Category Manager - Marketing Procurement

Boots; Nottingham; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retail company in Nottingham is hiring a Category Manager for Marketing Procurement. The role involves managing a £200m spend, developing category strategies, and promoting sourcing activities across various business areas. Strong negotiation and project management skills are required, along with a passion for strategic development. Competitive benefits and a supportive work environment are offered.

Benefits

Boots Retirement Savings Plan

Discretionary annual bonus

Generous employee discounts

Enhanced maternity/paternity leave pay

Flexible benefits scheme

Access to 24/7 counselling through TELUS Health

Qualifications

• Understanding dynamics of Marketing categories and business strategy.
• Ability to deliver balance between value and service.
• Experience in negotiating contractual terms for agreements.
• Capability to shape and lead projects effectively.
• Navigating multiple business areas to implement strategies.
• Articulating direction, plans, and results clearly.
• Identifying risks and creating mitigation plans.
• Leading category management through its lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage category strategies for the assigned portfolio.
• Promote procurement-led change and sourcing activities.
• Collaborate with business areas like Finance and Legal.
• Undertake negotiations and contracting for business support.
• Report on savings and procurement KPIs.

Skills

Strategy Development

Commercial Knowledge

Negotiation

Contracting

Project Management

Stakeholder Experience

Communication Skills

Risk Management

Category Management

Job description

Overview

Job Description and Category Manager - Marketing Procurement role based in Nottingham. This is a permanent, full-time position reporting to the Category Director for Marketing Procurement, taking ownership of categories across the marketing portfolio including insights, creative, production, media, PR and marketing technology. You will partner with partners and agencies across Boots, Opticians and No7 Beauty Company to lead value, innovation and compliance.

As a Category Manager in the Marketing Procurement team, you will report into the Category Director for Marketing responsible for approximately £200m spend, working in collaboration with two other Marketing Category Managers and supported by a cross-function team of shared Procurement Associates. The Category Directors (Marketing, Property, Logistics, Professional Services and Technology) report to the Director of Procurement who reports to the Chief Finance Officer.

Key responsibilities

Category strategy

• Develop and manage category strategy(ies) for an assigned portfolio
• Work with team members up to and including CxO / Executives to develop strategies, testing requirements, through external insights, spend analysis and always challenging the balance between value and service

Procurement led change and sourcing

• Promote procurement led change and sourcing activities across Boots, Opticians and No7 Beauty Company
• Project manage work-streams/programmes in the Category Strategy to ensure timely delivery of goals within the prescribed governance
• Collaborate with several areas of the business, such as Finance Business Partners, Legal, InfoSec and Data Protection
• Provide professional procurement expertise to multiple stakeholders
• Undertake negotiations, selection and contracting to support the business and deliver objectives
• Report on savings, ROI and other procurement KPIs

Supplier and Risk Management

• Help manage key supplier relationships
• Develop strategic relationships ensuring mutual beneficial outcomes

What you\'ll need to have

• Strategy Development - understands the dynamics of the Marketing categories (insights, creative, production, media, PR and marketing technology), agencies and business; can develop strategies that maximise the return for the business
• Commercial Knowledge - uses knowledge to deliver the right balance between value and service, demonstrating commercial creativity
• Negotiation - explores positions and alternatives to reach outcomes that gain acceptance of all parties and maximises return
• Contracting - uses expertise in commercial contracts to negotiate contractual terms for local and regional arrangements
• Project Management - ability to shape and lead programmes to deliver initiatives on time in full
• Stakeholder Experience - Navigates multiple areas of the business to form a reasonable strategy, plans and actions
• Communication Skills - articulates direction and plans, commercial results and issues to a broad range of team members
• Risk Management - identifies risks and mitigation plans acting always within the risk appetite of the business
• Category Management - leads the category management process through all stages of its life cycle

It would be great if you also have

These are desirable experience and are not essential, so we would welcome applications from candidates that don\'t match this additional criteria.

• Experience in arrangements for Performance Media e.g. PPC, Social and Affiliates. Performance Media technologies such as; CM/SA/DV360, Smartly, feed providers.
• Management of Media cost and quality metrics.

Our benefits

• Boots Retirement Savings Plan
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Generous employee discounts
• Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave pay and gift card for anyone expecting or adopting a child
• Flexible benefits scheme including option to buy additional holiday, discounted gym membership, life assurance, activity passes and much more.
• Access to free, 24/7 counselling and support through TELUS Health, our Employee Assistance Programme.

We have a great range of benefits in addition to the above that offer flexibility to suit you - find out more at boots.jobs/rewards. Exclusions may apply, eligible roles only. Please note, any salary estimates given on third-party sites are not provided or endorsed by Boots and may not be accurate.

Why Boots

At Boots, we foster a working environment where consideration and inclusivity help everyone to be themselves and reach their full potential. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, passionate about embracing the diversity of our colleagues and providing a positive and inclusive working environment for all. As the heart of everything we do at Boots, with you, we change for the better.

What\'s next

Where a role is advertised as full-time, we are open to discussing part-time and job share options during the application process. If you require additional support as part of the application and interview process, we are happy to provide reasonable adjustments to help you to be at your best.

Boots is a Ban the Box employer and will consider the suitability of applicants with criminal convictions on a case-by-case basis.

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