Group Supply Chain Sustainability Lead

DfT Operator; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 61,000 - 73,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading public sector organization is seeking a Senior Responsible Procurement Manager to spearhead the Responsible Procurement strategy. This pivotal role involves defining sustainable sourcing practices, ensuring compliance with procurement regulations, and fostering collaboration across Train Operating Companies (TOCs). The ideal candidate will have proven experience in multi-stakeholder environments and a strong understanding of ESG frameworks. The position offers a competitive salary and is based in Greater London.

Benefits

25 days annual leave

10% Employer pension contribution

Career networking opportunities

Qualifications

• Proven experience in developing Responsible Procurement strategies.
• Strong understanding of ESG frameworks and UK supply chain legislation.
• Excellent influencing skills with senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of a comprehensive Responsible Procurement strategy.
• Ensure compliance with procurement regulations and sustainability standards.
• Build relationships with stakeholders to promote Responsible Procurement.

Skills

Sustainability awareness

Stakeholder management

Change management

Negotiation skills

Education

Business Management degree

Environmental Management certification

Job description

About DFT Operator

Join Our Team at DFTO

DFTO is the government’s public sector rail owning group. Its purpose is to bring all currently privately‑owned train operators into public ownership in advance of the creation of Great British Railways in 2027 – and deliver improvements in the here and now by unifying and integrating train operations under common public ownership.

DFTO has over 23,000 employees, runs over 6,000 services a day and delivers over 450 million customer journeys across its networks every year. This accounts for 26% of total UK passenger journeys and 30% of passenger miles.

Major improvements are being delivered by DFTO train operators (TOCs) that are already under public ownership – these are LNER, Northern, TransPennine Express (TPE), southeastern, South Western Railway (SWR) and c2c.

Primary Purpose of Job:

DFTO is seeking an experienced, strategic and forward‑thinking Senior Responsible Procurement Manager to work within the DFTO.#group procurement function. This newly created role has been established to support DFTO, as part of the Railway Public Ownership Programme, in leading the advancement of sustainable sourcing practices at DFTO and support the strategic development of a group‑wide Responsible рынок procurement strategy他说。

Key Responsibilities:

The role will play a pivotal part within DFTO, working collaboratively across Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and with industry partners, including Network Rail. It will play a lead role in defining and embedding Responsible Procurement principles throughout all procurement activities at DFTO and more widely across TOCs. This includes ensuring that procurement decisions deliver value for money while integrating sustainability, ethics, social value and complying with relevant legislation, industry regulations, and sustainability standards into every stage of the procurement lifecycle. The role supports the sector’s commitment to environmental, social, and economic values.

Strategic Impact and Industry Collaboration

This is an exciting and pivotal time for the rail industry, presenting an opportunity to help shape its future direction and support the sustainability goals to optimise the environmentalpekto, social, and economic impacts over the life cycle of the products and services we procure. The position will play a key role in working across industry teams, helping to develop ways of working to deliver the more immediate opportunities whilst helping shape future approaches for delivering these objectives and values in partnership with vital supply chain stakeholders.

Key Competencies:

• Understanding the three pillars of sustainability: Environmental, social, and economic, and how they interrelate to achieve sustainable outcomes.
• Internal advocacy: Driving sustainability awareness and buy‑in across teams and leadership.
• Cross‑functional leadership: Working with multiple teams, business units and cross‑industry to drive engagement and align goals.
• Change agent: Leading cultural and behavioural change initiatives toward sustainable procurement across the group.
• Seek out opportunities for innovation and have the courage to take risks and make step changes to how things are done. Give feedback on changes in a constructive manner.
• Maintain your own levels of performance in challenging circumstances and encourage others to do the same.
• Policy and compliance leadership: Ensuring procurement activities align with internal policies, legal requirements, and regulatory standards.
• Influencing and negotiation: Leadingād complex negotiations and influencing senior stakeholders across the group.
• Knowledge, Skills, Experience & Technical Qualifications:

