Senior Category Manager (Infrastructure)

UCL; Greater London; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

41 days holiday

Relocation scheme

On-site gym

CARE pension

Cycle to work

Job summary

UCL, London's leading multidisciplinary university, is seeking a Senior Category Manager - Infrastructure to own the commercial strategy for maintenance and infrastructure contracts. You will work with senior stakeholders to translate priorities into competitive commercial solutions and manage frameworks from strategy to award.

You will act as a trusted adviser on procurement, governance and risk, delivering cost savings and driving value and sustainability across UCL's estate.

Qualifications

• Experience leading complex procurement activities in maintenance or infrastructure.
• Strong negotiation and contracting skills with a track record of delivering commercial outcomes.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and manage risks across a large, complex organisation.
• Analytical mindset with commercial judgement and data-driven decision making.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex procurement activity from strategy to competition, negotiation and award.
• Develop and deliver commercial strategies for maintenance and infrastructure categories.
• Act as framework manager for maintenance and infrastructure contracts to drive value and performance.
• Provide commercial advice on procurement, contractual and compliance matters to senior stakeholders.

Job description

UCL is London's leading multidisciplinary university and one of the world's most successful research institutions, with more than 18,000 staff and over 51,000 students from more than 150 countries.

Our Commercial & Procurement function manages more than £900 million of third-party expenditure each year and plays an important role in ensuring UCL achieves excellent commercial outcomes while supporting our wider strategic and sustainability ambitions.

Within Estates Development, we support the continued investment, development and improvement of UCL's diverse and complex estate. Effective infrastructure is fundamental to the operation of the university, supporting the environments in which our students learn, our researchers undertake world-leading work.

We are strengthening our commercial capability and are looking for an experienced Senior Category Manager - Infrastructure to help shape how UCL procures and manages strategically important infrastructure requirements.

About the role

As Senior Category Manager - Infrastructure, you will take ownership of developing and delivering commercial strategies across our maintenance and infrastructure category.

Reporting to the Head of Category - Estate Infrastructure, you will work closely with senior stakeholders to understand their priorities and commercial challenges, translating these into effective commercial solutions.

You will act as the framework manager for the maintenance and infrastructure contracts, working to ensure suppliers deliver performance and value for our Hard FM category. You will provide contract advice, while managing risk and supplier innovation

You will lead complex procurement activity from initial strategy and market engagement through to competition, negotiation and contract award. This will include determining appropriate routes to market, developing contracting and negotiation strategies and leading the delivery of frameworks, competitions and other commercial solutions.

You will take a strategic view of the category, using commercial insight and data to identify opportunities to improve value, drive efficiencies and deliver cost savings.

You will also act as a trusted commercial adviser to senior stakeholders, providing guidance on procurement, contractual, commercial and compliance matters and ensuring commercial considerations are embedded into infrastructure planning.

This is an opportunity to influence how a major organisation approaches infrastructure procurement and to help develop commercial solutions that balance value, quality, risk, sustainability and long-term operational requirements.

A full job description is attached to this advert.

About you

You will be an experienced procurement and commercial professional with experience of leading complex procurement activity and delivering commercial outcomes.

Ideally, your experience will include maintenance, infrastructure, engineering, utilities, or another technically complex environment, although we are particularly interested in the commercial capability and transferable experience you can bring.

You will have experience developing and implementing robust procurements and contracts and be a confident negotiator who has delivered complex, large-scale commercial solutions.

You will be comfortable operating within a large and complex organisation and working with a broad range of stakeholders. You will have the credibility to influence senior colleagues, constructively challenge requirements and build strong relationships.

Strong analytical skills and commercial judgement will be important.

You will be educated to degree level or have equivalent professional experience. Further professional development and accredited membership of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) would be advantageous.

If you are looking for an opportunity to combine strategic procurement expertise with the challenge of supporting a large, complex and evolving estate, we would be delighted to hear from you.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• * 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• * Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme
• * Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• * Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• * Relocation scheme for certain posts
• * On-site gym
• * Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• * Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• * Discounted medical insurance

Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent.We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.