Director, Segment Strategy (Pharmaceutical)

This role is a hybrid position. The selected candidate is expected to work on-site at our Las Colinas office a minimum of two (2) days per week, with the remaining days worked remotely. Specific in-office days may be designated based on team needs and business priorities.

About the Role:

The Director, Strategy – U.S. Pharmaceutical Distribution serves as a trusted individual contributor within the North America Pharmaceutical Distribution Strategy function. U.S. Pharmaceutical Distribution, or USPD, is the backbone of McKesson’s pharmaceutical operations, with over 9,000 employees and a mission to ensure our customers and patients get what they need, when they need it. Reporting to the VP, Segment Strategy, this position operates as a key strategic partner to segment leadership in a targeted USPD business segment: Strategic, Community & Specialized Pharmacy (SCS), McKesson Health Systems (MHS), Commercial Strategy & Innovation (CSI), or Supply Chain Operations (SCO). 

The Director is responsible for leading and supporting defined workstreams and strategic sub-areas within the segment, shaping insights, framing decisions, and driving forward progress in close partnership with business and functional leaders. This role requires sound strategic and financial analysis, strong communication and stakeholder engagement, and a commitment to developing strategy collaboratively—not in isolation. 

Success in this role is defined by the ability to translate complex dynamics into actionable decisions, build credibility with partners, and ensure strategic work leads to practical, executable outcomes. 

What You'll Do:

Strategic Analysis & Insight 

• Own end-to-end analytical workstreams within larger strategic initiatives — from problem structuring and hypothesis development through analysis and synthesis of findings — with guidance from initiative leads on framing and prioritization. 

• Build rigorous fact bases on market structure, competitor strategies and economics, customer segments, and channel dynamics across the pharmaceutical distribution value chain. 

• Synthesize complex quantitative and qualitative information into clear, well-structured storylines; consistently deliver the “so what,” not just the analysis. 

• Identify implications of your own workstream for the overall initiative, and flag issues and opportunities to initiative leadership proactively. 

Value Chain & Financial Analysis 

• Build and maintain financial models that translate market shifts — reimbursement changes, sourcing dynamics, customer mix evolution, competitive moves — into quantified P&L implications for the business, with review from senior team members. 

• Develop working knowledge of how each participant in the pharmaceutical value chain — manufacturers, distributors, PBMs, payers, and pharmacies — earns, protects, and seeks to expand its economic position. 

• Track and analyze legislative, regulatory, and policy developments — including drug pricing reform, PBM transparency requirements, and reimbursement policy changes — and support the assessment of their financial and competitive implications. 

• Support scenario and sensitivity analysis: pressure-test the assumptions that matter most and help bound the range of plausible outcomes. 

Problem Solving & Collaboration 

• Participate actively in team problem solving; step up to lead portions of problem-solving sessions with the team and with business partners. 

• Challenge assumptions constructively and take intellectual risks to generate new ideas; bring curiosity about how the distribution business actually works economically. 

• Manage your own time and workplan effectively; know how and when to seek input; control the quality of your own work product. 

Communication & Stakeholder Support 

• Prepare well-written, logical, concise documents and executive materials with minimal guidance; lead with key messages. 

• Present analysis and recommendations with confidence to initiative teams and, with preparation, to senior business audiences. 

• Build collaborative working relationships with business, finance, sourcing, commercial, and functional partners; project credibility and reliability. 

Team & Function Contribution 

• Coach analysts and newer team members on analytical craft, modeling standards, and story-lining; provide constructive upward feedback. 

• Contribute to strategy function-building efforts — recruiting, knowledge capture, analytical tooling, and ways of working. 

Basic Requirements:

• 7+ years of progressive experience in strategy consulting, corporate strategy, investment banking, private equity, or comparable analytically intensive roles. 

• Exposure to healthcare, pharmaceutical services, or distribution businesses strongly preferred; genuine interest in the economics of the pharmaceutical value chain is essential. 

• Demonstrated advanced financial modeling capability — building models from a blank sheet that connect market dynamics to P&L outcomes. 

• Track record of structuring ambiguous problems, executing rigorous analysis, and producing executive-ready synthesis and deliverables. 

• Experience working effectively in cross-functional teams and managing multiple deliverables under time pressure. 

Preferred Skills/Experience:

• Structured Problem Solver: Formulates clear hypotheses and structures workstreams well with light guidance; handles complex analyses with little oversight and moves efficiently from data to insight. 

• Financial Modeling & P&L Literacy: Builds financial models as strategic tools — not to forecast with false precision but to identify the assumptions that matter and quantify the implications of strategic choices. 

• Synthesis & Storylining: Distills complex information into clear, logical storylines; writes and charts at near executive-ready quality; consistently answers “so what.” 

• Value Chain Curiosity: Demonstrates genuine intellectual curiosity about how distribution, sourcing, pharmacy, PBM, and payer economics actually work — and is building working fluency in them. 

• Collaborative Teammate: Is a reliable, helpful, and proactive teammate; builds trust with partners across the business; coaches junior colleagues and is open to coaching from others. 

• Communication: Writes clearly and concisely; presents with confidence in familiar settings; listens well and tailors style and tone to the audience. 

Physical Requirements:

• General office demands 

• Must have the ability to travel up to 20% of the time 

• Candidates that reside within 50 miles of Irving, TX will be required to be onsite 2 days per week.

McKesson complies with all applicable U.S. immigration laws and regulations. The Company does not provide employer support or sponsorship for any immigration related employment benefit for this role.

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a fulltime basis without the need for employer support or sponsorship now or in the future. This includes having the legal right to work in the United States without the need for McKesson support or sponsorship for any immigration related employment authorization (e.g., H1B, O1, E3, H1B1, TN, F1 OPT, F1 STEM OPT, F1 CPT, etc.) now or in the future.

If you will require McKesson to provide immigration support or sponsorship now or in the future, you should not apply for this position.