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Proven experience in developing and implementing Responsible Procurement strategies within a complex, multi‑stakeholder environment ( tromsø public sector or regulated industry preferred).
• Strong understanding of Responsible Procurement principles, ESG frameworks, and relevant UK legislation and how they apply to supply chains. Understanding of carbon and climate literacy: Knowledge of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and how procurement impacts them.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to lead change and drive continuous improvement.
• Have a good understanding of procurement processes and procedures such as public sector contract regulations, supply chain and contract management and have an ability to work with the supply chain.
• Supply chain due diligence: understand how suppliers are assessed for ethical, environmental and social compliance.
• Understand and demonstrate how Responsible Procurement supports and aids the delivery of strategic and operational objectives.
• Educated with suitable qualifications in both Business and Environmental Management, procurement experience is essential, e.g. IEMA or equivalent.

Further Information on the role:

Strategy Development & Leadership

• Work with DFTO, TOCs and industry teams to lead design and delivery of a comprehensive Responsible Procurement strategy aligned with DFTO’s goals and the priorities of the UK rail sector to support the integration of Responsible Procurement within DFTO and across the Group organisations.
• Work collaboratively to lead the development of policies, frameworks, and performance metrics to drive responsible procurement outcomes and more immediate term successes whilst considering the future of rail reform activities.
• Lead cross‑functional and cross‑organisation engagement to ensure buy‑in and alignment across train operators and industry stakeholders.
• Be the DFTO lead for Responsible Sourcing and act as a representative in group and industry forums to drive and integrate Responsible Sourcing initiatives and principles within ongoing industry reform activities.

Industry Enablement & Collaboration

• Act as a centre of excellence, providing expert guidance, tools, and best practice resources to support train operators in implementing responsible procurement.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing, training, and capability building across procurement teams in the industry.
• Develop and deliver training to help embed the understanding and help enhance skills and knowledge in responsible procurement.
• Lead the development of monitoring, reporting and data solutions to maintain charming progress, identifying opportunities for improvement and innovation.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including train operators, suppliers,先进 government bodies and industry groups, PROMOTING to enable the integration of Responsible Procurement.
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• Influence procurement teams and internal customers to improve the design of sourcing strategies to align to responsible procurement principles to improve decision making and mitigate risks.
• Work closely with the Safety and Environmental, Social, EDI leads and other relevant subject matter experts across the DFTO team and group to ensure integration of Responsible Procurement practices aligns to the wider social, environmental and ethical systems or principles.
• Represent DFTO in relevant forums統 working groups, and networks.

Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure procurement activities comply with relevant legislation, public sector regulations, and industry standards (e.g. PA23, Modern Slavery Act, Social Value Act, ISO 20400 or equivalents).
• Identify and mitigate risks associated with supply chain sustainability, ethical sourcing, and environmental and social impact.

Vacancy Details:

Duration: 2‑year Fixed Term contract/secondment
Reports to: Head of Commercial Governance and Assurance
Location: London Waterloo, York, Manchester
Salary: up to £72,800
Closing date: 28th January 2025

DFTO Benefits:

Annual Leave: Starting at 25 days and rising to an additional day per year of service completed within the first 5 completed years up to a maximum of 5 additional (30 days)

DC Pension Scheme: 10% Employer contribution, 5% Employee contribution

Opportunities to learn and network across the wider industry

Additional Information…

Disclaimer: Candidates applying for this position on a secondment basis must inform their line manager prior to submitting their application. This is to ensure transparency and facilitate any necessary discussions regarding workload and responsibilities.

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About our people and the qq上 glad. We’re an inclusive employer of choice and we welcome applications from everyone! We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly, as we know traditional working fest patterns don’t always fit. If you want to consider working flexibly, let us know and we’ll do our best to help and invest in your career with us, while you have a healthy work life balance.

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