Associate VP, Services Procurement

Humana

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Services represent one of the organization’s most consequential sources of capability, capacity, transformation and external spend. The Associate Vice President, Services Procurement will lead the enterprise strategy for contingent workforce, outsourcing and offshoring, consulting and clinical services, converting third-party services into measurable business outcomes, workforce agility, operating leverage and sustainable value. The AVP will serve as the senior Procurement partner to leaders across the Insurance segment and Corporate Services, helping shape operating-model, workforce and transformation decisions before sourcing begins or a supplier solution is selected. The leader will bring deep expertise in global business services, business process outsourcing, workforce solutions and complex professional services. The mandate is to strengthen business-case quality, establish clear make, buy, build, automate and partner choices, create fit-for-purpose commercial models, manage transitions and hold providers accountable for committed outcomes. Success will be measured by whether business leaders make better services and workforce decisions, transformations deliver their promised value, and suppliers improve performance and innovation.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the Strategic Services Partner to Business Leaders

• Serve as the senior Procurement relationship leader and trusted commercial advisor to Insurance segment and Corporate Services leadership.

• Develop a deep understanding of business strategy, operating plans, transformation roadmaps, workforce needs and financial commitments, and translate them into integrated services, workforce and supplier strategies.

• Engage upstream of supplier selection to frame the problem, test demand and assess make, buy, build, automate, offshore, outsource and partner alternatives.

• Bring concise, decision-ready recommendations that clarify business outcomes, value, cost, risk, capacity, speed, optionality and organizational implications.

• Create alignment across business, Finance, HR, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Technology and Procurement before material commitments are made.

• Build credibility and operating mechanisms for Procurement to function as an extension of business leadership rather than a downstream execution team.

• Lead Enterprise Workforce, Outsourcing and Services Strategy

• Own enterprise category strategies for contingent workforce, outsourcing and offshoring, consulting and clinical services, with clear boundaries and coordination across adjacent functions.

• Build an integrated external workforce strategy spanning employee alternatives, temporary labor, statement-of-work services, managed services, outsourcing and offshore delivery.

• Design location and delivery-model strategies that consider capability, labor economics, automation potential, regulatory and contractual constraints, data access, resiliency, concentration, talent supply and change impact.

• Advance global business services models by helping leaders evaluate retained organization design, service placement, process ownership, governance, centers of excellence and provider ecosystems.

• Establish multi-year category strategies grounded in demand forecasts, business roadmaps, market intelligence, benchmarks, supplier economics and emerging service models.

• Maintain a forward-looking pipeline of transformation, sourcing, demand-management, insource/outsource, supplier optimization and commercial-model opportunities.

• Raise the Standard for Business Cases and Transformation Decisions

• Create a rigorous, enterprise approach to business cases for outsourcing, offshoring, consulting and workforce transformation.

• Ensure cases are grounded in validated baselines, fully loaded current-state cost, demand and volume assumptions, productivity, implementation and transition costs, technology dependencies, stranded costs, retained-organization requirements, risk and timing.

• Pressure-test whether proposed value comes from sustainable process improvement, automation and operating-model redesign rather than labor arbitrage alone.

• Partner with Finance to validate assumptions, establish credible baselines and track in-year, run-rate and realized value after implementation.

• Define decision gates and executive accountabilities from strategy through sourcing, transition, stabilization and benefit realization.

• Challenge proposals that lack clear outcomes, executable change plans, realistic capacity assumptions or sufficient protections against value leakage.

• Drive Commercial Strategy and Complex Negotiations

• Personally lead or sponsor the organization’s most complex, highest-value and highest-risk services negotiations.

• Build negotiation strategies using benchmarks, supplier economics, competitive alternatives, incumbent leverage, switching costs, demand aggregation and enterprise-wide relationships.

• Design commercial models suited to the work, including rate-card, milestone, transaction, consumption, capacity, managed-service, outcome-based, gainshare and hybrid constructs.

• Strengthen contractual protections for pricing, productivity, benchmarking, service levels, innovation, continuous improvement, change control, audit, transition, termination and exit assistance.

• Distinguish true strategic consulting from staff augmentation and managed services, ensuring that scope, talent, rates and accountability match the work being purchased.

• Partner with Finance to ensure negotiated value is credible, visible and translated into measurable enterprise impact.

• Build a High-Performing Contingent Workforce Model

• Define the enterprise contingent workforce strategy, governance and supplier architecture across temporary labor, independent talent, direct sourcing, statement-of-work services and managed solutions.

• Improve demand planning, talent-channel selection, rate and markup governance, supplier performance, tenure management, worker quality and speed to productivity.

• Create transparency across external labor demand, skills, location, cost, supplier concentration and conversion opportunities.

• Partner with HR, business leaders, Finance, Legal and Risk to clarify ownership, controls and decision rights across the external workforce lifecycle.

• Use market intelligence, workforce analytics, direct sourcing, talent pools, automation and modern workforce platforms to improve quality, access, agility and cost.

• Prevent misclassification and channel leakage by establishing clear distinctions among contingent labor, consulting, outsourcing and employee roles.

• Shape Strategic Consulting and Clinical Services

• Establish enterprise consulting strategies, preferred-partner models and governance that match supplier capability and commercial model to the nature of the work.

• Improve visibility to consulting demand, reduce fragmented buying, challenge unnecessary work and ensure knowledge transfer and measurable deliverables.

• Build fit-for-purpose category and supplier strategies for clinical services, balancing quality, access, member and patient outcomes, cost, compliance, delegation and operational continuity.

• Partner with clinical, legal, compliance, network and risk leaders to clarify which services Procurement leads, co-leads or routes through specialized contracting channels.

• Apply differentiated sourcing and governance based on whether services involve direct care, licensed professionals, delegated activity, claims reimbursement, sensitive data or value-based arrangements.

• Ensure service quality and continuity are treated as primary outcomes, not trade-offs against financial value.

• Build a Modern, Commercially Formidable Team

• Lead, coach and develop Category Managers, Supplier Managers and procurement professionals with clear expectations for business partnership, commercial judgment, analytical rigor and measurable impact.

• Build deep capabilities in global business services, outsourcing, workforce economics, consulting, clinical services, business-case development, transition management, complex negotiation and executive influence.

• Shift the team from processing requests to shaping operating-model and workforce decisions, anticipating opportunities and challenging assumptions constructively.

• Increase strategic capacity by simplifying work, using shared services and embedding analytics, automation and AI into market intelligence, business cases, negotiations, contracts and supplier monitoring.

• Establish clear performance standards, succession plans and development opportunities that strengthen the broader Procurement leadership bench.

• Create an environment where leaders operate independently with senior executives, make difficult decisions a