Senior Category Manager

Signet Recruitment and Retention; Reading; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 86,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Car allowance

Private medical healthcare

26 days annual leave (30 with service)

Health, wellbeing and finances package

Cycle to Work

Life assurance

Performance-related pay

Job summary

Signet Recruitment and Retention is seeking a Senior Category Manager in Reading to scale procurement and supplier management for a major investment programme. You will lead a team, coach junior Category Managers, and collaborate with stakeholders up to CEO, shaping strategy and delivering value.

You will own category plans, guide sourcing events, manage supplier relationships and drive continuous improvement across the function.

Qualifications

• Experience in complex supply chain environments.
• Experience in a Category Manager role, including mentoring others.
• Experience working with senior stakeholders up to CEO.
• Track record in continuous improvement and delivering stretching targets.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop Category Managers and coach them on strategy, sourcing and negotiation.
• Shape category approach with stakeholders, aligning spend and business needs.
• Lead major category projects and sourcing events following required processes.
• Identify supplier opportunities, innovations and improvements and manage relationships with key suppliers.
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders and drive change across the organisation.

Job description

Salary: Up to £78,000 per annum, depending on experience, plus car allowance and performance-related pay

The opportunity

Our client is scaling its Procurement and Supplier Management function to support a large investment programme. The Senior Category Manager is a central appointment in that team, responsible for embedding a strategic, innovative approach to Category Management across the way Commercial delivers for the business.

This is a leadership role as well as a technical one. Alongside owning your own categories, you will guide, coach and develop more junior Category Managers, setting the standard for what good looks like and raising the capability of the wider team. You will report to the Business Partner and work with stakeholders at every level, up to CEO.

What you’ll be doing

Leading and developing the team

• Acting as a role model and technical lead for Category Managers and more junior colleagues, coaching them on strategy, sourcing and negotiation
• Supporting and mentoring junior team members on their category plans, sourcing events and supplier relationships, and reviewing their work
• Helping to build team capability and consistency in how Category Management is applied
• Leading the newly developed Category process for your categories and helping others to apply it

Category development

• Engaging proactively with internal stakeholders to shape category approach, business needs, spend and suppliers
• Providing leadership and insight on supply market dynamics, regulatory and internal frameworks, suppliers and technical innovation
• Building strategic, innovative category plans and keeping them aligned with changing business risks and supply markets
• Consulting with external markets and key stakeholders
• Sharing targets with the business area you support, and fully understanding its challenges and initiatives

Sourcing

• Identifying and prioritising a sourcing pipeline as part of category development
• Leading major category projects and sourcing events, following the required process and approval steps
• Sourcing and procuring a range of goods and services across one or more categories, ensuring optimum value for money within defined service and quality criteria
• Leading and evaluating competitive tenders and proposals
• Acting as a key interface with suppliers on your contracts
• Leading the review of supplier opportunities, innovations and improvements
• Building effective relationships with key functional stakeholders

Continuous improvement, risk and compliance

• Leaving a lasting legacy of change and improvement in how Commercial is deployed across the organisation
• Supporting delivery of the enterprise risk model
• Maintaining accurate, secure records in information systems to the required standard

What you’ll bring

• Experience of operating in complex supply chain environments
• Experience in a Category Manager role in a complex environment, ideally with some exposure to guiding or mentoring others
• Experience of working with key suppliers up to senior level
• A track record in continuous improvement and delivering against stretching targets
• A clear understanding of what good Category Management looks like
• Good knowledge of the data sources that build a category plan, and effective use of market insight
• Innovative category planning
• The ability to lead complex supplier negotiations of up to £100m in value
• Strong written and verbal communication and influencing skills, including report writing and presenting
• The ability to enhance stakeholder relationships and drive change
• Comfort with legal frameworks

Behaviours

• A people-focused leader who develops others and raises the standard of the team
• A confident influencer, credible with senior stakeholders
• Takes initiative and leads with solutions

What’s in it for you

• Salary of up to £78,000 per annum, depending on experience
• Performance-related pay linked to company performance measures and targets
• 26 days’ annual leave, rising to 30 with length of service (plus bank holidays)
• Private medical healthcare
• A wide benefits package covering health, wellbeing and finances, including annual health MOTs, physiotherapy and counselling access, Cycle to Work, shopping vouchers and life assurance
• The chance to join at the start of a major, multi-year investment programme and shape how Commercial operates