Senior Global Category Manager - Travel and Mobility - Remote

Sodexo; Remote; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A global services leader is seeking a Senior Category Buyer specializing in Travel and Mobility. The role involves managing strategic sourcing initiatives and supplier relationships across multiple countries. Candidates should have a strong background in procurement with extensive experience in driving category strategies and engaging stakeholders. This position offers a great opportunity to influence procurement strategy and ensure alignment with business needs. A Bachelor's degree is required, along with excellent strategic and analytical skills.

Benefits

Inclusive workplace promoting diversity

Disability Confident Leader employer

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in procurement, especially in Travel and/or Car Fleet sourcing projects.
• Strong project leadership skills managing cross-functional teams.
• Ability to work independently and own strategic initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive category strategies for Travel and Car Fleet.
• Lead end-to-end sourcing processes including negotiation.
• Manage day-to-day supplier performance and communications.

Skills

Strategic sourcing

Stakeholder engagement

Supplier relationship management

Analytical mindset

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Procurement, Supply Chain

Job description

Join Sodexo as a Senior Category Buyer - Travel & Mobility and play a key role in shaping our global procurement strategy. We’re looking for a commercially minded and strategic procurement professional to lead sourcing initiatives across our Travel and Car Fleet categories. This is a fantastic opportunity to manage high‑impact supplier relationships, drive performance across multiple countries, and collaborate with a global network of procurement specialists. If you’re a strategic, adaptable procurement professional with experience across multiple categories and a foundation in Travel and/or Mobility category solutions, we encourage you to apply and help shape Sodexo’s procurement future.

Responsibilities

• Category Management: Own and drive category strategies for Travel and Car Fleet across defined geographies. Ensure business alignment, cost optimization, supplier innovation, and full integration of Sodexo CSR ambition.
• Strategic Sourcing: Lead end‑to‑end sourcing processes including RFI/RFP preparation, evaluation, supplier selection, negotiation, and implementation. Ensure robust governance and stakeholder engagement throughout.
• Supplier Relationship Management: Manage day‑to‑day supplier performance and act as the key point of contact for strategic vendors, ensuring service delivery and issue resolution.
• Network Animation: Lead and coordinate a network of local buyers. Share best practices, ensure consistency of sourcing approaches, and drive local implementation of strategic initiatives.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Engage cross‑functional stakeholders (Finance, HR, Operations, Legal) to ensure business needs are fully integrated into category plans and sourcing decisions.
• Market Intelligence: Monitor trends and innovations in the mobility ecosystem to identify cost‑saving or improvement opportunities.
• Contract Management: Negotiate and manage supplier contracts in close coordination with Sodexo Legal teams.
• Data & Reporting: Define KPIs and reporting frameworks to track category performance, savings delivery, and supplier KPIs. Contribute to management reporting and category dashboards.

Unique Challenges of the Role

This position requires agility, strategic thinking, and strong stakeholder management to succeed in an environment marked by:

• Decentralized Procurement Landscape: Aligning diverse local practices with a harmonized category strategy.
• Data Limitations: Navigating incomplete or fragmented spend and usage data to support strategic decisions.
• Change Management: Challenging the status quo and embedding new ways of working across teams and geographies.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Business, Procurement, Supply Chain, or equivalent.
• Experience: Extensive experience in procurement; with proven experience leading Travel and/or Car Fleet sourcing projects.
• Leadership: Strong project leadership skills with ability to manage cross‑functional teams and influence without authority.
• Autonomy & Accountability: Comfortable working independently and taking full ownership of strategic initiatives.
• Communication and Interpersonal skills: Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, capable of interacting with senior leaders and local buyers alike.
• Analytical & Strategic Mindset: Able to combine strong analytical capabilities with a long‑term category vision. Skilled at working with complex and fragmented data sets to identify spend patterns, build robust business cases, quantify savings opportunities, and support strategic decision‑making. Comfortable with data tools and KPIs, and able to translate insights into actionable sourcing levers.
• Language: Fluent in English; French is a plus.

Ready to be part of something greater? Apply today!

About Sodexo

At Sodexo, our purpose is to create a better everyday for everyone to build a better life for all. As the global leader in services that improve the Quality of Life, we operate in 55 countries, serving over 100 million consumers each day through our unique combination of On‑Site Food and FM Services, Benefits & Rewards Services and Personal & Home Services. We’re all about building a workplace for the future, we believe in equal opportunities, and we celebrate diversity. We’re an inclusive workplace, where everyone is welcome, everyone can be natural, and be the best versions of themselves. We recognise that we’re on a journey with regards to diversity and inclusion and would therefore welcome applications for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. We’re a Disability Confident Leader employer. We’re committed to changing attitudes towards disability, and making sure disabled people have the chance to fulfil their aspirations. We run a Disability Confident interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria for the job.