{"id":1170180,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cencora-program-manager-solution-innovation","title":"Program Manager, Solution Innovation","company":{"id":1040788,"name":"Cencora","domain":"cencora.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/cencora","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"Management","role_family":"Management","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":94500,"max":148060,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":148060},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":6,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"Confluence","optional":false},{"name":"Jira","optional":false},{"name":"Microsoft Office","optional":false},{"name":"Microsoft Project","optional":false},{"name":"Outlook","optional":false},{"name":"Scrum","optional":false},{"name":"Smartsheet","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-14T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-14","last_verified_at":"2026-09-24T19:06:07Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":11,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":11},"description":"Our team members are at the heart of everything we do. At Cencora, we are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures, and every person here is essential to us being able to deliver on that purpose. If you want to make a difference at the center of health, come join our innovative company and help us improve the lives of people and animals everywhere. Apply today!\nJob Details\nThe Program Manager, Solution Innovation is responsible formanaging the solution innovation workstreams, governance process, and operating pathway that moves ideas, concepts, pilots, and solution opportunities through disciplined evaluation, prioritization, stage-gate review, roadmap alignment, and execution tracking. Reporting to the Group Product Owner - Solution Innovation and Design, this role ensures the solution innovation pathway is clearly documented, consistently applied, transparent to stakeholders, and aligned with CPS product and solution development priorities.\nThis role supports product strategy execution by translating innovation priorities, market insights, customer needs, and leadership decisions into structured program plans, committee routines, stage-gate deliverables, roadmap updates, and implementation requirements. The role maintainsthe operating infrastructure that enables the Group Product Owner, Product Development Committee, solution teams, commercialization partners, analytics, legal/compliance, operations, and other stakeholders to evaluate and advance innovation opportunities in a repeatable and measurable way.\nThis role does not own product strategy or final product prioritization decisions; instead, it owns the program management discipline, governance administration, process documentation, stakeholder coordination, dependency tracking, and reporting routines required to support timelyand effective solution innovation decisions. The Program Manager ensures innovation items are organized, stage-gate materials are complete, committee decisions are captured, roadmap and backlog data are maintained, and risks, issues, decisions, and follow-ups are visible and actionable.\nPrimary Duties and Responsibilities:\nSolution Innovation Pathway Management\nImplement, maintain, and continuously improve the Solution Innovation pathway from idea intake through discovery, validation, pilot/proof-of-concept, scale recommendation, roadmap transition, and post-decision follow-up.\n\nTranslate the priorities of the Group Product Owner - Solution Innovation and Design into structured program plans, operating routines, meeting cadences, decision checkpoints, documentation requirements, and stakeholder deliverables.\n\nDefine and maintainpathway documentation including process maps, stage-gate expectations, intake criteria, readiness checklists, decision rights, artifacts, intake forms, governance calendars, and communication protocols.\n\nEnsure the innovation pathway is applied consistently across solution workstreams while remainingflexible enough to support different typesof innovation opportunities, pilots, prototypes, and business cases.\n\nIdentifyprocess bottlenecks, ambiguous handoffs, inconsistent documentation, and decision delays; recommend and implement improvements to increase clarity, speed, accountability, and stakeholder alignment.\n\nProduct Development Committee Operations and Governance\nCoordinate and manage the Product Development Committee operating rhythm, including agenda planning, materials intake, pre-read preparation, meeting facilitation support, decision documentation, action tracking, and follow-up communication.\n\nSupport the Group Product Owner in preparing innovation concepts, backlog recommendations, stage-gate materials, and roadmap updates for Product Development Committee review.\n\nEnsure committee decisions, open questions, risks, approvals, deferrals, and next steps are captured accurately and communicated to appropriate stakeholders.\n\nMaintain governance records and decision logs to support transparency, traceability, and accountability across innovation pathway decisions.\n\nMonitor adherence to Product Development Committee processes and recommend refinements to governance structure, meeting cadence, decision standards, and escalation pathways.\n\nInnovation Backlog and Roadmap Administration\nMaintain the innovation backlog with current information on opportunity status, owner, strategic theme, stage-gate status, customer value, business rationale, dependencies, risks, target timing, and next actions.\n\nSupport roadmap administration for solution innovation initiatives by tracking milestones, sequencing, stage transitions, prioritization inputs, and linkage to CPS solution strategy.\n\nPartner with the Group Product Owner and product stakeholders to ensure innovation backlog and roadmap data reflect current priorities, leadership decisions, capacity constraints, and dependencies.\n\nDevelop and maintainreporting views that allow leadership to understand backlog health, pathway throughput, stage-gate progress, pipeline constraints, and upcoming decisions.\n\nIdentifystale, duplicative, misaligned, or blocked backlog items and coordinate with owners to recommend disposition, refresh, escalation, or removal.\n\nStage-Gate Process Execution and Artifact Management\nManage stage-gate execution across solution innovation workstreams, including intake readiness, discovery documentation, problem statements, VOC summaries, pilot objectives, success criteria, feasibility inputs, risk assessments, and transition recommendations.\n\nEnsure required artifacts are developed, updated, reviewed, and stored in the appropriate locationbefore stage-gate reviews and committee discussions.\n\nCoordinate with Product Owners, Product Managers, solution development teams, analytics, operations, commercialization, legal/compliance, finance, and other stakeholders to gather required stage-gate inputs.\n\nTrack gate decisions and follow-up actions, ensuring workstream owners understand expectations requiredto progress to the next stage.