IT Category Manager

BDO UK; Greater London; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

BDO UK is seeking an IT Category Manager to lead strategic sourcing for IT requirements. This role involves managing procurement activities, collaborating with business stakeholders, and ensuring compliance with vendor management policies. The ideal candidate will have significant experience in category management, solid negotiation skills, and the ability to drive procurement objectives effectively.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in Category management across a range of categories.
• Good understanding of contractual, commercial and operational working relationships with vendors.
• Exceptional leadership skills and presence.

Responsibilities

• Be the strategic sourcing lead for all IT and Technology requirements.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to achieve Procurement 2028 vision and department objectives.
• Manage vendor relationships and ensure compliance with procurement policies.

Skills

Category Management

Negotiation

Vendor Management

Procurement Processes

Job description

Ideas People Trust

We're BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today's changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain's economic engine - ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high growth businesses that fuel the economy - and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them.

We'll broaden your horizons

At BDO, the Procurement function forms part of the wider Finance Department. The mission of Procurement is to support the business in the procurement of goods and services through a streamlined process that delivers best value to BDO from the goods and services procured. Procurement strategically work to help the business to establish, maintain, monitor and evaluate vendor relationships in order to reduce risks, increase vendor performance, drive greater levels of innovation and help to deliver competitive advantages to BDO.

We'll help you succeed

Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships.

You'll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO's partners to help businesses effectively. You'll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with.

The IT Category Manager role will play an integral role in driving the strategic direction aligned with the Head of Procurement's strategy, mission and vision. This role will manage the procurement activities for, and working alongside, business stakeholders in the 4 streams (Audit, Tax, Deals, Consulting & Risk) and PMD areas such as IT, HR, Finance, Property & Facilities Management, Marketing and Quality & Risk.

In this role you'll:

• Be the strategic sourcing lead for all IT and Technology requirements at BDO e.g. Software, Hardware and Professional Services subcategories: including but not limited to Licensing, Application Development and Maintenance, Cloud, Data Centres, Servers, Storage etc.
• Working with the wider BDO procurement team to help triage SaaS purchases efficiently and ensuring compliance of negotiated agreements to established vendor management/procurement policies and practices (such as articulation of service levels and deliverables, etc).
• Support the Head of Procurement in achieving the Procurement 2028 vision and annual department objectives, alongside savings targets (cost, time, process and efficiency).
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to create and manage the ongoing relevant Category plan(s) and ensure it is a 'living document'.
• Build an effective, business focused and surgical engagement strategy for our key stakeholders with a 'one procurement' approach.
• Working with the wider BDO procurement team in the cost-effectiveness of negotiations with market leading suppliers and ensuring compliance of negotiated agreements to established vendor management policies (such as articulation of service levels and deliverables, etc).
• Responsible for maintaining the list of category vendors, the master data held on them (contractual and commercial) and supporting for the rollout out POs to our strategic suppliers.

You'll be someone with:

• Proven experience in Category management across a range of categories - with some understanding of IT & Technology procurement and vendors e.g. SaaS.
• An excellent understanding of procurement processes and contractual elements such as SLAs.
• Good understanding of contractual, commercial and operational working relationships with vendors to ensure effective delivery of committed products, services and solutions.
• Very good knowledge of contract management and negotiation.
• Good understanding of the vendor life cycle (sourcing, procurement, vendor management), and how internal roles interact and operate throughout the duration of vendor engagements
• Exceptional leadership skills and presence with the ability to develop and present and/or communicate the Procurement vision and goals, acting as a source of knowledge and guidance

You'll be able to be yourself; we'll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to the business. We're committed to agile working, and we offer every colleague the opportunity to work in ways that suit you, your teams, and the task at hand.

At BDO, we'll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development.

We're in it together

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO's core values and we're proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture. From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we'll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs.

Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another. At BDO, you'll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work.

We know that collaboration is the key to creating value for the companies we work with and satisfying experiences for our colleagues, so we've invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices. BDO's people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we'll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences. With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you'll never stop learning at BDO.

We're looking forward to the future

At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy.

Our success is powered by our people, which is why we're always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions

We've got a clear purpose, and we're confident in our future, because we're adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better.