Senior Manager and Director, Operational Value Creation - Cost & Productivity Chicago

Overview

West Monroe is expanding its Operational Value Creation practice with a focus on helping clients identify, prioritize, activate and realize sustainable cost reduction and productivity enhancements. We are seeking Director and Senior Manager / Manager level candidates with strong experience identifying and executing cost reduction across third-party spend, including indirect and direct categories by leveraging AI-enabled insights to drive value creation.

This role requires a leader who has delivered real P&L savings and who can leverage data, analytics, and emerging AI-enabled tools to accelerate insight, improve decision-making, and sustain results.

• Lead end-to-end cost reduction programs across indirect and direct spend categories
• Identify, size, and prioritize cost reduction opportunities using spend analytics, benchmarks, and AI-enabled insights
• Design and execute sourcing, demand management, supplier rationalization, and should-cost initiatives
• Apply AI- and automation-enabled approaches to:
  • Accelerate spend visibility and opportunity identification
  • Support category strategy development
  • Improve governance and savings tracking
• Own execution through savings realization, governance, and sustainability
• Serve as a trusted advisor to client executives (CFO, COO, CPO, Operations leaders)
• Lead and develop multi-disciplinary teams, including procurement, operations, data, and change resources
• Contribute to building repeatable, AI-enabled category playbooks and toolkits
• Support business development by articulating a clear, execution-led value proposition

• 10+ years of experience in management consulting or advisory roles
• Experience working with middle-market clients ($500M–$2B revenue)
• Deep expertise in third-party spend cost reduction, including indirect and direct categories
• Proven track record of executing cost programs, not just diagnosing opportunities
• Experience applying analytics, automation, or AI-enabled tools to procurement or cost programs
• Strong client relationship skills and executive presence
• Demonstrated success leading teams and managing complex stakeholder environments

• Measurable, sustainable EBITDA improvement for clients
• Cost programs that are faster to launch and easier to scale through AI enablement
• Strong executive relationships that lead to repeat and portfolio-wide work
• Category playbooks that become institutional assets at West Monroe

• Experience with PE-backed portfolio companies
• Exposure to agentic or workflow-based automation in procurement, sourcing, or spend management
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, execution-oriented environments

Based on pay transparency guidelines, the salary range for this role can vary based on your proximity to one of our West Monroe offices. Information on our competitive total rewards package, including our bonus structure and benefits is here. Individual salaries are determined by evaluating a variety of factors including geography, experience, skills, education, and internal equity.

Locations mentioned:
Seattle or Washington, D.C.;
New York City or San Francisco; a location not listed above. Salary ranges:
Seattle or Washington, D.C. $194,900 - $250,000;
New York City or San Francisco $212,600 - $250,000; a location not listed above $184,900 - $250,000.

Other consultancies talk  West Monroe, we work with you. We’re a global business and technology consulting firm passionate about creating measurable value for our clients, delivering real-world solutions. We zero in on the heart of the opportunity, getting to results faster and preparing people for what’s next. We show up personally and co-create through challenges. Collaboration is a daily action that turns vision into clear action with lasting impact.

West Monroe is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We base employment decisions on merit, experience, and potential, without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, age, religion, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic prohibited by law. To learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion, visit  If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in our recruiting process, please email