\n\nContinuously evaluate whether stage-gate criteria and artifacts are fit for purpose and recommend changes that improve decision quality, speed, and consistency.\n\nInnovation Workstream Program Management\nManage multiple solution innovation workstreams by developing and tracking workplans, milestones, deliverables, dependencies, risks, issues, communications, and stakeholder commitments.\n\nSupport cross-functional teams in defining scope, timelines, deliverables, resource needs, sequencing, decision points, and escalation paths for innovationinitiatives.\n\nCoordinate workstream planning and execution across Product, Solution Development, Commercialization, Enablement, Analytics, Operations, Legal/Compliance, Finance, and customer-facing functions.\n\nDevelop clear status updates and program views that communicate progress, blockers, decisions needed, upcoming milestones, and risks to the Group Product Owner and relevant stakeholders.\n\nProactively anticipaterisks, dependency conflicts, resource constraints, and scope creep;present mitigation options and escalation recommendations to leadership.\n\nRequirements, Business Case, and Product Lifecycle Support\nSupport development of product and solution requirements, enhancement plans, business cases, and lifecycle recommendations by coordinating inputs from product, strategy, analytics, customers, and cross-functional stakeholders.\n\nHelp translate innovation strategy, market insights, customer needs, and committee decisions into actionable product plans, implementation requirements, stage-gate deliverables, and roadmap updates.\n\nCoordinate operating cost, ROI, risk, readiness, adoption, and performance inputs needed to support innovation prioritization and product lifecycle decisions.\n\nSupport transition of validated innovation concepts into product roadmaps, commercialization planning, operational readiness, enablement planning, or scale recommendations as appropriate.\n\nEnsure service expectations, operational readiness requirements, customer support implications, and risk considerations are documented for innovation opportunities moving toward pilot or launch.\n\nStakeholder Communication and Executive Reporting\nDevelop and maintaintimely, accurate, and concise reporting on innovation pipeline status, Product Development Committee decisions, stage-gate progress, roadmap updates, risks, issues, and action items.\n\nFacilitate stakeholder discussions to build alignment on innovation priorities, process expectations, implementation approaches, dependencies, and next steps.\n\nPrepare materials, dashboards, status reports, decision summaries, and executive updates for the Group Product Owner, Product Development Committee, CPS leadership, and cross-functional stakeholders.\n\nUse appropriate communicationtools and formats to keep stakeholders informed and aligned across complex and interconnected innovation workstreams.\n\nTranslate complex process, product, and dependency information into clear summaries for both technical and non-technical audiences.\n\nContinuous Improvement, SOPs, and Process Discipline\nDevelop, maintain, and improve standard operating procedures, templates, process documents, governance tools, communication practices, and stage-gate artifacts supporting the Solution Innovation pathway.\n\nConduct periodic process reviews and lessons-learned sessions to identifysuccessful and unsuccessful pathway elements and apply improvements to future workstreams.\n\nIdentifyopportunities for efficiency, process improvement, documentation quality, tool optimization, governance simplification, and improved stakeholder experience.\n\nImplement repeatable program management practices that improve visibility, accountability, decision quality, data integrity, and workflow speed across solution innovation activities.\n\nPromote consistent use of program management and product management tools, ensuring information is complete, current, and usable for decision-making.\n\nRisk, Issue, Dependency, and Resource Tracking\nMaintain risk, issue, dependency, and decision logs for solution innovation workstreams and governance processes.\n\nPartner with stakeholders to identifymitigation plans, escalation needs, and alternative approaches when timelines, resources, scope, or dependencies are at risk.\n\nTrack resource needs, capacity constraints, and cross-functional dependencies that impactworkstream progression or stage-gate readiness.\n\nUse judgment and discretion in escalating issues to the Group Product Owner and relevant leadership when innovation progress, stakeholder commitments, or decision timing are at risk.\n\nEnsureinnovationworkstream risks and dependencies are visible in roadmap, backlog, and committee reporting.\n\nCompliance and Other\nEnsure solution innovation governance, documentation, and workstream processes comply withapplicable company policies, privacy/security expectations, legal/compliance standards, and documentation requirements.\n\nPerform related duties as assigned.\n\nExperience and Educational Requirements:\nBachelor’s degree requiredin business administration, marketing, product management, project/program management, healthcare administration, information systems, engineering, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.\n\n6+ years of experience in product management, product strategy, program management, project management, business operations, innovation operations, or a relatedfield required.\n\nExperience managing cross-functional workstreams, governance processes, stage-gate models, product roadmaps, innovation pipelines, or product lifecycle processes preferred.\n\nExperience supporting senior stakeholders, committees, governance forums, and executive reporting preferred.\n\nExperience in healthcare, pharmacy services, technology-enabled services, product development, or portfolio/program management preferred.\n\nCertification in agile, scrum, product management, project management, or program management preferred.\n\nMinimum Sk...","description_format":"text","description_chars":16355,"description_truncated":true,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":6,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Parental leave","Professional development"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Health Care","Pharmaceuticals","Cell & Gene Therapy"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-24T06:56:41Z"}],"liveness":{"score":72,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.798,"p_room":0.9,"age_days":11,"expected_fill_days":18,"reasons":["conf:5","win:mid","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-09-25T00:13:59Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":148060,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cencora-program-manager-solution-innovation","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cencora-program-manager-solution-innovation.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-25T00:13:59Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":281,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":4719,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-09-26T00:00:00Z"}}}