Category Manager

First Military Recruitment Ltd; City of Westminster; On-site; GBP 83,000 - 111,000; Full time

Job summary

First Military Recruitment are seeking a Category Manager for a client role based in London & Bristol. The position requires delivering commercial excellence and shaping category strategies across multiple portfolios, with significant stakeholder engagement and market analysis.

The role supports continuous improvement, cross-functional collaboration and strategic thinking in a defence-focused environment. Onsite presence is required about one day per week, with additional Bristol visits as

Qualifications

• Expert understanding of end-to-end commercial lifecycle management.
• Experience delivering category management in complex, project-oriented environments.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and suppliers on commercial solutions.

Responsibilities

• Championing category management across your category(ies).
• Defining category scope, deliverables, timescales and budget.
• Producing category workstream plans with risk and quality considerations.
• Engaging stakeholders to identify and prioritise future business needs.
• Developing market intelligence and identifying new opportunities.
• Maintaining category strategies aligned to portfolio priorities.

Skills

End-to-end commercial lifecycle

Stakeholder management

Strategic thinking

Ability to operate in a complex env

SC Clearance (preferred)

Job description

HM77: Category Manager

Location: London & Bristol | 1 day per week onsite plus 2-3 days per month in Bristol

Salary: Competitive Day Rate | Contract until 31/03/2027 | IR35: In Scope

Overview:

First Military Recruitment are currently seeking a Category Manager on behalf of one of our clients.

In the role of Category Manager, you will be responsible for delivering commercial excellence and technical awareness across categories and sub-categories within your remit, driving up the maturity and quality of category strategies and their adoption across portfolios as well as sharing best practices and realising the potential of our allies, in order to bring best practices back.

Our client encourages applications from ex-military personnel however all candidates will be given due consideration.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Championing category management across your category(ies).
• Defining the fundamental components of a category from strategy creation through implementation in terms of its scope, deliverables, time scales, resource requirements and budget.
• Producing category workstream plans, incorporating risk and quality across agreed category scope. Sets priorities for strategies and opportunities.
• Working with key stakeholders to proactively identify, influence, challenge and prioritise future business needs and wants across the full business requirements spectrum.
• Identify external marketplace scale, dynamics, suppliers, innovation and potential solutions. Providing advice and ability to challenge where necessary.
• Initiating market intelligence reports, running industry and/or market engagement days. Works to develop new market opportunities / markets where these do not currently exist.
• Combining market engagement with research, data and economic analysis to produce a holistic market understanding and reports.
• Work with stakeholders to identify, risk assess and prioritise improvement opportunities to deliver Portfolio priorities.
• Working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to build a compelling vision and strategy based on insights, analysis, facts and data. Ensuring strategies and proposed outcomes are practical aligned to portfolio priorities and able to be implemented.
• Maintaining category strategies and category plans aligned to portfolio priorities, refreshing them at appropriate frequencies.
• Provide support and oversight of the implementation of category strategy outcomes (sourcing, supplier management & business change opportunities).
• Understand related/linked category teams and strategies to ensure coherence, alignment, interoperability and integration to support portfolio outcomes.
• Supporting business cases, where necessary, to demonstrate coherence, integration, through life support, value for money, benefits and risks across platforms and portfolios building and maintaining key relationships across the department and with important external stakeholders.
• Influencing MSHQ, NAD options and commissioning to shape future portfolio priorities adopting category management principles.
• Identifying and mapping key internal and external stakeholders including NATO allies for category and specific sub-categories, cultivating and managing proactive relationships including industry to implement category management directly and through the supply chain.
• Bringing the best practices and learning from the external market to the department through leveraging industry and allies experience to develop deep market insights and knowledge.
• Encouraging and empowering others to adopt best practices, driving collaboration and innovation across the defence enterprise to demonstrate continuous improvement.
• Developing, sharing and promoting best practices and lessons learned to create a culture of learning and good practice that supports continuous improvement to optimise category delivery. Driving change based on lessons learned.
• Performance and day to day management of a team to deliver category management across the category group.
• Identifying capacity and capability requirements across the category.
• Planning and leading effective impact assessments of the business and operational impacts of category strategies.
• Identifying change management requirements and processes to influence operational and behavioural change to realise the business benefits from category group and individual category strategies. Ensures category outputs are integrated into Business As Usual (BAU).
• Providing regular management reports and/or updates to Category Group Manager and other senior stakeholders and forums as required.

Skills and Qualifications:

• Has an expert understanding of the principles of end-to-end commercial lifecycle management and a track record in the successful delivery of category management in a complex project-oriented environment.
• Practical knowledge & understanding of; tech/capability requirements process, early market engagement, market analysis, benchmarking, commercial levers, supply chain/industry shaping opportunities & their relative linkages to the acquisition and support processes.
• Evidence of influencing key senior stakeholders and suppliers towards commercial solutions in a complex commercial environment.
• Strong stakeholder management / engagement skills to a senior level (1&2* MOD and senior NATO stakeholders).
• Comfortable to challenge and has gravitas.
• Organisational skills.
• Strategic thinker - able to engage and implement.
• Ability /experience to understand a complex environment.
• SC Clearance (preferred) or BPSS where eligible/willing to go through SC.

Desirable:

• A second spoken language is preferable. (European/NATO).
• Defence experience is highly desirable (strategic roles not operational).
• An understanding of the defence industry, supply chains and/or deep knowledge in related categories e.g. autonomous systems, weapons systems, sense decide & communicating systems, power propulsion & auxiliary systems, would be an advantage.

Location: London & Bristol | 1 day per week onsite plus 2-3 days per month in Bristol

Salary: Competitive Day Rate | Contract until 31/03/2027 | IR35: In Scope