Group Strategic Sourcing Category Manager - Electronics

Oxford Instruments; High Wycombe; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Oxford Instruments in High Wycombe, UK, is seeking a Group Strategic Sourcing Category Manager for Electronics. You will lead cross-functional teams, develop a Group-wide Category Strategy, and drive strategic sourcing across allocated electronics categories, partnering with business units and engineering leaders.

You will manage supplier relationships, governance, and cost-improvement initiatives, ensuring alignment with sustainability and procurement policies while delivering value and risk

Qualifications

• Experience in electronics procurement with strong technical/market understanding.
• Experience handling highly technical categories and complex outsourcing projects.
• Proven success delivering NPI, value engineering, and cost-improvement initiatives.
• Ability to develop supplier strategies in complex categories.
• Strong understanding of sourcing policies, procedures and governance.
• Strategic analytical mindset with strong research capabilities.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral.
• Strong negotiation and commercial acumen.

Responsibilities

• Support Group Senior Category Manager to achieve goals via best-practice sourcing.
• Drive cost improvements and manage strategic projects across categories.
• Own key supplier relationships, performance, and commercial agreements.
• Plan and implement category sourcing strategies aligned to group strategy.
• Lead cross-functional supplier activities including value engineering and DfX.
• Develop and report supplier spend and KPI performance.
• Govern governance of cross-functional meetings and category management.
• Ensure procurement processes and governance align with group policies.

Skills

Electronics procurement

Category management

Supplier relationship management

NPI/project leadership

Cost improvement

Sustainability in supply chain

Cross-functional collaboration

Negotiation skills

Data analysis

Governance and process

Education

Degree in a related field

MCIPs preferred

Job description

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Group Strategic Sourcing Category Manager - Electronics

Date: 14 Aug 2026

Location: High Wycombe, GB

Job Function: Business

Business Unit: OI plc

Are you an experienced procurement professional looking for a new challenge? Oxford Instruments is currently seeking a Group Strategic Sourcing Category Manager to join our dynamic team. In this role, you will have the opportunity to develop and lead business relationships both externally with suppliers and internally across our Group Business Units.

Reporting to the Group Senior Category Manager you will build strong working relationships with various stakeholders, including Managing Directors, Operations Directors, Engineering & NPD Directors, Financial Directors, supply chain managers, business unit buyers, and engineering managers.

As the GSS Category Manager, your main responsibility will be to provide strategic sourcing leadership to the Oxford Instruments Group businesses. You will drive projects across assigned categories to minimize cost and risk while maximizing quality, service, and sustainability. Collaborating with business unit leaders and managing cross-functional teams, you will develop value-adding projects for the allocated categories and ensure their execution aligns with OI's strategies. Additionally, you will work with Engineering leaders to design, develop, and implement a Group-wide Category Strategy. It is crucial that all activities are in line with Group Strategic Sourcing policies and procedures, and you will be responsible for completing Business Approval Forms to ensure project governance.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support the Group Senior Category Manager in achieving business goals through best practice sourcing and supply chain processes.
• Drive cost improvement and special projects related to the appropriate categories.
• Take ownership of key supplier relationships, performance, commercial agreements, and LTA's.
• Manage Electronic & other associated categories.
• Plan category sourcing strategies and implementation activities in alignment to the higher-level group sourcing strategy.
• Lead cross-functional activities with suppliers, including value engineering, design to cost activities, and NPI early engagement/development.
• Drive continuous improvement of sourcing practices and efficiencies within the assigned category.
• Coordinate with Business Leaders, managers, and functional teams to implement strategies consistently.
• Collaborate with all functions within the business to ensure suppliers provide maximum value, utilizing a cross-functional team approach.
• Develop, maintain, and report on supplier/spend financial performance and projections.
• Monitor supplier KPI's, ensuring consistent delivery to prescribed levels of service within the LTA.
• Manage the Group Approved Vendor List.
• Be accountable for category management, including supplier selection and strategy setting for assigned categories.
• Provide leadership and governance of cross-functional team meetings and communication.
• Implement procurement processes within the business, including supplier quality, service, relationships, and performance.
• Manage materials and/or services spend within the business.
• Handle contracting, contract management, and risk assessment/mitigation.

Person Specification: To be successful in this role, you should have the following essential requirements:

• Experience within Electronics procurement with a strong technical and market understanding.
• Experience within procurement functions, preferably in handling highly technical categories.
• Experience with complex outsourcing projects, up to and including system level.
• Experience in developing supplier strategies in complex and technical categories.
• Proven success in delivering NPI, Design for Value and cost improvement projects with new supplier development activities.
• Understanding of sourcing policies and procedures.
• Strategic and analytical mindset, with good researching skills.
• Understanding of commercial and financial aspects of direct/indirect procurement.
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills.
• Ability to influence diverse groups of people and resolve conflicts tactfully.
• Knowledge of business environment and requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to work and build supplier relationships.
• Results-oriented, proactive, and dynamic, with a sense of urgency.
• Knowledge of Compliance requirements within Electronics category.
• Understanding of business Sustainability and how that need to be applied within the supply chain.
• Strong analytical skills for understanding complex BOM structures & quote review etc
• Business process standardisation and ability to follow & develop processes internally and externally.

Education/Qualifications:

• Ideally, degree educated in a related field.
• MCIPs preferred but not essential.

Professional Skills/Abilities:

• Greater than 5 year’s experience within sourcing and procurement.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral.
• Highly commercial, with a proven ability to use Procurement skills to unlock value for the business.
• Ability to work within technical teams and topics.
• Delivery-focused with a pragmatic, hands-on approach that enables strategies to be fully executed.
• Strong commercial and business acumen, with strong negotiation skills.

Excellent project management, people, and negotiation skills. At Oxford Instruments, we enable the world’s leading industrial companies and scientific research communities to image, analyse and manipulate materials down to the atomic and molecular level. With a sixty-year history, and fourteen Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, our world-class products and technologies are helping our customers to address the greatest challenges of the 21st century.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or disability.