Senior Category Manager - Expert Network Services

Pracovní nabídka

As Senior Category Manager for Expert Network Services (ENS), you will lead one of the firm’s most strategically significant and highest-risk categories as part of the External Capabilities and Insights (eC&I) team.

What you will do:

ENS underpins thousands of client engagements annually by enabling distinctive expert discovery; connecting our teams with the right voices at the right moment to sharpen insights, accelerate problem solving, and elevate client impact.

You will be the firm’s owner for our ENS Category, accountable for setting a bold, multi-year strategy and ensuring its disciplined execution. This includes securing a robust governance model, embedding risk and compliance processes, and giving client teams the confidence to engage external experts quickly and safely. You will create a safe space for ENS-powered assets ensuring call transcripts, GenAI-enabled insights, and other outputs are developed and used in line with firm standards on IP, confidentiality, and data privacy.

At the same time, you will drive operational excellence, stronger automation, onboarding and payment controls, robust supplier KPIs, and strategic negotiations that enhance quality, resilience, and economics. You will also lead the firm’s engagement with our largest suppliers, shaping the roadmap, negotiating at scale, and unlocking new models for how McKinsey discovers and leverages experts globally. Your mandate is not only to manage ENS, but to reimagine how the firm accesses external expertise creating new pathways for speed, quality, and safe innovation.

The role demands visible leadership and convenorship across the firm. You will align Practice leaders, Risk, Legal, Compliance, and Optimize around a unified agenda. You will set the drumbeat for category priorities, ensuring decisions move at pace, initiatives advance with urgency, and progress is tracked with rigor. By doing so, you will transform ENS into a strategically governed category that supports innovation while protecting the firm.

Beyond category leadership, you will invest in building the next generation of leaders within eC&I. You will serve as sponsor and mentor to colleagues, creating an apprenticeship culture that grows distinctive talent while modeling the judgment, stewardship, and inclusive leadership expected at this level. You will also act as a critical thought partner to the Global Director of eC&I, helping to shape priorities across service lines and contributing visibly to cross-firm initiatives.

This is a role where strategic judgment, convenorship, and execution converge: you will set direction, establish governance, and sustain the steady drumbeat of progress that defines how McKinsey discovers, scales, and safeguards expertise in an increasingly complex, fast-moving environment.

What we are looking for:

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred
• 10+ years of relevant experience in consulting, category management, or research/knowledge management.
• Deep expertise in external capabilities strategy, with a strong understanding of supplier ecosystems, contracting models, and governance frameworks
• Demonstrated experience leading complex, high-impact initiatives with senior-level visibility and cross-functional engagement
• Proven ability to work across senior stakeholder groups - practices, CSTs, Legal, Risk, Finance, and Optimize; with credibility and influence
• Strong commercial acumen and experience with vendor negotiations, financial performance tracking, and cost/value optimization
• Experience managing outsourced service models and driving adoption of third-party capabilities in professional services or client-service environments
• Familiarity with GenAI enabled solutions and innovation integration is a strong plus
• Structured problem solver with advanced analytical and decision-making capabilities
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to coach, develop, and inspire high-performing teams
• Entrepreneurial mindset, resilient under pressure, and energized by ambiguity and ownership
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills; able to distill complex challenges into clear, compelling insights for senior audiences

For more information about our company, as well as our firm culture and benefits, please visit our firm profile.