Director E&I Strategic Partnerships – Remote

At UnitedHealthcare, we’re simplifying the health care experience, creating healthier communities and removing barriers to quality care. The work you do here impacts the lives of millions of people for the better. Come build the health care system of tomorrow, making it more responsive, affordable and equitable. Ready to make a difference? Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.

In this role, you will lead a team in UnitedHealthcare Employer & Individual, to help provide access to a health and wellness shopping experience designed to deliver unsurpassed value and personalized services for consumers.

You must be passionate about improving access to care, health and wellness products and newly emerging virtual and digital offerings.  You have a proven track record of building complex technical capabilities and the supporting business models to ensure a delightful consumer experience.  You understand the complexity of healthcare purchasing and are committed to making it simple.  You want consumers’ dollars to go further and help them unlock additional value in their coverage.
Reporting to the Vice President Strategic Partnerships, the Director will be responsible for developing and executing strategies to enhance and manage relationships with key partners and vendors for solutions that fit the portfolios. This role involves identifying strategic opportunities, negotiating contracts, ensuring that our partnerships align with our business goals, and delivering value to the market. 

To be successful in this role, this person will need to leverage skills in strategic partnership management, contract negotiation, and vendor relations within a fast-paced, dynamic environment. They will maintain a product portfolio aligned with business strategy, using forward-thinking strategies based on trends and feedback. They will navigate complex topics, document assumptions, and lead teams to aligned decisions. By anticipating objections and developing fact-based arguments, they will secure support across the organization. The candidate must quickly create clear strategy documents and demonstrate effective communication with vendors, driving issue resolution and strategic oversight. They will uphold high performance standards, meet commitments despite challenges, and collaborate with Product to influence IT requirements for vendor implementation

The Director role is a highly visible and critical role for advancing:

• Vendor Strategy: Lead selection and curation of the vendors in this marketplace. Includes working across Strategic Partnerships and UnitedHealth Group to validate partnership goals
• Vendor Contracting: Comfortable negotiating win-wins for vendor-UnitedHealthcare and understand the art of negotiation. Work with external partners to advance discussions alongside UHC procurement for advancing the contract including clinical, legal, employer and network
• Relationship Management: Manage a team with ownership of a portfolio of vendors and regular monitor performance, including reporting and metrics, growth opportunities, operations, client NPS, etc.
• Proactive Collaboration: Highly critical for the candidate to demonstrate the ability to drive initiatives forward and act with a sense of urgency while creating solid relationships across both UnitedHealthcare and Optum

You’ll enjoy the flexibility to work remotely * from anywhere within the U.S. as you take on some tough challenges. 

Primary Responsibilities:

• Category Partnership Strategy & Development:
  • Identify and evaluate potential partners and vendors 
  • Develop and execute partnership strategies to drive growth, innovation, and competitive advantage
  • Cultivate and maintain solid relationships with key stakeholders, ensuring alignment and mutual benefit
  • Conduct market research and analysis to identify trends, opportunities, and potential risks in the partnership and vendor landscape
  • Utilize insights to inform strategic decisions and recommendations
• Contract Negotiation and Management:
  • Lead contract negotiations with partners and vendors, ensuring favorable terms and conditions for the company
  • Oversee the drafting, review, and execution of contracts, ensuring compliance with company policies and legal requirements
  • Monitor contract performance and address any issues or disputes that arise
• Vendor Management:
  • Establish and manage vendor performance metrics to ensure service level agreements (SLAs) are met
  • Develop and implement strategies to optimize vendor performance and value
  • Conduct regular reviews of vendor relationships and negotiate improvements where necessary
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  • Work closely with internal teams, including procurement, legal, digital/ technology and operations, to ensure alignment and integration of partnership and vendor strategies
  • Provide guidance and support to internal stakeholders on partnership and vendor-related matters
• Reporting and Documentation:
  • Prepare and present regular reports on partnership and vendor performance to senior management
  • Maintain accurate and up-to-date documentation on all partnership and vendor activities
• Other duties as assigned to support the Consumer Office

You’ll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

• 7+ years of relevant product, general management, consumer experience
• 3+ years of experience in partnership management, contract negotiation, and vendor relations
• 2+ years of demonstrated experience leading and influencing cross functional technical and business teams 
• 2+ years managing a team with direct reports or mentoring others
• Experience in communicating with technical and non-technical stakeholders across multiple business units
• Demonstrated experience in communications and influencing business strategy
• Demonstrated track record of using metrics, analytics, and user feedback to drive strategy and execution
• Comfortable working in a fast paced, highly collaborative and fluid work environment and working with ambiguity
• Willing and able to travel 10% +/- depending on business need

Preferred Qualifications:

• Demonstrated experience with managing successful product lifecycles including product vision, market analysis, go-to-market strategy, delivery, and post-delivery optimization
• Demonstrated success in creating and maintaining external and internal relationships

*All employees working remotely will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group’s Telecommuter Policy 

The salary range for this role is $124,500 to $239,400 annually based on full-time employment. Pay is based on several factors including but not limited to local labor markets, education, work experience, certifications, etc. UnitedHealth Group complies with all minimum wage laws as applicable. In addition to your salary, UnitedHealth Group offers benefits such as, a comprehensive benefits package, incentive and recognition programs, equity stock purchase and 401k contribution (all benefits are subject to eligibility requirements). No matter where or when you begin a career with UnitedHealth Group, you’ll find a far-reaching choice of benefits and incentives.

Application Deadline: This will be posted for a minimum of 2 business days or until a sufficient candidate pool has been collected. Job posting may come down early due to volume of applicants.

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone–of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income–deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes — an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.

UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer under applicable law and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug – free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.