Manager of Knowledge & Data - External Capabilities and Insights

You are someone who thrives in a high-performance environment, bringing a growth mindset and entrepreneurial spirit to tackle meaningful challenges that have a real impact.

In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we’ll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities to help you quickly broaden your expertise, grow into a well-rounded professional, and contribute to work that truly makes a difference.

When you join us, you will have :

• Continuous learning :  Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey.
• A voice that matters :  From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You’ll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes.
• Global community :  With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm’s diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
• Exceptional benefits :  On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family.

In this role you will take ownership of one of McKinsey’s most strategic, high-impact, and rapidly evolving category portfolios. This role requires a unique blend of strategic foresight, operational excellence, and cross-functional collaboration.

You will define and execute a forward-looking category strategy that shapes how the firm engages with external knowledge and data providers to meet evolving client needs, unlock innovation, and ensure compliance in a complex, risk-conscious environment.

You will be the single point of accountability for this portfolio, responsible for aligning category outcomes with broader firm, practice, and CST (Client Service Team) priorities. This includes advancing the external capability ecosystem, integrating emerging technologies such as GenAI, modernizing commercial models, and embedding world-class governance across procurement, risk, Intellectual Property, and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) domains. Your leadership will directly impact the firm’s ability to deliver client service at scale, while ensuring strategic alignment and risk resilience.

You will develop and maintain high-level supplier relationships to enhance supplier engagement, performance and delivery. You will lead supplier optimization initiatives, portfolio & performance, segmentation & classification. You will engage in high-level strategic decision-making, utilizing your deep knowledge and understanding of the category and leverage your procurement expertise to guide critical decisions that affect the category's direction and success.

You will lead sourcing activities, including RFx processes, supplier evaluations, and contract negotiations, to achieve optimal pricing and terms

Your work will involve deep engagement with senior Practice leadership, CSTs, Optimize, and other firm functions to ensure the consistent, high-value delivery of Knowledge & Data solutions. You will play a central role in shaping the operating model for this service line—leading supplier negotiations, overseeing vendor lifecycle management, and driving financial and performance accountability across the category.

You will be expected to balance strategic ambition with day-to-day execution, ensuring robust category governance while cultivating innovation and agility. This includes tracking KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), leading contracting and recovery efforts, enabling use cases, managing risk exposure, and elevating supplier performance. You will also serve as a visible and credible advisor to senior stakeholders across the firm, including Partners, Associate Partners, and Practice leaders, guiding them in unlocking the full potential of external knowledge partnerships.