Senior Director, Strategic Planning (Pharmaceutical Distribution)

Candidates based in the Dallas 680Fort Worth (DFW) area will be hired in a hybrid capacity and are expected to work onsite at our Las Colinas office a minimum of two (2) days per week, with the remaining days worked remotely. Specific inoffice days may be designated based on team needs and business priorities.

About the Role:

McKesson is seeking a Senior Director, Strategic Planning to join the NAPD (North America Pharmaceutical Distribution) Strategy team. Reporting to the Senior Vice President, NAPD Strategy, this role will lead the strategic planning management system that connects long-range direction, business evolution, annual priorities, executive decision-making, and execution across NAPD. The Senior Director will work closely with senior leaders and teams across the business to help shape strategic choices, align perspectives, and create a coherent view of priorities, opportunities, risks, and progress.

This leader will serve as a trusted thought partner, planning architect, and integrator. They will bring structure to complex and ambiguous questions, translate market and business insight into actionable plans, and establish the routines, tools, and governance needed to advance the NAPD strategic agenda. The role will help leadership navigate key strategic decisions while ensuring alignment between long-term direction and near-term execution. The role will lead and develop a team of strategy professionals and will influence across a large, highly matrixed organization without relying solely on formal authority.

This role offers the opportunity to shape how strategy is translated into aligned priorities and measurable progress across a complex, consequential healthcare business. The successful candidate will combine strategic depth, operational discipline, and people leadership to help NAPD make better decisions, focus resources, and advance its most important priorities.

What Youll Do:

Strategic Planning and Integration

• Lead NAPDs annual and long-range strategic planning processes, connecting long-term direction, business priorities, financial objectives, and execution plans.
• Partner with senior leaders to frame critical strategic questions, clarify choices and tradeoffs, and align near-term priorities with long-term aspirations.
• Integrate plans and perspectives across NAPD portfolios and financial plans, identify dependencies and gaps, and elevate issues requiring executive alignment or decision.
• Establish planning frameworks, standards, and deliverables that improve the quality, consistency, and speed of strategic decision-making.

Strategic Alignment and Business Evolution

• Partner with strategy leaders and business stakeholders to ensure growth, innovation, and business evolution initiatives are incorporated into NAPDs strategic direction and planning processes.
• Ensure strategic initiatives and emerging opportunities are evaluated, prioritized, and connected to broader business objectives and resource decisions.
• Identify overlaps, dependencies, risks, and gaps across strategic initiatives and surface issues requiring leadership attention.
• Help translate long-term strategic direction into actionable priorities, plans, milestones, and governance processes.

Executive Decision Support and Strategic Insights

• Support executive strategy reviews, planning discussions, operating reviews, Board materials, offsites, and other key leadership forums.
• Develop clear, concise materials that frame decisions, communicate priorities, and drive alignment.
• Synthesize inputs from strategy leaders, business stakeholders, and functional partners into actionable insights, options, and recommendations.
• Help surface key decisions, unresolved issues, dependencies, risks, and trade-offs requiring leadership attention.

Strategic Management and Execution

• Design and lead planning and review cadences that connect strategy, priorities, execution, and performance across NAPD.
• Identify key dependencies, trade-offs, risks, and issues requiring leadership attention or decision.
• Incorporate business performance, market developments, and execution learnings into ongoing strategy and planning.

Team Leadership and Cross-Functional Partnership

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of strategy professionals; establish clear priorities and ensure high-quality delivery.
• Build trusted relationships across business, functional, and strategy teams to drive alignment and informed decision-making.
• Coordinate stakeholders across NAPD to connect strategic priorities, planning activities, and enterprise objectives.

Basic Requirements:

• Degree or equivalent experience. Typically requires 13+ years of professional experience and 6+ years of diversified leadership, planning, communication, organization, and people motivation skills (or equivalent experience).
• Bachelors degree in business, finance, economics, healthcare, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated people-leadership experience, including coaching and developing strategy, planning, or analytical talent.
• Experience leading enterprise-scale or business-unit strategic planning and managing multiple complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Strategic thinking and problem solving: Able to structure ambiguous issues, distinguish the most important drivers, evaluate choices and trade-offs, and develop pragmatic recommendations.
• Planning and execution: Experience translating long-range direction into annual priorities, initiative portfolios, milestones, metrics, and management routines.
• Business and financial acumen: Strong understanding of business models, P&L drivers, financial analysis, investment decisions, and value creation.
• Executive communication: Exceptional written, verbal, facilitation, and presentation skills; able to simplify complexity and tailor messages for executive and operating audiences.
• Influence and relationship building: Proven ability to establish credibility, lead without authority, navigate competing perspectives, and drive alignment in a matrixed organization.
• Leadership: Track record of setting direction, developing talent, managing capacity, and creating an engaged, accountable, and inclusive team environment.
• Analytical rigor: Able to synthesize quantitative and qualitative information, test assumptions, and turn analysis into decision-relevant insight.
• Healthcare and pharmaceutical industry understanding: Knowledge of healthcare stakeholders, market dynamics, economic drivers, and policy is strongly preferred.

Preferred Skills/Experience:

• MBA or other relevant advanced degree.
• Experience in pharmaceutical distribution, pharmaceutical services, healthcare, payer, provider, life sciences, health technology, or an adjacent industry.
• Experience supporting C-suite or senior executive decision-making and preparing materials for executive leadership or board-level audiences.
• Experience with scenario planning, portfolio prioritization, transformation governance, strategic initiatives, or business-case development.

Physical Requirements:

• Candidates within a 50-mile radius of Irving, TX will be hired into a Hybrid schedule requiring 2 days per week onsite (subject to more depending on business need).
• Ability to travel up to 20% of the time.

We are proud to offer a competitive compensation package at McKesson as part of our Total Rewards. This is determined by several factors, including performance, experience and skills, equity, regular job market evaluations, and geographical markets. The pay range shown below is aligned with McKessons pay philosophy, and pay will always be compliant with any applicable regulations. In addition to base pay, other compensation, such as an annual bonus or long-term incentive opportunities may be offered. For more information regarding benefits at McKesson, pleaseclick here.

Our Base Pay Range for this position

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