Associate Manager

Work Flexibility: Hybrid

Job Overview

As the Associate Manager, Contracts (Commercial & ProCare) at Stryker Canada, you will lead a high-performing team of Contract professionals. This role is responsible for overseeing the full lifecycle of both commercial and service contracts, ensuring operational excellence, compliance, and alignment with business objectives. This position requires a strong leader with deep contract management expertise, exceptional stakeholder engagement skills, and the ability to lead cross-functional collaboration across legal, sales, service, finance, and customer-facing teams. This role requires strategic thinking, strong negotiation skills, and the ability to handle complex financial implications. You will provide strategic input to key stakeholders, manage relationships with various purchasing organizations, and foster a culture of continuous improvement to drive business growth.

What you will do:

Individual Responsibilities:

• Proactively collaborates with internal teams/departments to promote a culture of inclusiveness and cooperation.

• Consistently meets service delivery expectations based on input from the business.

• Responsible to live and exemplify Stryker’s Values: Integrity, Accountability, People, and Performance

Leadership/People Development:

• Build and nurture a high-performing team by actively coaching, mentoring, and providing necessary training to team members. Foster a culture of excellence, engagement, and professional growth.

• Conduct annual performance reviews and regular interim reviews, providing constructive feedback and setting clear, achievable goals. Recognize and reward achievements, and address areas for improvement with actionable development plans.

• Develop and implement strategies to maintain high levels of employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention. Create and execute action plans that support professional development and career advancement opportunities.

• Facilitate open and effective communication within the team, ensuring that all members are informed, motivated, and aligned with the organization’s goals and strategies.

• Oversee and support the contract team by monitoring workload distribution, ensuring timely handling of requests, conducting quality checks, reviewing high-level contract terms and templates, and auditing processes and documents for compliance and accuracy. Manage and address escalated inquiries promptly, ensuring professional responses and coverage for shared email inbox as needed.

Functional Responsibilities:

• Oversee the entire Commercial and ProCare contract lifecycle, including drafting, redlines, negotiation, execution, and renewal, while ensuring compliance with company guidelines and regulations, maintaining accurate documentation, and managing policies and processes for commercial contracts.

• Collaborate with legal, commercial, and their contract team to align contracts with business objectives, mitigate financial implications and risks, and manage negotiations to ensure adherence to company policies and organizational goals.

• Serve as the primary contract liaison for their assigned commercial group, acting as a trusted advisor.  Develop a solid understanding of their business operations.

• Work closely with the Contracts Manager (O&S) ensuring a high degree of collaboration and alignment across MSNT & O&S, driving consistency in contract standards, and a unified approach to risk management.

• Ensure timely and accurate processing of ProCare service agreements, amendments, and renewals in alignment with customer expectations and service delivery standards.

• Build strong relationships with customers by actively engaging with them, understanding their unique needs and challenges, providing timely and effective solutions, and consistently delivering exceptional service and support.

• Partner closely with our Proposals and Pricing teams to ensure contractual terms in RFPs are consistent with contractual term standards and pricing models are appropriately structured.

• Responsible for maintaining and improving the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) system by designing, managing and refining documents, templates, workflows, and approval, automating steps, overseeing user management, and providing training and change management.

• Actively seeks and shares best practices across the organization to identify process improvement and automation opportunities.  Develop and implement standard procedures, work instructions, and policies, while also assisting with internal and external audits and promoting industry best practices like Medtech Canada & WCC.

• Develops and manages visualization and dashboarding solutions for the Contracts team, transforming data into actionable insights through reporting and performance metrics analysis, and presenting findings with recommendations that drive decision making and provoke action.

• Key member on strategic initiatives including acquisition integrations, key projects impacting department (Power BI, Salesforce.com, Malbek, SAP etc.)

• Other responsibilities as assigned by Senior Manager

Conduct & Compliance

• Abide by and support the policies set forth in the Stryker Code of Conduct

• Understand that compliance with the Code of Conduct, as it may be amended by Stryker Corporation from time to time, is a condition of continued employment with Stryker

• Conduct work in compliance with all laws, rules, and regulations and in accordance with Stryker’s high ethical standards

• Report any violations of these policies and procedures to Stryker management or in the manner outlined in Stryker’s Ethics Hotline Policy

Knowledge & Skill Requirements:

• Proven leadership experience managing cross-functional teams in contracts, pricing, or commercial operations.

• Deep understanding of contract, healthcare procurement, and rebate structures. Strong financial acumen with the ability to assess risk and model financial impact.

• Demonstrated ability to analyze and interpret contractual terms and provide sound, strategic guidance to business stakeholders.

• Exceptional negotiation and communication skills, with the ability to influence both internally and externally at various organizational levels.

• Proven ability to build strong partnerships with business units, understanding their goals and aligning contract strategies accordingly.

• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and meet tight deadlines.

• Possess robust proficiency in ERP, CLM, CRM, PowerBI, and Microsoft Office suite.

• Advanced knowledge of procurement at the hospital, regional, provincial, and national buying group levels to ensure alignment with customer and government-imposed terms & conditions as well as contract terminology, practices and concepts. Remain current with emerging healthcare industry trends and assess their potential impact on company business strategies and short/long term initiatives.

• Develop deep knowledge and understanding of Stryker product portfolio and competitor landscape.

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Finance or a related field required.

• 6+ years of progressive experience in contracts, pricing, or commercial operations.

• 2+ years of people leadership experience.

• Experience with contracts, healthcare procurement, and rebate structures.

• Strong financial acumen with the ability to assess risk and model financial impact.

• Proven leadership experience managing cross-functional teams in contracts, pricing, or commercial operations.

• Healthcare procurement

Preferred

• Master's degree

• Bilingual (French & English)

• Possess robust proficiency in ERP, CLM, CRM, PowerBI, and Microsoft Office suite.

• Knowledge of procurement at the hospital, regional, provincial, and national buying group levels to ensure alignment with customer and government-imposed terms & conditions as well as contract terminology, practices and concepts.

Travel Percentage: 0%