Executive Director, Category Management

Role Description

Cornell University is seeking a highly accomplished, collaborative, and results-driven Executive Director, Category Management, to design, build, and lead an enterprise-wide category management capability across Cornell Ithaca, Cornell Tech, Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, and Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar. Reporting to the Chief Procurement Officer, the Executive Director, Category Management will establish and operationalize a contemporary category management model that delivers measurable enterprise value while supporting Cornell’s academic, research, and clinical missions.

This role is responsible for the end‑to‑end design, governance, and execution of category management—from strategy and operating model development to talent building, technology enablement, supplier relationship management, and enterprise sourcing execution. The Executive Director will serve as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, leading complex, cross-functional initiatives and influencing outcomes across a highly distributed, matrixed organization.

While remote‑eligible, the role requires periodic travel to key Cornell locations, including, but not limited to, Ithaca (NY), New York City, and Qatar, as well as engagement with peer institutions across R1 higher education and affiliated clinical environments.

What You Will Lead

• Design and execute an enterprise category management capability with clear measures of success, including but not limited to:
  • Expansion of Spend Under Management (SUM), spend under contract, competitive bidding, and the reduction of rogue/maverick spend.
  • Successful deployment of enterprise-level cost-savings programs, including planning for and pipelining of procurement cost savings opportunities.
  • Delivery of resultant hard savings (run‑rate) and soft savings (cost avoidance) back to the business.
  • Category strategy maturity, execution quality, and institutional coverage.
  • Adoption and outcomes of a robust Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) program.
  • Effective use of sourcing, spend, contract, and analytics technologies, including process automation.
  • Strong stakeholder alignment and adoption of category strategies.
  • Development and scaling of high-performing source-to-contract and/or category management teams.
  • Advancement of responsible sourcing (ESG) initiatives and local/diverse supplier engagement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, supply chain management, finance, engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience); advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of demonstrated experience applying and leading category management frameworks, ideally in distributed or matrixed organizations.
• Demonstrated success building enterprise category management capabilities, including segment/Level 1–2 category structures (preferably UNSPSC‑aligned), spend taxonomies, analytics, governance, and execution models.
• Experience across a mix of indirect and direct/mission-critical categories, with special consideration for capital construction and clinical spend.
• Executive presence with a proven ability to influence without authority, align senior stakeholders, and work through misalignment and internal negotiations.
• Advanced negotiation, contracting, and supplier management expertise, including complex sourcing events and enterprise agreements.
• Strong analytical and financial acumen, including total cost of ownership modeling and benefits validation.
• Technology fluency, including experience serving as a product owner for contracting, sourcing, and spend analysis platforms; proven experience deploying/utilizing AI‑enabled sourcing and contracting tools preferred.
• Demonstrated commitment to inclusive leadership and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion through sourcing and supplier engagement practices.

Core Leadership Capabilities

• Enterprise and strategic thinking
• Team leadership, talent development, and organizational scaling
• Data‑driven decision‑making and procurement technology fluency
• Clear, confident, and adaptable communication

Preferred Qualifications

• Relevant professional certifications (e.g., ISM CPSM, CSCP/CPIM, CPM, CPPO/CPPB, PMP)
• Experience in higher education, healthcare, research, or similarly complex environments with decentralized stakeholders.
• Active participation in professional procurement associations, particularly those supporting higher education or clinical procurement (e.g., NAEP, Ivy+, Vizient)

Benefits

• Educational benefits and lifelong learning opportunities
• Robust health and wellness programs
• Generous paid time off, including three weeks of vacation, 14 university-paid holidays, including end of year winter break shutdown through New Year’s Day.
• Superior retirement contributions.
• Employee discounts and access to a wide range of campus and community resources