Head of Procurement and Supply Chain - Sustainable Procurement & Strategic Relationship Management

-; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading infrastructure solutions provider in the United Kingdom seeks a Head of Sustainable Procurement and Strategic Relationship Management. This role involves driving sustainable procurement strategies, managing relationships with suppliers, and ensuring compliance with ESG targets. Candidates should possess a bachelor's degree in Business or Supply Chain Management, significant expertise in ESG, and demonstrated leadership abilities. The position offers the opportunity to influence significant operational changes in support of sustainability goals.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, or a related field.
• Significant experience in an ESG role.
• Proven leadership and team management skills.
• Experience with promoting the ESG agenda and driving cultural change.

Responsibilities

• Develop the Sustainable Procurement Strategy and SRM Strategy.
• Manage stakeholders and drive sustainability agenda.
• Create a procurement capability framework for training.
• Collaborate with Corporate ESG team to set targets.

Skills

Communication skills

Leadership

Data analysis

Change management

Sustainability knowledge

Project management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration or Supply Chain Management

Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply qualification

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

eProcurement software

Job description

Job Description

The Procurement and Supply Chain Management function is responsible for the interface with third‑party organisations who support our business whether that be for procurement of goods and services or the relationship management that underpins any such activities. They support project delivery teams across the sectors to ensure the strategic direction is identified and delivered.

The Head of P&SC- Sustainable Procurement (SP) & Strategic Relationship Management (SRM) will report to the Director of Procurement and Supply Chain (P&SC) and will be part of the functional leadership team. The candidate will be responsible for designing the sustainable & responsible procurement strategy and the strategic relationship management strategy (SRM) plan.

In addition, the postholder will devise and implement a robust strategic roadmap with associated improvement plans to achieve our ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) targets to be flowed down to our strategic suppliers. This role is a key enabler to ensuring we are fully compliant with all regulatory requirements and that we accelerate our transition to net zero greenhouse gas emissions whilst simultaneously setting and measuring appropriate ESG targets with our key suppliers.

The individual will work closely in a matrix structure with the Procurement Category teams as well as the Group Environmental Director and Group Corporate Responsibility Director and their respective teams. The postholder will be a key member of the various internal ESG governance groups in place and may also be expected to interact and represent Costain in relevant external ESG groups.

This role offers an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact, driving efficiency, sustainability, and innovation within the procurement and supply chain functions.

Responsibilities

• Develop the Sustainable Procurement Strategy and a SRM Strategy including a supplier engagement approach, procurement capability building, target setting, and data enhancement strategy.
• Manage the broad set of stakeholders, influencing and driving the sustainability and SRM agenda.
• Proactively maintain and develop subject matter expertise of the evolving regulation and legislation.
• Support the category and sourcing teams in identifying relevant targets and plans appropriate to their supplier base.
• Work closely with relevant suppliers and the relevant category teams to build engagement programs centred around agreed priorities and targets for both Sustainable Procurement and SRM and B2B Relationships.
• Create a procurement capability and enablement framework to build and deliver training solutions and content and best practice sharing internally and externally in order to increase skills and knowledge.
• Embed sustainability requirements into the category management strategy development process. Ensure each category strategy addresses relevant suppliers and agreed elements of roadmap and includes approach to gathering relevant data.
• Define targets, measures, and tracking including relevant 3rd party tools, services, and data sources.
• Identify data and reporting requirements and ensure these are built in the technology and data roadmap for Procurement.
• Work in collaboration with wider Procurement team to ensure processes and tools allow for inclusion of supplier data inputs and enable greater transparency and quality.
• Collaborate with the Corporate ESG team and other relevant SMEs (Subject Matter Expert) and significantly contribute to setting the targets, roadmap, and driving accountability to deliver.

Qualifications

Essential

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain Management, or a related field.
• Member Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply qualified or a similar Professional certification in procurement (e.g. CPSM).
• Significant experience in an ESG role (Sustainability in Procurement and Supply Chain).
• Significant experience in an SRM role (Supplier Relationship Management).
• Previous experience in the construction sector.
• A clear leader with excellent communication skills able to interact at all levels.
• Proven leadership and team management skills, with the ability to inspire and motivate a diverse team.
• Experience in managing complex projects and driving change initiatives.
• Experience in ESG & Risk frameworks, assessments & reporting.
• Subject matter expert in Supply Chain Net Zero/Sustainability.
• Thorough and current knowledge of sustainability practices, and SRM and applicable laws and regulations.
• Experience with promoting the ESG/Sustainability agenda and driving cultural change.
• Experience in planning, organising and managing multiple projects.
• Strong Change Management experience to deliver programmes requiring Executive Sponsorship.
• Adaptable at working collaboratively in both team environments and remotely.
• Strong numerical, financial and data analysis skills.
• Excellent Microsoft Office suite proficiency (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams).
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, both written and oral.

Desirable

• Knowledge of Costain's diverse clients targets and expectations around Sustainable Procurement.
• Experience in developing and delivering category management.
• Knowledge of Infrastructure Industry Procurement and Supply Chain Operations.
• Experience of working within a matrix organisation, with abilities to influence at all levels.
• Knowledge of Costain Procurement and Supply Chain Management systems and requirements.
• Working knowledge of procurement-based software, e.g.eProcurement software e.g. SourceDogg, eJAGGAER, Arriba sourcing or similar.
• ISO:20400 Standard trained.
• MBA or Master's degree in a related procurement field.
• MCIM or ILM Leadership degree.

About Us

Costain helps to improve people's lives with integrated, leading edge, smart infrastructure solutions across the UK's energy, water, transportation and defence markets. We help our clients improve their business performance by increasing capacity, improving customer service, safeguarding security, enhancing resilience, decarbonising and delivering increased efficiency. Our vision is to be the UK's leading smart infrastructure solutions company. We will achieve this by focusing on blue chip clients whose major spending plans are underpinned by strategic national needs, regulatory commitments, legislation or essential performance requirements. We offer our clients leading edge solutions that are digitally optimised through the following five services which cover the whole lifecycle of their assets: future‑shaping strategic consultancy; consultancy and advisory; digital technology solutions; asset optimisation and complex programme delivery. Our culture and values underpin everything we do.

Costain appreciate the time and effort taken when applying for one of our positions but, due to the high volume of responses, we are unable to provide individual feedback on candidates at application phase.

We do share individual feedback following an interview.

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that disclose they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer.

It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high‑volume, seasonal and high‑peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non‑disabled people.

For more details please go to the Disability Confident website:
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