineering best practices

• Guides the team on declarative vs. programmatic development decisions within the Salesforce platform

• Oversees the design, development, and reliability of API integrations between Salesforce and other enterprise cloud platforms, ensuring data integrity and scalability

• Owns the technical delivery of the GPO client portal (built on Salesforce Experience Cloud), ensuring it meets client expectations for usability, performance, and reliability

• Leads backlog refinement and technical story creation, ensuring user stories include well-defined acceptance criteria and architectural considerations

• Conducts or facilitates code reviews, architecture reviews, and design discussions to maintain quality standards

• Provides sprint-level technical decision-making and removes technical blockers for the development team

• Partners with Salesforce architects and enterprise architects to evaluate platform capabilities, governor limits, and scalability considerations

• Ensures Salesforce platform governance standards are followed, including release management, environment strategy, and data governance

Product Definition / Risk Management

• Works with the Business Product Owner to prioritize continuous improvement, technical debt paydown, and defect resolution within the Salesforce environment

• Develops business-focused concepts including risk management, cost-benefit analysis, strategic initiatives, innovative solutions, and success measurements

• Oversees the development of metrics aligned to and supporting the established business Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) for the CRM and portal products

• Oversees the development of and negotiates Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) and Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) in support of the products

• Assesses and evaluates risk as part of the lifecycle analysis of the product - including Salesforce platform risk, integration risk, and data risk - and communicates risk to appropriate IT and business leadership with clarity and recommended mitigation plans

• Defines and directs interaction with governance, audit, and quality teams

• Removes technical and functional roadblocks for the product team, including coordination with other product teams, Centers of Competence, and Enterprise Services

Service Cost

• Working with financial analysts, analyzes the costs associated with delivering the CRM and portal products, including Salesforce licensing, and identifies opportunities for cost optimization

• May perform profit and loss analysis

• Negotiates with other product groups, enterprise services, and Centers of Competence regarding the allocation of costs from infrastructure components or services shared among multiple products

• Working with financial analysts, defines cost allocation, cost recovery, and pricing plans within the overall context of the IT chargeback or pricing model

• Ensures cost effectiveness of products and Salesforce platform utilization

Procurement Planning

• Identifies and/or approves needs for procurement of new assets - including Salesforce licenses, AppExchange products, and third-party integration tools - to better deliver product capability

• Identifies assets that are or will become obsolete and in need of retiring

• Documents improvement plans based on current asset deployment and the need to replace or retire older or non-performing assets

Product Performance and Support

• Defines product attributes such as performance, availability, security, and scalability - with specific attention to Salesforce platform limits and API integration health

• Drives internal product continuous improvement review meetings

• Ensures that performance meets the requirements of KPIs, SLAs, and OLAs

• Develops and maintains performance dashboards and scorecards to quantify and measure outcomes and to identify persistent problems across the CRM and portal products

• Regularly reviews the product to ensure value realization is in line with GPO business strategy and IT strategy

• Serves as the first point of contact in communications regarding high-severity issues for the CRM and portal products; coordinates recovery and resolution, and ensures root cause analysis is provided to the business

Vendor Management

• In coordination with the VMO, manages and reviews vendor contracts - including Salesforce and integration platform vendors - for alignment with desired results

• Provides input to the VMO with regards to decision-making and contract development processes

• Regularly reviews service provider performance to identify and confirm performance problems; notifies vendors and VMO management of issues and escalates to business and IT leaders with improvement plans

• Contractor Management: Provides oversight of contractor work and performance, including coordinating with Centers of Competence in identifying, onboarding, and evaluating vendor performance

Associate Management

• Responsible for the human resource management of the cross-functional product team members

• In collaboration with the appropriate Centers of Competence, manages and evaluates goals, skills, and training for associates on the product team - including Salesforce-specific skill development

• Participates in Agile SAFe methodology, especially in coordinating with other IT Product Leads in the same Product Train to reduce risks and ensure coordination of inter-dependencies

• Coaches and mentors product team associates, modeling ideal behavior in communications, conflict resolution, and sense of urgency

• Directly contributes to the team's success by helping to execute when necessary, including but not limited to user story creation, technical architecture guidance, code reviews, acceptance criteria creation, and Salesforce configuration decisions

• Other duties as assigned

Experience & Educational Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems or another related field, or equivalent work experience

• 7+ years in Information Technology in progressive levels of responsibility, with 2+ years in a leadership or team lead capacity preferred

• Strong understanding of Salesforce Service Cloud and Experience Cloud, including platform architecture, declarative and programmatic development approaches, and Salesforce release management

• Experience managing API integrations between Salesforce and other enterprise cloud platforms

• Strong understanding of creating and maintaining technical backlogs and integrating architecture, new features, and technical debt improvements into a Product Roadmap

• Experience supporting GPO operations, pharmaceutical distribution, or healthcare-related business processes preferred

• Experience managing or supporting a client-facing portal built on Salesforce Experience Cloud preferred

• High-level understanding of several components of IT such as: Product Management, Technical Architecture, Business Analysis, Testing, or Operations and Support

• Some budgetary responsibility preferred

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to respond effectively under pressure

Preferred Certifications:

• Salesforce Certified Administrator

• Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder

• Salesforce Certified Service Cloud Consultant

• Salesforce Certified Experience Cloud Consultant

• SAFe Product Owner / Product Manager (POPM)

• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or equivalent

Minimum Skills, Knowledge & Ability Requirments:

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to provide technical direction to a cross-functional team

• Self-motivated and self-directed with a bias toward action

• Demonstrated ability to partner and collaborate across organizations to optimize outcomes

• Working knowledge of product management methodology and Salesforce platform best practices

• Strong understanding of SAFe Agile principles and methodology and their practical application within a development environment

• Ability to prioritize workload and consistently meet commitments in a fast-paced environment

• Ability to work across multiple groups within IT to ensure end-to-end performance of Salesforce-based solutions and integrations

• Excellent interpersonal skills; must be comfortable working continually on a team with daily accountability for keeping commitments

• Excellent written and oral communication, listening, and presentation skills

• In-depth knowledge of GPO business operations and how CRM and portal technology enables them

• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities

• Ability to use good judgment in conveying status and problem escalation

• Provides coaching and mentoring to team members on both product management and Salesforce technical topics

• Knowledge of the cost basis for the service, including Salesforce licensing and integration platform costs

What Cencora offers

We provide compensation, benefits, and resources that enable a highly inclusive culture and support our team members' ability to live with purpose every day. In addition to traditional offerings like medical, dental, and vision care, we also provide a comprehensive suite of benefits that focus on the physical, emotional, financial, and social aspects of wellness. This encompasses support for working families, which may include backup dependent care, adoption assistance, infertility coverage, family building support, behavioral health solutions, paid parental leave, and paid caregiver leave. To encourage your personal growth, we also offer a variety of training programs, professional development resources, and opportunities to participate in mentorship programs, employee resource groups, volunteer activities, and much more. For details, visit

Full time Equal Employment Opportunity

Cencora is committed to providing equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or membership in any other class protected by federal, state or local law.

The company's continued success depends on the full and effective utilization of qualified individuals. Therefore, harassment is prohibited and all matters related to recruiting, training, compensation, benefits, promotions and transfers comply with equal opportunity principles and are non-discriminatory.

Cencora is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the employment process which are consistent with legal requirements. If you wish to request an accommodation while seeking employment, please call View phone number on click.appcast.io or email View email address on click.appcast.io. We will make accommodation determinations on a request-by-request basis. Messages and emails regarding anything other than accommodations requests will not be returned

Affiliated CompaniesAffiliated Companies: AmerisourceBergen Services Corporation