Job title: Indirect Material Procurement Specialist
Location: Oxford
Contract length: 1 year (with strong potential to extend for up to 2 years)
Work Structure: Hybrid (2-3 days in the office)
Randstad Sourceright, a leading provider of RPO & MSP Recruitment Services is currently recruiting for a Indirect Material Procurement Specialist to join a World leader offering Products, Solutions and Services across the entire Mobility value chain on behalf of a well established manufacturing organisation to play a key role in supporting Manufacturing Operations.
The Indirect Material Procurement Specialist plays a critical role in managing diverse non-production spend categories while directly supporting the procurement operations for a major New Facility Project. In this position, you will drive end-to-end sourcing activities—including drafting RFQs, conducting bid leveling, performing spend analyses, and assisting with commercial negotiations—to ensure goods and services are secured at optimal value and on schedule. Acting as a vital link between external suppliers and internal teams such as Facilities, Engineering, and Finance, the ideal candidate brings 3-5 years of purchasing or supply chain experience, strong Excel analytical skills, and ideally a background supporting capital projects, facility fit-outs, or indirect services within an industrial or manufacturing environment.
Some of the duties will include but are not limited to:
- Maintain the procurement timeline for the new site to ensure all equipment, furniture, fixtures, and site services arrive on schedule without delaying construction or move-in dates. Partner with Engineering, Facilities, and Project Managers to clarify technical specifications and service requirements before approaching the market.
- Process purchase requisitions, generate purchase orders (POs), and monitor delivery timelines for high-value facility assets and initial operational setup costs.
- Draft, issue, and manage Requests for Information (RFI), Requests for Quotation (RFQ), and Requests for Proposal (RFP) to prospective suppliers.
- Build commercial comparison models in Excel to evaluate supplier bids on an apples-to-apples basis across pricing, delivery terms, warranty, and payment schedules. Analyze historical companies, spend data and research external market benchmarks to identify cost-reduction opportunities and inform category strategies.
- Support discussions with vendors to negotiate discounts, volume rebates, favorable payment terms (e.g., Net 60), and service level commitments.
- Oversee ongoing procurement for non-production categories such as facilities management, security, janitorial services, MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations), office supplies, and professional consulting.
- Coordinate regular business reviews (QBRs), evaluate vendors against agreed Service Level Agreements (SLAs), and address delivery delays or service quality failures.
- Vet new suppliers, ensure adherence to internal code of conduct and health/safety standards, and maintain up-to-date insurance and compliance documentation.
- Work closely with Finance to verify budget availability, Legal to align on standard contract terms, and Facilities/Operations to validate operational requirements.
- Maintain central repositories for all vendor contracts, amendments, and pricing agreements, proactively flagging upcoming renewal and expiry dates.
- Enter, update, and manage purchase orders, vendor master data, and pricing schedules within the ERP or e-procurement platform (e.g., SAP, Coupa, or Oracle).
- Calculate and document cost avoidance and realized savings achieved across projects and routine sourcing cycles. Support the rollout of automated purchasing tools, digital approval workflows, and e-sourcing platforms.
- Prepare PowerPoint slide decks, management summaries, and formal business cases to justify vendor selection decisions to senior leadership.
Essential Requirements:
- 3 to 5 years of proven professional experience in Procurement, Purchasing, Sourcing, or Supply Chain roles.
- Hands-on involvement in standard operational purchasing lifecycles: preparing and issuing RFQs/RFPs, conducting bid leveling, and assisting with supplier evaluation and onboarding.
- Active involvement in supplier negotiations, commercial analysis, and cost-benefit assessments to capture value and savings.
- Strong ability to manipulate data using formulas (VLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH), Pivot Tables, and spend dashboards to analyze bids, pricing structures, and historical spend.
- Capability to summarize analytical findings into clear business cases, presentations, and management reports. Rigorous approach to maintaining procurement documentation, supplier contracts, compliance records, and tracking renewals/expirations.
- Proven capacity to balance routine day-to-day indirect purchasing requests alongside time-sensitive deliverables for structured projects (like the New Facility launch).
- Demonstrated ability to align internal departments (Facilities, Operations, Engineering, Finance, Project Teams) with external vendors to clarify specs, deadlines, and deliverables.
- Clear understanding of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), payment terms, warranty conditions, and fundamental contract clauses.
- Clear verbal and written communication skills to articulate sourcing rationale to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- High degree of self-direction, detail orientation, and willingness to undertake occasional regional/site travel as needed by the project.
Desirable Requirements:
- Direct exposure to sourcing categories relevant to capital and corporate projects, such as Facilities Management (FM), MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations), capital equipment (CapEx), construction/fit-out services, fleet, or professional services.
- Prior experience procuring for site expansions, greenfield/brownfield builds, office moves, plant retooling, or corporate relocations.
- Background working within manufacturing, engineering, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, or heavy industrial operations, where safety standards, site access rules, and technical compliance matter.
- Direct hands-on experience using enterprise systems like SAP (e.g., S/4HANA, MM module) or Oracle Cloud SCM