Sourcing Manager - C&P [2 positions available]

Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS); Milton Keynes; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 63,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading organization in the rail sector is seeking a Sourcing Manager to lead complex procurement projects. The role involves engaging with customers, driving value from sourcing opportunities, and collaborating with internal teams. Candidates should possess strong negotiation skills and a background in business or economics.

Qualifications

• Educated to a Business or Economics degree standard or equivalent business experience.
• Deep level of Sourcing experience with a track record of savings delivery.
• Demonstrable level of negotiation and dispute resolution skill set.

Responsibilities

• Lead high value and complex sourcing projects.
• Collaborate with customers and supply chain for procurement activities.
• Draft sourcing strategies and tender documentation.

Skills

Negotiation

Problem-solving

Contract law

Financial management

Sourcing experience

Education

Business or Economics degree

Job description

About Network Rail

Join Our Team at Network Rail!

Are you ready to make a difference in people's lives? At Network Rail, we connect passengers and freight customers, ensuring safe and efficient transportation across the country. We're an organisation where people truly matter, and when you join us, you matter to us and millions of others. Click here to watch our inspiring video to learn more about us!

We're dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that reflects the passengers we serve. To achieve this, we're committed to becoming an open, diverse, and inclusive workplace, leveraging the skills and expertise of our talented workforce. Together, we strive to create a safe and accessible railway for everyone. Discover more about the importance of Diversity and Inclusion at Network Rail by clicking here .

Investing in our people is key to enhancing the safety, reliability, and efficiency of our railway system. If you're passionate about making a meaningful impact, then this opportunity is for you!

About our people and the recruitment process - We're an inclusive employer of choice and we welcome applications from everyone! We encourage our colleagues to work flexibly, as we know traditional working patterns don't always fit. If you want to consider working flexibly, just let us know and we'll do our best to help and invest in your career with us , whilst you have a healthy work life balance.

We're also a Disability Confident Leader employer and we'll try our best to adapt the process and offer a reasonable alternative to help support people with disabilities access, apply and interview for roles.

Brief Description

Are you interested in being involved in the procurement of innovative rail technology solutions where you can apply your expertise to a variety of products and services? Or working on complex procurement activities? If so, these roles are exciting opportunities to explore.

About the Role

Role: Sourcing Manager

Vacancy Type: Full-time but flexible working patterns will be considered

There are two roles available.

Duration: Permanent

Salary: Band 3C (£55,596 - £62,546)

Locations: The Quadrant: Milton Keynes. To accept a role at The Quadrant: Milton Keynes you must live within 90 minutes of the office. We are currently working at a 40/60 pattern of office days a week.

Interview Dates: w/c 23 rd June 2025

Are you a sourcing superstar? If so, we want you!

About the role (External)

We are looking for dynamic procurement professionals to join our team, leading high value and complex sourcing projects.

If you love to engage with your customers, thrive on using your own initiative, have great people skills and are passionate about making a difference, please read on.

This role sits in Route Services, a business area that has been created to supply services to the routes in the safest, most cost-efficient, and effective way, enabling them to benefit from economies of scale and optimised national resources.

Network Rail's Commercial & Procurement (C&P) team leads the development and delivery of commercial strategies encompassing the whole lifecycle of category strategies, sourcing, supplier management and procurement operations.

We are passionate about collaborating with our customers and the supply chain to buy and manage great commercial solutions that deliver value for passengers. You will be working in a team that is highly collaborative and where you will be offered excellent training and development opportunities.

You will join the Corporate Services sourcing team within the Route Services C&P team.

Our team leads exciting, high-profile, professional services sourcing projects for our internal customers, including, HR, Occupational Health, Training, Supplies and Services, Facilities, Retail Property, Professional Services, Insurance and Consultancy.

We are a super friendly team of 20, with an effective team ethos of supporting and developing each other. We enjoy regular team events together combining an element of learning as well as enjoying each other's company!

You will collaborate closely with your customers and our business experts to undertake pre-market engagement with the supply chain, draft sourcing strategies and tender documentation. You will be the expert leading the sourcing project, undertake complex commercial evaluations, including using your professional knowledge to lead negotiations with suppliers. You will have excellent communications skills, both written and verbal, be proactive, have in depth experience of the end-to-end procurement process, be happy to challenge and be challenged and be prepared to go above and beyond to support our customers.

Understanding your customer's needs will put you in the best place to identify the optimum strategic direction and put in place contracting strategies that embrace change, innovation, and creative thinking. We want you to bring us new ideas to help us:

• improve safety - everyone home safe every day;
• be more sustainable;
• be more efficient;
• introduce innovation from our supply chain; and
• provide creative contracting strategies.

It would also be nice if you have experience of working in a regulated procurement environment.

To help you find out more about the role we have created a candidate pack, linked below, which gives you an insight into what it's like to work at Network Rail including our purpose, our culture and values, pay and benefits, learning and development and how we create an inclusive environment for all.

And hear what some of our brilliant team members think about Network Rail in this video

For full details of what you'll be doing and the skills and experience you'll need, please see the attached job description.

Do you consider yourself to have a protected characteristic? If so and you require any additional support with your application, please do not hesitate to contact the Resourcer who will happily assist

Click 'apply for this job' to apply.

How to apply (External)

Sound interested? This is what you will need to have:
Essential

• Educated to a Business or Economics degree standard or equivalent business experience

• Deep level of Sourcing experience, with a demonstrable track record of savings delivery

• Demonstrable level of negotiation and dispute resolution skill set

• Demonstrable experience of contract law and financial management

• Demonstrable experience of driving value from complex sourcing opportunities

• Experienced with agile cross-functional collaborative working methods

• Politically savvy, with the proven ability to use direct and indirect influencing strategies at an executive level

• Demonstrable level of problem-solving experience of complex sourcing specific challenges

• Completer finisher mindset

Desirable

• Line management experience

• Detailed knowledge of the UK Rail Industry, including procurement processes in a reclassified environment

For more information regarding the main responsibilities & criteria of this role, please find the full job description attached below.

Closing date: 11 th June 2025. - Late applications will not be accepted.

To submit your application, click apply now. For tips to help you prepare and apply click here

You can visit Evenbreak's Career Hive for advice on accessibility support if you're unsure of the options available. Should you require any reasonable adjustments/modifications, please add a note to your application.

You can visit Evenbreaks Career Hive for advice on accessibility support if you're unsure of the options available. Should you require any reasonable adjustments/modifications, please add a note to your application.

Network Rail Benefits - To find out about what benefits we offer, click here

All offers of employment are conditional upon satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks. Click here for more information

***Some of our roles require face to face Drugs & Alcohol testing. Further details will be shared with you as part of your formal offer.****