Buying Operations Lead

sanger; Hinxton; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Wellcome Sanger Institute is seeking an experienced Buying Operations Lead to shape and oversee requisition-to-purchase-order workflows. You will manage exceptions, partner with stakeholders, and drive improvements to automate and simplify processes while maintaining compliance.

You will lead supplier onboarding, resolve PO, receipting, invoicing and delivery issues, and use data to identify risks and drive efficiencies across the procure-to-pay cycle.

Qualifications

• Strong knowledge of buying operations and PO workflows within a controlled environment.
• Understanding of governance, workflow controls and exception-based purchasing.
• Knowledge of PO, supplier, receipting and invoice data dependencies and common exception types.
• Experience with ERP/e-procurement systems such as Oracle Fusion.

Responsibilities

• Own requisition-to-purchase order workflows within Oracle Fusion.
• Actively manage exceptions, escalating where needed and resolving issues.
• Coordinate supplier onboarding and enablement to ensure smooth procure-to-pay.
• Identify recurring problems from data trends and drive workflow improvements.

Skills

Requisition-to-PO

Procure-to-Pay

ERP Systems

Excel Reporting

Stakeholder Mgmt

Governance & Controls

Tools

Oracle Fusion

Excel

Job description

Do you want to help us improve human health and understand life on Earth? Make your mark by shaping the future to enable or deliver life-changing science to solve some of humanity's greatest challenges.

We are looking for an experienced Buying Operations Lead to help shape and lead effective buying operations across the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

This is not a purely reactive purchasing role. You will be expected to take ownership of the buying activity, anticipating issues before they arise, actively managing exceptions, challenging non-compliance with agreed processes. You will work proactively with stakeholders to resolve issues, remove blockers and find practical, compliant solutions.

Working across Supply Operations and closely with Finance, suppliers and colleagues across the Institute, you will lead the operational journey from requisition through to purchase order.

You’ll use your judgement and step in, when needed to challenge and when to **escalate**, ensuring issues are addressed before they become problems. You’ll also play an active role in supporting and improving our buying processes. With a view for making them simpler, more reliable and increasingly automated, while ensuring they remain practical, compliant and fit for purpose.

About the Role:

As Buying Operations Lead, you will take ownership of requisition-to-purchase order workflows within Oracle Fusion, ensuring purchasing activity progresses accurately, efficiently and in line with agreed controls and buying policies.

A key part of the role is exception management. Rather than simply responding to queries as they arise, you will actively identify blocked, overdue and higher-intervention purchasing activity, assess the risks and bring the right people together to resolve issues. This may mean facilitating conversations across teams, constructively challenging stakeholders or established ways of working, and ensuring agreed actions are followed through.

You will coordinate supplier onboarding and enablement and help resolve purchase order, receipting, invoice, pricing and delivery issues that could affect payment or continuity of supply.

You will also look beyond individual transactions. Using operational data and exception trends, you will identify recurring problems, control weaknesses and opportunities for improvement, contributing to better workflows, greater automation and increased use of self-service buying through Oracle Fusion.

About You:

You will bring experience from procurement operations, purchasing, supply chain, finance operations or a related operational environment, together with a strong understanding of requisition-to-purchase order and procure-to-pay processes.

You will be comfortable operating in a busy environment where the answer is not always straightforward. You can assess risk, investigate the root cause of an issue and decide what needs your intervention, what can be resolved through standard processes and what needs to be escalated.

Just as importantly, you will be a confident facilitator and constructive challenger. You will be able to build effective relationships while being prepared to question and push back when needed. You can bring people with different priorities and levels of process knowledge together, explain requirements clearly and maintain appropriate operational controls without losing sight of the practical outcome.

You will enjoy using data and operational insight to spot patterns and prevent recurring problems, rather than simply resolving the same exceptions repeatedly.

Essential Knowledge, Experience and Skills:

• Strong understanding of buying operations, requisition-to-PO workflows and procure-to-pay processes within a controlled operational environment
• Understanding of operational governance, workflow controls and the management of non-standard or exception-based purchasing activity
• Knowledge of purchase order, supplier, receipting and invoice data dependencies and common exception types
• Understanding of operational controls, approvals, audit trails and compliant record keeping
• Working knowledge of ERP or e-procurement systems; Oracle Fusion knowledge desirable
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Excel or equivalent reporting tools for operational data analysis
• Experience in procurement operations, purchasing, supply chain administration, finance operations or a related customer-facing operational role
• Experience managing operational purchasing activity, transactional exceptions or workflow issues within a procurement, finance or supply operations environment
• Experience identifying operational risks, process weaknesses or recurring issues and contributing to workflow, automation or process improvements
• Experience maintaining accurate transactional records and working to operational controls or audit requirements
• Operational judgement - able to assess risk, prioritise interventions and determine appropriate escalation routes within defined controls and policies
• Accuracy and