Mgr - IT Product Lead (Analytics / GPO)

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Job Details
SUMMARY:
Under the direction of the IT Group Product Owner, the IT Product Lead - Analytics serves as the technical lead and product owner for the Analytics products supporting core Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) operations. This role is accountable for the end-to-end technology delivery of solutions built on Azure Data Bricks and PowerBI, including supporting technologies. In partnership with the Business Product Owner for Analytics, the IT Product Lead ensures that products are delivered in alignment with business priorities, customer requirements, technical roadmaps, security standards, and service-level commitments.
The IT Product Lead - Analytics requires hands-on technical leadership - guiding architecture decisions, backlog prioritization, and engineering best practices - while collaborating with IT and business stakeholders to drive continuous improvement, value realization, and long-term product strategy. This role will establish product plans, technical roadmaps, work with technical architects to ensure a forward-looking design strategy within the Analytics ecosystem and collaborate with business and IT leaders on long-term strategies to maintain and enhance the product(s). This role supports highly complex GPO analytics vital to our members and therefore will be required to grow their knowledge of our data and how it is structured, used, and supports our business team.
The IT Product Lead - Analytics is expected to demonstrate general knowledge and capabilities in all areas of the operating model and application lifecycle management. This role will provide coaching and guidance to a cross-functional team and must have a strong understanding of product design, product ownership, continuous delivery, lean practices, agile practices and execution, operations, and development/engineering. This role is accountable for maintaining service costing and resource budgets for their product(s). Additionally the role will manage cross-team support outside of the immediate product team and will require managing and leveraging resources from Enterprise Analytics, release/change management, infrastructure, network, and other systems in support of the product.
Primary Duties & Responsibilities:
Product Leadership

• Define and own the Analytics product vision and roadmap, aligning it with SGPO strategic objectives and broader Cencora enterprise goals.
• Function as the primary point of accountability for the Analytics product portfolio, managing scope, prioritization, and stakeholder expectations across business and IT.
• Serve as a trusted advisor and thought leader to senior stakeholders on analytics capabilities, platform investments, and emerging data technologies.
• Lead product planning ceremonies, including quarterly roadmap reviews, portfolio prioritization sessions, and executive briefings.
• Drive buy vs. build vs. configure decisions for analytics tooling and platforms in partnership with architecture and sourcing teams.

Technical Product Ownership & Hands-On Delivery

• Maintain and groom the product backlog, ensuring user stories, epics, features, and acceptance criteria are clearly defined, prioritized, and development-ready within the SAFe Agile framework.
• Actively engage as a hands-on contributor - analyzing data sets, reviewing technical designs, and providing substantive input and feedback on analytics reports and dashboards.
• Partner closely with data engineers and BI developers to review solutions built on Azure, Databricks, and Power BI, ensuring alignment with product intent, business requirements, and data quality standards.
• Translate complex business requirements into clear technical specifications, facilitating shared understanding between business stakeholders and delivery teams.
• Actively participate in SAFe Agile ceremonies - PI Planning, sprint planning, standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives - ensuring the team remains unblocked, aligned, and focused on delivering value.
• Own release planning and go-live readiness, coordinating UAT, change management, and deployment activities.
• Evaluate and provide technical input on data architecture, data models, and pipeline designs, ensuring solutions are scalable, performant, and maintainable.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead and mentor a high-performing, cross-functional Analytics team, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Provide coaching and career development guidance to team members, including business analysts, data engineers, and BI developers.
• Champion SAFe Agile and product management best practices within SGPO, contributing to the maturation of the team's ways of working.
• Identify staffing needs, support recruitment efforts, and contribute to workforce planning for the Analytics capability.

Stakeholder Engagement & Governance

• Build and maintain strong relationships with business partners, data stewards, and technology teams across Cencora.
• Facilitate cross-functional alignment on analytics priorities, data governance standards, and platform adoption strategies.
• Represent the Analytics product area in SGPO governance forums, portfolio reviews, and steering committees.
• Communicate product status, key decisions, risks, and milestones to stakeholders at all levels - including executive leadership.

Data & Analytics Enablement

• Champion the adoption of self-service analytics, data literacy, and insight-driven decision-making across the SGPO business.
• Partner with data governance and architecture teams to ensure adherence to data quality, security, and compliance standards.
• Leverage hands-on expertise in Power BI to review, critique, and guide the development of dashboards and analytical reports that drive business outcomes.
• Evaluate and recommend enhancements to the analytics tech stack, with a focus on the Azure, Databricks, and Power BI ecosystem.

Experience & Educational Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Business, or a related field; advanced degree preferred.
• 7+ years in Information Technology in progressive levels of responsibility, with 2+ years in a leadership or team lead capacity preferred
• 5+ years of experience in IT product management, technical product ownership, or a related discipline.
• 3+ years of experience leading analytics, data, or business intelligence products or programs.
• Demonstrated ability to operate in a dual leadership capacity - balancing strategic product vision with hands-on technical engagement.
• Strong proficiency in SAFe Agile methodologies, including PI Planning, backlog management, and Agile delivery at scale.
• Experience managing and grooming product backlogs, writing user stories and epics, and defining acceptance criteria.
• Proven hands-on experience analyzing data, reviewing technical designs, and providing input into analytics reports and dashboards.
• Hands-on experience with Azure Cloud Services, Databricks, and Power BI, with the ability to engage meaningfully with engineering teams on platform design, architecture, and implementation.
• Proven experience managing complex stakeholder relationships and presenting to senior or executive audiences.

Preferred Certifications:

• Experience working within a Group Purchase Organization (GPO), specialty pharmacy, or healthcare/pharmaceutical distribution environment.
• Certification in SAFe (e.g., SAFe POPM, SAFe Agilist), PMP, or CSPO.
• Familiarity with data governance frameworks and enterprise data quality standards.
• Experience with AI/ML product integration and operationalizing data science models within an analytics platform.

What Cencora offers
We provide compensation, benefits, and resources that enable a highly inclusive culture and support our team members' ability to live with purpose every day. In addition to traditional offerings like medical, dental, and vision care, we also provide a comprehensive suite of benefits that focus on the physical, emotional, financial, and social aspects of wellness. This encompasses support for working families, which may include backup dependent care, adoption assistance, infertility coverage, family building support, behavioral health solutions, paid parental leave, and paid caregiver leave. To encourage your personal growth, we also offer a variety of training programs, professional development resources, and opportunities to participate in mentorship programs, employee resource groups, volunteer activities, and much more. For details, visit https://www.virtualfairhub.com/cencora
Full time
Equal Employment Opportunity
Cencora is committed to providing equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or membership in any other class protected by federal, state or local law.
The company's continued success depends on the full and effective utilization of qualified individuals. Therefore, harassment is prohibited and all matters related to recruiting, training, compensation, benefits, promotions and transfers comply with equal opportunity principles and are non-discriminatory.
Cencora is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the employment process which are consistent with legal requirements. If you wish to request an accommodation while seeking employment, please call 888.692.2272 or email [email protected]. We will make accommodation determinations on a request-by-request basis. Messages and emails regarding anything other than accommodations requests will not be returned
Affiliated Companies
Affiliated Companies: AmerisourceBergen Services Corporation