Indirect Buyer

JR United Kingdom; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Procurement Specialist to drive strategic sourcing and supplier management. This role involves engaging with stakeholders to develop category strategies that deliver competitive advantages while ensuring compliance and sustainability. You will leverage your negotiation skills to optimize costs and foster strong supplier relationships, all while promoting a culture of inclusivity and ethical practices. If you have a passion for procurement and a desire to make a meaningful impact, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Qualifications

• Degree in Procurement or relevant field is preferred.
• Strong analytical skills and stakeholder engagement experience.

Responsibilities

• Support Category Managers in developing procurement strategies.
• Negotiate favorable terms with suppliers to optimize costs.
• Ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards in procurement.

Skills

Stakeholder Engagement

Negotiation Skills

Analytical Skills

Supplier Relationship Management

Risk Management

Sustainability Knowledge

Education

Degree in Procurement or MBA

Postgraduate Qualification (MCIPS)

Tools

S2P Solutions

Job description

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Smiths Group designs, manufactures and delivers smarter engineering solutions for mission-critical applications, solving some of the world's toughest problems for our customers, our communities and our world. For over 170 years, Smiths Group has been pioneering progress by improving the world through smarter engineering.

We serve millions of people every year, to help create a safer, more efficient and better-connected world, across four major global markets: Energy, General Industry, Security & Defence, and Aerospace. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Smiths employs 14,600 colleagues in over 50+ countries.

This pioneering spirit continues to drive us today, underpinned by our powerful culture. Improving our world is what we do, how we think, and how we will continue to use our passion for technology and engineering to tackle our customers biggest challenges today and in the future.

We're looking for people with curious minds. Who want responsibility and relish a challenge. Whether you're an experienced professional or just starting out, our global scale and focus on growth means we have some great career opportunities for you. There's never been a better time to join Smiths.

Visit us at - www.smiths.com

Job Description

To provide procurement subject matter expertise, to support the development and implementation of Procurement category strategies that will deliver sustainable competitive advantage Globally/Regionally within the specific category, through:

• Engaging with Stakeholders to develop most relevant product/service specifications
• Supporting the Category Managers in designing and deploying category and sourcing strategies that align to the business and divisional strategies and requirements
• Delivering sustainable competitive through the effective sourcing and spend management the within the categories
• Minimising Smiths risk exposure within the category
• Utilising best in class procurement practices.
• Promote and communicate the value of the Indirect Procurement function across the business

Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Management

• Support Category Managers in development, communication and delivery of the category strategy and business commitments.
• Supplier Identification and Selection: Identify potential suppliers, evaluate their capabilities, and select the most suitable, based on criteria such as cost, quality, reliability, sustainability and compliance with corporate standards.
• Supplier Relationship Management (SRM): Foster strong, collaborative relationships with key suppliers to ensure long-term value creation, innovation, and continuous improvement

Cost Management and Value Optimisation

• Negotiation: Leverage the company’s purchasing power to negotiate favourable terms and conditions, including price, delivery schedules, and payment terms.
• Cost Analysis and Reduction: Continuously analyse costs and seek opportunities to reduce total costs through better pricing, alternative sourcing, or process improvements.

Risk Management and Compliance

• Risk Assessment: Identify and mitigate risks associated with the supply chain, such as supplier financial stability, geopolitical issues, and environmental concerns.
• Compliance: Ensure that all procurement activities comply with legal and regulatory requirements, as well as the company’s ethical standards and policies.

Operational Efficiency

• Support the service back-office capabilities
• Process Optimisation: Streamline procurement processes to improve efficiency, reduce cycle times, and eliminate administrative waste.
• Technology Integration: Support and utilise advanced procurement technologies and systems (e.g., S2P solution) to enhance data accuracy, visibility, compliance, and decision-making.

Performance Measurement and Reporting

• KPIs and Metrics: Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the procurement and category function.
• Reporting: Provide regular reports and insights to senior management on procurement activities, savings achieved, supplier performance, and market trends.

Sustainability and ESG

• Support the VP of Sustainability, ESG and Indirect Procurement to ensure the function is provided with high quality navigation, forecasting and business planning metrics that facilitate insightful sustainability and commercially focussed decision making.
• Conducting regular reviews of all aspects of the sustainability and procurement within the role to monitor and drive performance and identify areas requiring greater focus (ie Ecovadis)
• Assessing on a regular basis whether the business has sufficiently aligned its resources to achieve its strategic and sustainability objectives.
• Ensuring sustainability and procurement is represented appropriately on all key project and decision-making panels.
• Coaching for complex tradeoffs
• Conduct regular and broad ranging analytical reviews to provide comfort on the completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of Sustainability & procurement projects.
• Support the validation of large Capex and Opex investment requests, benefit assumptions and post completion reviews.
• Monitoring business case delivery on all Sustainability and procurement programs that support Net Zero delivery plans
• Project management, group-wide target setting, tracking & reporting
• Supplier audits as required.

Building Organisational Capabilities

• Synchronise with service back office to mature procurement operational efficiencies and data & analytics capabilities
• Internal Controls: Ensure adequate financial and non-financial controls are in place to ensure compliance and assurance to audit standards.
• Policies & Procedures: Ensure the business is compliant with all Smiths Group sustainability, procurement and financial policies and procedures. Complying with and promoting all relevant legal requirements & Smiths policies and procedures, including business ethics, data protection and health & safety.

Fostering Cultural Change

• Exemplar of indirect procurement and supplier sustainability
• Define and communicate the vision for transformation
• Champion cultural change through education
• Promote mindset shift on cultural behaviours
• Quantifying and communicating commercial, environmental and social benefits
• Engaging with best practice leaders
• Communication: maintain open and clear lines of communications with all relevant stakeholders.

Qualifications

The candidate will ideally hold a degree and post graduate qualification in a relevant supporting subject i.e. Procurement (MCIPS) / MBA although significant experience in a

procurement or commercial role will be considered. The candidates should also ideally:

• Understand and leverage the benefits from an integrated sustainability and indirect procurement function that sits within the overall Smiths business and extends to the holistic value stream (key suppliers and partners are an extension of the enterprise)
• Strong and broad stakeholder engagement and business change experience in an influencing role across all the different businesses/functions that foster key strategic stakeholder relationships.
• Experience of dealing with large organisations in ambiguous multi-cultural and matrix structures.
• Experience of managing and ensuring robust internal and external assurance requirements
• A conscientious approach supporting category strategy development and thirst for analysis and problem solving built on strong analytical skills.
• Strong presentation, writing skills and effective communication is crucial

Additional information

Diversity & Inclusion:

We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity.

At no time during the hiring process will Smiths Detection, Smiths Group, nor any of our recruitment partners ever request payment to enable participation – including, but not limited to, interviews or testing. Avoid fraudulent requests by applying jobs directly through our career’s website (Careers - Smiths Group plc)