Category & Sourcing Manager

Southern Water; Brighton; Hybrid; GBP 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Southern Water is seeking a Category & Sourcing Manager to lead category management and sourcing strategies. The role involves developing demand strategies, managing supplier relationships, and driving cost reductions while ensuring compliance with procurement legislation. This position offers a competitive salary and benefits, including a generous pension and flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Generous pension up to 11% company contribution

25 days annual leave

Life assurance equal to 4x salary

Salary sacrifice electric car scheme

Health Cash Plan

Fully funded eye tests

Two paid volunteering days a year

Occupational health service

Discounts with over 800 popular retailers

Digital GP service

Study support for job-related qualifications

Competitive maternity leave

Flexible return to work options

Cycle to work scheme

Qualifications

• In-depth category experience in engineering and construction or Asset Purchase.
• Experience managing large-scale projects.
• Proactive work style with a continuous improvement mindset.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement category strategies to optimize total cost of ownership.
• Support commercial activities to achieve value creation.
• Drive cost reduction and continuous improvement initiatives.

Skills

Analytical skills

Negotiation skills

Planning skills

Problem-solving skills

Education

CIPS qualification

Job description

Join to apply for the Category & Sourcing Manager role at Southern Water

1 day ago Be among the first 25 applicants

Join to apply for the Category & Sourcing Manager role at Southern Water

Closing Date

2025-06-20

Job Title: Category & Sourcing Manager

Location: Durrington or Falmer, West Sussex (2-3 days a week)

Contract Type: Permanent

Hours: 37 hours per week

Salary: circa £45,000 (depending on skills and experience)

There has never been a better time to join our organisation as we build towards a greener future, tackling climate change, minimising our environmental impact and reducing our carbon footprint!

Job Overview

The Category Management & Sourcing discipline strategically and proactively manages category spending and supply sourcing in alignment with value management strategies and demand profiles to optimise total cost of ownership.

• Develop and implement specific demand and category strategies and engage with internal customers to understand requirements, volume demands, and specifications
• Supports on all associated commercial activity to achieve value creation and minimise total cost of ownership, including executing the full sourcing lifecycle and deliver against procurement and value management strategies.
• You will work with the Senior Category Manager as well as collaboratively with business leads to deliver category specific strategies, including sourcing and contracting
• You will drive cost reduction through standardisation, aggregation of demand, and actions to minimise tail spend within the category and drive continuous improvement translating external best practices, innovation, and ideas into actionable proposals and plans for the business, building them into category strategies
  
  

About You

• To be considered for this role you will be confident in your written and verbal communication and presenting to a group, maintaining relationships both internally and externally and have excellent analytical, planning and negotiation skills as well as experience of working multiple large-scale projects.
• You will have in depth category experience in either engineering and construction or Asset Purchase and hire as well as knowledge of UCR and ABC legislation. Any knowledge of the public procurement act or a CIPS qualification are highly desirable.
• Ability to demonstrate a proactive/can do style of work
• Continuous improvement mind-set
• Commercial awareness and excellent analytical, planning, organisational, and problem-solving skills.
  
  

Package

Benefits

This role will be full time Monday to Friday with a hybrid approach to working between our Durrington office and home. We are offering a salary of circa £45,000 per annum depending on skills and experience as well as other benefits including:

• Generous pension up to 11% company contribution
• 25 days annual leave
• Life assurance equal to 4x salary
• Salary sacrifice electric car scheme (after 6 months service)
• Health Cash Plan
• Full funded eye tests
• Two paid volunteering days a year
• Occupational health service
• Discounts with over 800 popular retailers
• Digital GP service
• Study support may be available for job-related qualifications
• Competitive maternity leave and flexible return to work options
• Cycle to work scheme
  
  

Join our Procurement team and see how far your career could progress with a company committed to career progression, training and development opportunities, our customers and the environment.

Does this opportunity excite you but you’re not 100% sure if you meet all the requirements for the role? Or are you concerned that ‘normal’ office hours aren’t possible given your personal circumstances? Whilst we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we’ll try to find a practical solution. So why not engage with us and find out more about this role?

If this role isn’t quite what you’re looking for but are keen to be contacted about opportunities at Southern Water, you can register your details here: Introduce Yourself (myworkdaysite.com)

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, because delivering water for life is our core purpose. To achieve this, we need 24/7 support in place to resolve incidents quickly and efficiently. All our employees understand the importance of out-of-hours incident support – because when problems appear, fixing them is our top priority. That’s why our people join together and support when and however needed to make sure our customers get the service they deserve. Joining the Southern Water family means you’ll become part of our incident support team. During your interview, your manager will speak to you about any incident support rotas that apply to your position.

Privacy Statement

Please note: If you are an existing Southern Water employee, you will need to confirm within your application that your Manager is aware of your application.

All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK. You will need to provide evidence of eligibility (e.g. a passport or long birth certificate and proof of NI) and current proof of address (dated within the last 3 months), will be required as part of the recruitment process. If you do not meet these criteria, your application will not be considered.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Purchasing and Supply Chain

• Industries

  Utilities

Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Southern Water by 2x

Sign in to set job alerts for “Sourcing Manager” roles.

Uckfield, England, United Kingdom 4 weeks ago

Lower Dicker, England, United Kingdom 5 days ago

Hailsham, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Burstow, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Hailsham, England, United Kingdom 5 days ago

Worthing, England, United Kingdom 5 hours ago

Little London, England, United Kingdom 3 weeks ago

Pharmacy Procurement and Systems Manager The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

East Sussex, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Brighton, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

West Sussex, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

Eastbourne, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Brighton, England, United Kingdom 1 day ago

Worthing, England, United Kingdom 1 day ago

Worthing, England, United Kingdom 1 day ago

We’re unlocking community knowledge in a new way. Experts add insights directly into each article, started with the help of AI.