Senior Operational Buyer

OCS Group; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Award-Winning Employer

Digital Learning

Wagestream Flexible Pay

Professional Growth

Equal opportunities employer

Job summary

OCS Group is seeking a procurement professional to join the team on client site in Barrow-in-Furness with a hybrid work arrangement (minimum 2 days onsite). You will collaborate with the Supply Chain Director, Heads of Projects Procurement and Category Leads to deliver robust supply chain solutions and drive value across engineering and facilities management sectors.

Ideal candidates will have strong negotiations, stakeholder engagement, and experience in sustainable procurement with MCIPS

Qualifications

• Experience with procurement processes, systems and supply chain methodology.
• Experience in stakeholder engagement and managing internal customer relationships.
• Strong negotiation skills and evidence of delivering value for money.
• Experience delivering sustainable procurement objectives and cost-saving targets.
• Excellent commercial awareness and ability to influence stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement procurement account strategy in partnership with the account team.
• Identify, select and manage new supply chain partners to support future business.
• Lead negotiations to deliver cost savings and value for customers.
• Conduct risk-based supplier tendering and manage KPIs, SLAs and program risk.
• Collaborate with category teams to expand supplier relationships and drive innovation.
• Promote safety culture and ensure compliance with HSEQ management system.

Skills

Procurement processes

Stakeholder engagement

Internal customer management

Negotiation

Sustainable procurement

Commercial awareness

Service excellence

Presentation & influence

Cost-saving delivery

Analytical skills

Education

MCIPS (preferred or in progress)

Job description

About The Role:

The role will be part of the OCS Procurement team, where you will collaborate with our Supply Chain Director, Heads of Projects Procurement and Category Leads and other Ops / Projects Buyers to ensure we deliver a robust and forward thinking supply chain solution to effectively deliver engineering excellence and a better world at work for our customers, colleagues and supply chain; and for the communities in which we work. This role will be embedded into our OCS team on our Client site in Barrow-in-Furness and will be responsible for all supply chain and procurement activity on the contract, this is a hybrid role with a minimum 2 days onsite.

What you'll do:

• Ensure we have a good supply chain, readily available to rely on, that delivers excellence to our customer sites with the right governance around the relationship to ensure performance standards are met.
• Ensure that all procurement activity is undertaken in line with the overall organisational strategy; category plan; account specific procurement plan and procurement best practice.
• Develop the procurement account strategy in partnership with the account team and take ownership to lead the delivery. Identify, select, develop and manage new supply chain to support future business through a rigorous evaluation process, ongoing performance measurement, contract review and benchmarking
• Negotiate and deliver cost savings through negotiation. Evidence value for money that can be demonstrated to our customers.
• Initiate a risk based approach to supplier tendering, selection and award, building in commercial analysis of tenders / negotiations to ensure caveats / assumptions are well managed; the correct financial model is used and any KPIS / SLAs / Programme risk is negotiated and back-to-back with supply chain.
• Identify innovation and ensure that these are presented to our accounts to increase revenue and margin opportunities.
• Provide a culture of continuous improvement delivering improvements that support the organisation’s requirements, ensuring that account stakeholders are seen as a customer and engage to gain feedback to set improvement objectives and deliver against account procurement plan.
• Promote and drive a strong safety culture into the supply chain by ensuring that work is carried out in compliance with the organisation's HSEQ management system and culture
• Be the point of escalation for supply chain matters on the account.
• Any other task reasonably requested from time to time.
• Continuously analyse market trends, supplier performance and cost structures to identify risks and opportunities for improvement and implement risk mitigation strategies.
• Collaborate with Category team to develop wider relationships with specialist supply chain to suit product / service / geographical gaps and support growth opportunities to align with business need. Ensure supply chain is appropriately accredited and provides sufficient competition and value for money for all account needs.

Who you'll be:

• Knowledge and experience of Procurement Processes, Systems and Supply Chain Methodology
• Experience in stakeholder engagement
• Able to manage internal customer relationships
• Expert negotiations skills
• Experience in delivering and developing sustainable procurement objectives
• Commercial awareness
• Ability to deliver service excellence to internal and external customers
• Strong presentation, and influencing skills
• Experience of driving value and delivering cost saving targets
• Strong analytical skills.
• MCIPS preferred or working towards.
• Excellent FM procurement experience.

About The Company:

OCS UK & Ireland is a leading facilities management company with 50,000+ colleagues and a turnover in excess of £2bn. We deliver innovative, award-winning services within facilities management, hard services, cleaning, security and catering.

Our mission is to make people and places the best they can be for our colleagues, customers and the communities we serve. Our commitment to doing business the right way is rooted in our TRUE values - Trust, Respect, Unity, and Empowerment.

Why Work for OCS?

Award-Winning Employer: Ranked 36th on Glassdoor’s Best Companies to Work For 2025 — we value and motivate our people.

Digital Learning: The OCS Academy offers digital courses and resources to help you build skills and grow your career.

Retail Perks With our Hapi app, you can gain access to exclusive discounts, rewards and wellbeing resources.

Professional Growth: 600+ live learners across UK&I — Empowering colleagues with further development and qualifications!

Flexible Pay: Access a portion of earned wages before payday with our Wagestream App! (Contract Specific)

We are an equal opportunities employer and rely on a diverse workforce with a broad range of knowledge, skills, and backgrounds to deliver our goals. We offer an inclusive and welcoming environment and actively encourage applications from all individuals regardless of race, gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age.

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