Principle Category Manager

Principal Category Manager – Projects, Asset & Operations

Warwick – Hybrid working

Accountable for delivery of the capital procurement strategy programme of projects, as well as leading the operations and asset category teams. Create strategic procurement plans for the delivery of financial and non-financial value improvements in the delivery of the capital programme of works.

You will have overall accountability for the quality of work delivered by the capital, operations and asset Procurement team and will have to set and maintain high standards, and will work closely with the business to align outcomes and deliverables to priorities ensuring external market insight and engagement is leveraged and applied to category and project strategies. Within the operations and assets categories savings delivered, value generated, stakeholder satisfaction, demand management and visibility will be critical.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the capital Procurement, operations and asset teams, develop talent and manage performance through coaching, guidance and regular reviews, continually assessing capability of the team
• Continually track the supply market, keeping abreast of developments, trends, risks and opportunities, ensuring the teams are continually engaging with existing and potential suppliers and ahead of external market factors
• Define and keeping up to date category strategies for the operations and asset categories
• Lead and help govern the team, providing direction as they perform strategic sourcing activities for large value, complex capital programmes which align with the business broader strategies
• Work closely with the Procurement Business Partners to translate business requirements into actionable project and category strategies
• Champion sustainable procurement and adoption of modern construction methods. Considers the benefits of aligning with the Government Construction Playbook
• Is a role model for collaboration with senior business stakeholders. Proactively engage with the business to develop relevant strategies through procurement insights which complement the business plan
• Constructively challenge to maximise opportunity and mitigate risk in all aspects of the capital programme delivery
• Support development of the procurement plans looking at least 12 months ahead
• Maintain a healthy pipeline of supplier management activity which identifies and delivers incremental opportunities
• Work closely with the other teams (e.g. operational, technology, finance) as a leader to ensure appropriate collaboration and best practice sharing while ensuring cross collaboration on common issues and opportunities for asset lifecycle procurement (Design, Build, Maintain, Operate).
• Identify continuous improvement opportunities in category and programme procurement activity which will drive benefit into the supply chain
• Ensure the quality and timeliness of sourcing project delivery
• Structure and manage the work of multiple project team members

Requirements:

• Experience of strategic sourcing in a multi-stakeholder and multi-site environment
• Excellent and demonstrable strategic sourcing skills, including knowledge of all aspects of the strategic sourcing and supplier relationship management processes
• Excellent and demonstrable experience of creating and managing a programme of procurement activity
• Can demonstrate an ability to think creatively to solve ill-defined and complex sourcing challenges
• Deep knowledge of suitable construction contract forms including the NEC suite
• Experience of stakeholder engagement within a challenging environment
• Excellent commercial awareness and hunger for best value
• Self-starter, resilient and tenacious under pressure

Core Skills and Knowledge:

• Interpersonal skills, leadership skills – advanced
• Commercial acumen, stakeholder and supplier management – advanced
• Analytical mind, excel and PowerPoint skills – advanced
• Procurement lifecycle process knowledge - advanced