Indirect Buyer - Events

McLaren Automotive Ltd; Woking; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 62,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Structured career development

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Enhanced company pension

Private medical insurance

Life assurance

Sabbatical after two years

Wellbeing initiatives

Job summary

McLaren Automotive is seeking an Indirect Procurement Buyer to support Commercial Services in managing procurement activities across Events, Brand, Marketing, and Aftersales. You will help develop category strategies and lead sourcing initiatives across the full procurement lifecycle to create value, strengthen governance, and mitigate risk.

The role requires a commercial mindset, strong stakeholder collaboration, and proven negotiation and contract management capabilities to deliver cost

Qualifications

• Experience developing category strategies.
• Proven delivery of cost savings and spend optimisation.
• Strong negotiation and contract management capability.
• Ability to manage multiple projects concurrently.
• Excellent communication and senior stakeholder engagement skills.

Responsibilities

• Support the development of category and sourcing strategies and identify commercial opportunities across the suite of Commercial requirements.
• Understand markets dynamics to enable an appropriate course of action reflecting external factors and internal requirements.
• Deliver sourcing projects which deliver value, financial savings, supply assurance and risk mitigation aligned to the category strategies, while remaining compliant with governance, HSE and audit requirements.
• Apply contractual expertise to implement commercial protections, and performance measures.
• Work closely with internal service owners to support demand management, supplier performance and ongoing category optimisation.
• Act as the primary commercial interface between McLaren and suppliers.
• Lead negotiations ensuring optimal commercial outcomes.
• Work collaboratively with internal customers/ stakeholders, including Finance, Legal, IT, and others as needed.
• Report & present sourcing strategies & nomination to stakeholders
• Ensure consistent, compliant procurement processes are applied to select suppliers that deliver optimum value and service for McLaren. This includes supplier due diligence, risk assessment, evaluation, negotiation and contract execution.
• Apply knowledge of contractual terms and conditions, ensuring contracts remain commercially robust, budgets are controlled, change is managed effectively and risk is mitigated.
• Apply strong contract management ensuring budgets, change and risk are controlled.

Skills

Procurement

Negotiation

Contract management

Category strategy

Stakeholder engagement

Sourcing

Governance

Job description

What to Expect

As an Indirect Procurement Buyer working with Commercial Services, you will be responsible for managing procurement activities across a range of activities supporting activities within McLaren’s Commercial category.

• Events and Experiential
• Brand, Marketing and Communication
• Network Development and Aftersales

You will support the development of category strategies and lead the execution of sourcing activities across the full procurement lifecycle, ensuring value creation, commercial governance, supply resilience and risk mitigation.

This role requires

• A well-rounded commercial approach
• Ability to collaborate and influence with stakeholders at all levels.
• Good negotiation skills
• Ability to prioritise various, potentially conflicting, priorities
• Structured & detail-driven analytical mindset

What You'll Do

• Support the development of category and sourcing strategies and identify commercial opportunities across the suite of Commercial requirements.
• Understand markets dynamics to enable an appropriate course of action reflecting external factors and internal requirements.
• Deliver sourcing projects which deliver value, financial savings, supply assurance and risk mitigation aligned to the category strategies, while remaining compliant with governance, HSE and audit requirements.
• Apply contractual expertise to implement commercial protections, and performance measures.
• Work closely with internal service owners to support demand management, supplier performance and ongoing category optimisation.
• Act as the primary commercial interface between McLaren and suppliers.
• Lead negotiations ensuring optimal commercial outcomes.
• Work collaboratively with internal customers/ stakeholders, including Finance, Legal, IT, and others as needed.
• Report & present sourcing strategies & nomination to stakeholders
• Ensure consistent, compliant procurement processes are applied to select suppliers that deliver optimum value and service for McLaren. This includes supplier due diligence, risk assessment, evaluation, negotiation and contract execution.
• Apply knowledge of contractual terms and conditions, ensuring contracts remain commercially robust, budgets are controlled, change is managed effectively and risk is mitigated.
• Apply strong contract management ensuring budgets, change and risk are controlled.

What You'll Bring

Business Knowledge:

• Knowledge of the global procurement landscape, regulations, and market dynamics, especially when working with Brand and Marketing stakeholders, agencies and suppliers.
• Good commercial awareness with an ability to assess risk in the appropriate context.

Essential Functional / Technical Skills:

• Experience of utilising a range of procurement tools and techniques.
• Proven experience developing category strategies.
• Demonstrable delivery of cost savings and spend optimisation.
• Strong negotiation and contract management capability.
• Ability to manage multiple projects concurrently.
• Excellent communication and senior stakeholder engagement skills.
• Strong commercial awareness and risk assessment capabilities.

Personal Attributes / Competencies:

• Self‑driven and outcome‑focused.
• Collaborative, with the ability to build effective working relationships across teams and functions.
• Strong influencer with sound commercial judgement.
• Calm, structured and decisive under pressure.
• Strong team player with good interpersonal skills
• Collaborative and approachable
• Methodical and detail-oriented, with a clear focus on delivery and outcomes.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Able to prioritise a demanding workload while maintaining control of outcomes and stakeholder expectations.

What We’ll Do for You

We offer a wide – ranging benefits package, which includes:

• Structured career development framework
• 25 days’ holiday, plus bank holiday. Annual buy & sell up to five days
• Enhanced company pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus award
• Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• Life assurance benefit
• Ability to apply for a sabbatical of up to one year after only two years’ service
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• Generous parental leave policies
• A range of wellbeing initiatives, such as employee assistance programme and free financial & mortgage advice

Who Are We?

No restraints. No limitations. We don’t simply push boundaries. We completely rethink them.

McLaren Automotive exists to create breath‑taking performance road cars.

It takes a community to do what we do. A diverse group of people with many areas of expertise, united by their passion to deliver visionary products and set new benchmarks.

McLaren Automotive commits to equal opportunity for all.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion is at the heart of our impact, it drives our innovation and enables us to truly create something special.

Join us on our journey.