Associate Director, Procurement, Clinical Development

About this role

Working with Us Challenging. Meaningful. Life-changing. Those aren’t words that are usually associated with a job. But working at Bristol Myers Squibb is anything but usual. Here, uniquely interesting work happens every day, in every department. From optimizing a production line to the latest breakthroughs in cell therapy, this is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. You’ll get the chance to grow and thrive through opportunities uncommon in scale and scope, alongside high-achieving teams. Take your career farther than you thought possible.

Bristol Myers Squibb recognizes the importance of balance and flexibility in our work environment. We offer a wide variety of competitive benefits, services and programs that provide our employees with the resources to pursue their goals, both at work and in their personal lives. Read more: careers.bms.com/working-with-us .

Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is seeking an accomplished procurement professional to advance category excellence within Specialized Services, across categories such as Regulatory and Patient Safety. This Associate Director will operationalize the Clinical Development Procurement (CDP) transformation agenda within these specialized areas—enhancing supplier partnerships, compliance rigor, and delivery performance through data-driven sourcing, analytics, and agile governance frameworks. This role will translate enterprise procurement frameworks into category strategies that enable operations across Regulatory and Patient Safety categories.

The role requires strong business acumen and the ability to influence across functions, ensuring that enterprise procurement practices are effectively adopted and optimized through technology, analytics, and supplier partnerships. This position partners closely with the stakeholders within the Clinical Development functions as well as Category Managers across R&D Procurement to ensure cross-domain alignment on supplier innovation, digital transformation, and operational excellence .

Major Responsibilities and Accountabilities:   Category Management & Procurement Excellence • Responsible for procurement activities—including identification, assessments evaluation of suppliers with demonstrated service excellence in assigned categories. As applicable review, drafting, negotiation, and redlining supplier proposals—across novel or technically complex categories with limited legal supervision.

• Lead sourcing events to deliver integrated sourcing strategies and ensure successful program execution.

• Implement data-driven category strategies that deliver measurable value, productivity gains and service excellence.

• Serve as an accountable point of contact for internal Clinical Development stakeholders, external industry partners, and strategic suppliers, ensuring alignment between business needs and category strategies.

• Prepare and present strategic recommendations, insights and progress updates to senior leadership to support informed decision-making.

Supplier Performance and Risk Management • Partner with SRM teams to support supplier segmentation and formalize Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) programs for key strategic partners.

• Drive value-creation targets with business stakeholders and ensure regular performance reviews with measurable outcomes across respective categories.

• Ensure that contractual arrangements embed KPI-driven accountability and compliance obligations.

• Proactively identify, assess, and mitigate supplier and supply-chain risks, ensuring resilience and continual focus on quality deliverables.

Cost Management and Value Optimization • Deliver cost-reduction, value-enhancement, and productivity initiatives across assigned R&D categories.

• Support, monitor, and forecast budgets, ensuring adherence to financial targets and alignment with enterprise investment priorities.

• Lead negotiations and strategic deal structuring to secure optimal commercial terms, value delivery, and risk balance across supplier portfolios .

  Governance, Compliance & Reporting • As relates to the categories in scope, support governance structures that drive disciplined decision-making, transparency, and compliance with corporate and regulatory standards.

• Monitor adherence to contractual, financial, and ethical requirements, partnering closely with Legal, Privacy, and Compliance.

• Provide regular reporting and performance insights into leadership, highlighting progress, risks, and mitigation actions.

Innovation and Continuous Improvement • As relevant to the categories in scope, build and maintain strong partnerships with R&D, Clinical Development, Finance, Legal, and other functional leaders to ensure cohesive strategy execution.

• Support adoption of advanced procurement practices, automation, and emerging digital technologies.

• Stay abreast of industry trends and market evolution to ensure BMS maintains a leadership position in R&D procurement excellence.

• Foster external partnerships with suppliers and industry consortia to benchmark best practices and identify collaboration opportunities.

• Provide informal coaching or mentoring to junior procurement team members as needed.

Qualifications Minimum Requirements • Minimum education of a B.S./B.A. is required; M.S./M.B.A. is preferred.

• Minimum of seven (7) years of relevant experience in biopharmaceuticals, life sciences, or related industry with at least five ( 5) years of experience in a strategic procurement, category management or a comparable function is required.

• Demonstrated experience leading sourcing initiatives, supplier negotiations and cross-functional collaboration.

• Strong knowledge of category management and advanced strategic sourcing methodologies.

• Experience supporting cost reduction, value improvement programs or productivity initiatives.

• Exposure to global or cross-functional teams preferred.

• Travel: Travel may be required (domestic and internati

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