Category Manager - Commercial & Market Services, Generics Pharma

POSITION PURPOSE

As Category Manager – Commercial & Market Services, you are accountable for defining, deploying, and continuously evolving global category strategies covering Communication Agencies & Media, Market Research, and Sales & Promotional Services across the generics pharmaceutical business.

Operating in a highly competitive, cost‑constrained, and regulated environment, this role is critical to enabling commercial performance while ensuring cost efficiency, compliance, scalability, innovation, and transparency. You act as a strategic business partner to Commercial, Marketing, Market Access, Sales Excellence, and Finance teams.

The role requires strong expertise in category management, supplier relationship management (SRM), budget ownership, and Long‑Range Planning (LRP) in a global, matrix organisation.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

Category Strategy & Value Creation

• Develop and execute global, multi‑year category strategies for commercial and market services, aligned with business objectives, cost competitiveness, and regulatory requirements.
• Translate commercial strategies into actionable sourcing roadmaps supporting speed to market, launch excellence, and ethical promotion standards.
• Drive value beyond savings through innovation access, standardisation, and scalable sourcing models across regions.
• Monitor market dynamics (media inflation, agency consolidation, data providers, digital transformation) and integrate insights into sourcing decisions.

Category Management

• Lead end‑to‑end category management, including spend analysis, demand challenge, contract negotiation, and framework agreements.
• Design and deploy preferred supplier models, rate cards, and global and local playbooks.
• Ensure robust contracting covering IP ownership, data privacy (GDPR), pharmaceutical promotional compliance, and performance‑based mechanisms.
• Ensure execution of category strategies by countries, contributing to increased procurement maturity, governance, and standardisation.

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

• Build and manage structured relationships with strategic suppliers across commercial and marketing categories.
• Define and monitor performance KPIs and governance models.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives, innovation pilots, and joint business reviews.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate closely with Global and Local Marketing, Sales & Commercial Excellence, Market Access, Finance, Legal, and Compliance.
• Support product launches, portfolio transitions, and market entries through agile and compliant sourcing solutions.
• Act as procurement lead in commercial category transformation initiatives.

Cost Management & Budget

• Play a key role in the annual budget cycle and Long‑Range Plan (LRP).
• Ensure budget governance, spend visibility, and variance analysis.
• Partner with Finance and Procurement CoE to support savings delivery, cost evolution modelling, and financial transparency.

Governance & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with internal procurement policies, ethical promotion standards, and pharmaceutical regulations.
• Manage supplier risks related to dependency, data confidentiality, and regulatory exposure.
• Maintain sourcing documentation and ensure audit readiness across the category.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIRED SKILLS

• Master’s degree in Procurement, Business, Marketing, or a related field.
• 8–12 years of experience in procurement or category management, with exposure to commercial, marketing, or sales‑related categories.
• Strong expertise in category strategy, supplier relationship management, and complex stakeholder environments.
• Proven negotiation and value‑creation track record.
• High financial acumen, including experience with budgets, LRP, TCO, and ROI.
• Fluent in English; additional European languages are an advantage.
• Strong stakeholder‑management skills, with the ability to influence without authority and challenge senior stakeholders constructively.

Our Recruitment Process: 

To be considered for this role, please apply in our Applicant tracking system and refrain from sending your CV via email. Upon the completion of sourcing (CV collection) period, all received application will be reviewed by our Recruitment experts and evaluated against the needs of the open role. Successful candidates will be contacted by our Recruiting experts for an initial screening interview during which further details about the selection process will be shared. Successful candidates will progress to interviews with line managers, while not selected candidates will be informed in a written form as soon as possible. 
 
Diversity is a fact. Inclusion is an act @Zentiva
At Zentiva, we are a team of 5000 unique talents bonded together by our purpose to provide health and well-being for all generations. We strive daily to create a work culture where everyone feels appreciated, can be their true selves, and contribute to the best of their ability. Seeking for a balanced team across the company, we welcome applications from all qualified candidates with various educational and industry experiences, cultural or ethnical backgrounds, and different life experiences or abilities, regardless of their religious or philosophical beliefs or whomever they choose to love. 

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Minimum Gross Annual Salary in Italy: 70,000 EUR