Category Manager - No C2C

Category Manager, IT Professional Services

Contract · Remote (US) · No Sponsorship

ABOUT THE DOYLE GROUP

The Doyle Group is a proven partner for Placement and Consulting services, headquartered in Denver, CO. Our core mission is to forge genuine partnerships with our clients who seek strategic talent solutions and to assist highly skilled candidates looking for their next career opportunity. With over 30 years of industry experience, our consultative approach allows us to provide a higher level of guidance and insight, empowering our clients to secure top IT talent that fits seamlessly into their team and culture. We look forward to collaborating to help you achieve your career goals.

POSITION SUMMARY

Our client is a private equity-backed, multi-brand education technology company that has grown significantly through acquisition. As is common with that kind of growth, each business unit has developed its own systems, vendors, and ways of working over time — and our client is now looking to bring more strategic rigor to how it manages professional services and contingent labor spend across the organization.

We are seeking an experienced Category Manager to build, from the ground up, a category strategy for IT professional services and contingent labor spend — currently around $15M annually across more than 100 vendors. This is a build role, not a maintenance role: you will establish the spend baseline, engage stakeholders across multiple business units, rationalize a fragmented supplier base, and run the sourcing events and negotiations that lock in improved rates and terms. You'll be the face of the project, presenting findings and recommendations directly to leadership, and will hand off a documented governance framework the internal team can operate going forward.

This is a highly visible, largely autonomous engagement suited to someone who thrives on ambiguity, builds trust through data and communication rather than positional authority, and enjoys creating structure where none exists today.

This is a fully remote, 3–6 month contract engagement, with the possibility of extension based on scope and results. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future visa sponsorship.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Baseline the category by analyzing historical spend, contracts, SOWs, and utilization data across systems integration, staff augmentation, managed services, and maintenance agreements
• Segment spend and map contractual commitments, renewal dates, and areas of supplier overlap and fragmentation
• Lead stakeholder discovery interviews across business units to document demand pipeline, critical skill needs, incumbent supplier performance, and operational constraints
• Build a supplier rationalization model (preferred, niche, transitional, exit) and quantify addressable spend and savings opportunity
• Benchmark professional services rates and markups against current market data
• Design a preferred supplier panel structure and rules of engagement
• Prepare and present decision materials and business cases to leadership to secure alignment on supplier strategy and negotiation priorities
• Design and run sourcing events (RFP, RFQ, or direct negotiation as fit) using the client's e-procurement platform
• Build rate card templates and pricing structures, normalize vendor proposals, and lead negotiations on rates, markups, service levels, and terms
• Document awarded outcomes and negotiated savings, and validate results with the finance organization
• Establish a supplier governance framework, performance cadence, and savings-tracking methodology
• Transfer knowledge and hand off the completed category strategy and governance model to the internal team
• Partner closely with finance, procurement, and business unit leaders throughout the engagement

MINIMUM EXPERIENCE

• 8+ years in strategic sourcing or category management, with deep, recent experience in IT professional services, contingent labor, or workforce solutions categories
• Demonstrated track record building a category strategy from scratch, not just operating one that already exists:
• Ideally within a technology, mid-market, or private equity-backed environment
• Hands-on sourcing execution, including:
• Personally building RFPs/RFQs
• Normalizing vendor bids and proposals
• Leading supplier negotiations directly — not just managing a team that did
• Current, credible market knowledge of professional services rate structures, markups, and MSP/VMS commercial models
• Strong stakeholder management skills — able to build credibility quickly with business and IT leaders and drive decisions without direct authority
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.

ADDITIONAL PLUS

• Experience with intake-to-procure platforms such as Zip
• Prior category management experience specifically within a private equity-backed or acquisitive organization
• Comfort validating and reporting savings results with a finance organization for board/investor-level reporting
• Experience building supplier governance frameworks designed to transfer cleanly to an internal team
• Executive presence — comfortable being the face of a project in front of senior leadership

SALARY / WAGE RANGE

Compensation for the role will depend on a number of factors, including a candidate's qualifications, skills, competencies, location, and experience, and may fall outside of the range shown. The Doyle Group offers a competitive rewards package, which includes a 401(k), healthcare coverage, and other benefits.