Strategic IT Category Lead — Procurement & Sourcing

Portsmouth Water; Havant; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days annual leave and bank holidays

Competitive pension—up to 15%

Non-contractual bonus up to 6% of base

Enhanced maternity, paternity, and/adp

Life assurance 4x salary

Employee assistance programme

Private medical insurance

PW Perks discounts

EV Scheme (after 1 year)

Cycle to Work Scheme

Job summary

Portsmouth Water is recruiting a strategic IT Category Manager to lead end-to-end IT sourcing initiatives, manage supplier relationships, and deliver value while mitigating risk. The role shapes how IT services are procured and optimized within the company.

You will partner with internal teams, drive cost reductions, and ensure regulatory compliance across sourcing activities, while promoting best-practice procurement across the lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Ability to analyse and present complex commercial/contractual data to diverse stakeholders.
• Strong organisational skills and ability to manage multiple workstreams.
• Solid negotiation, influencing and resolution skills.
• Outstanding communication and customer service ethos with stakeholder engagement.
• Self-starter with resilience under pressure and willingness to develop skills.

Responsibilities

• Support development and continual improvement of procurement best practices across full lifecycle.
• Build relationships with internal stakeholders and external suppliers; influence at senior levels.
• Deliver exceptional customer service to internal teams and external partners with clear communication.
• Promote procurement process improvements to enhance service delivery and efficiency.
• Manage IT category spend with strategic impact; align with business goals and risk mitigation.
• Develop and implement category and demand strategies by engaging stakeholders.
• Lead commercial activities across sourcing lifecycle to deliver value and minimise total cost of ownership.
• Collaborate with business leaders to drive cost reduction via standardisation and aggregation.

Skills

Data analysis

Stakeholder engagement

Negotiation

Communication

Organisational skills

Sourcing strategy

IT category knowledge

Supply chain knowledge

Target delivery

Job description

Portsmouth Water is recruiting a strategic IT Category Manager to lead end-to-end IT sourcing initiatives, manage supplier relationships, and deliver value while mitigating risk. The role shapes how IT services are procured and optimized within the company.

You will partner with internal teams, drive cost reductions, and ensure regulatory compliance across sourcing activities, while promoting best-practice procurement across the lifecycle.