Technology Sourcing Category Manager

Tesco UK; Welwyn Garden City; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retailer in Welwyn Garden City is looking for a skilled individual to lead the strategic sourcing and governance process. This role involves commercial contract management, collaboration with various teams, and ensuring cost-effective supplier performance. Ideal candidates will have a strong background in strategic sourcing, negotiation skills, and the ability to analyze data for senior executive recommendations. The position offers a hybrid work model and is essential for driving business decisions in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Knowledge and application of financial planning and commercial contract management principles.
• Experience in a global, complex environment.
• Ability to manage and forecast technology budgets.

Responsibilities

• Commercial management of infrastructure supplier base.
• Developing impactful commercial summaries for decision making.
• Collaborating with infrastructure leadership on commercial requirements.

Skills

Strategic sourcing and procurement principles

Negotiation and influencing skills

Budgeting and commercial exposure

Data analysis and insights presentation

Attention to detail

Collaboration and relationship building

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Global Technology Infrastructure Team to lead and manage the strategic sourcing and governance process within Tesco Technology - Infrastructure. Working closely with key stakeholders and procurement, you will ensure that commercial contract requirements for software, support and services are assembled and executed to the highest possible standards, always ensuring Tesco achieves outstanding commercial outcomes. This is a demanding role in a fast‑paced, high‑pressure and high‑expectation environment, so resilience and focus will be key to success. Tesco Infrastructure team is accountable for our central data centre & cloud services including our global operations centre (GOC), platforms, networks and database. In addition, the workplace services we provide enable our customers and colleagues to collaborate and communicate across the Tesco global business.

Whilst specific responsibilities will be dependent upon the changing needs of the Tesco technology and infrastructure, the following provides an overview of the role’s key responsibilities and measures:

• Commercial management and organisation of the entire infrastructure supplier base to ensure cost‑conscious consumption and accurate budget planning and forecasting
• Developing highly impactful commercial summaries to executive‑level standard to influence decision making
• Collaborating with infrastructure leadership and functional teams to ensure strategic alignment on commercial requirements
• Collaborating with our finance counterparts for accurate budgeting and forecasting
• Defining with our functional teams and procurement experts the go‑to‑market strategy for new contracts, identifying the best commercial model and supporting on RFP/RFQ activities
• Generating insight to identify cost‑saving opportunities and contributing to the creation of infrastructure investment business cases
• Proactively identify contract and supplier requirements within the infrastructure technology function by:
  • Engaging with various internal and external stakeholders to understand long‑term business objectives and govern vendor performance to deliver value‑added benefits
  • Ensuring all technology contracts are assessed against criteria such as complexity, value, and risk, to identify those contracts/vendors that should be considered critical
  • Ensuring critical contracts are actively and appropriately managed

Key Skills and Experience (must have)

To be successful in the role you’ll need knowledge, understanding and application of financial planning and commercial contract management principles and must be able to demonstrate experience of:

• Deep knowledge and understanding of strategic sourcing and procurement principles within a global, complex environment
• Confidence and being skilled at negotiation and influencing
• Budgeting and commercial exposure/experience in a technology environment
• Delivering in a fast‑paced marketplace balancing investments and maintenance, cloud contracts and subscriptions with different licensing models
• Managing and forecasting technology budgets for investment and maintenance expenditure
• Ability to find the right balance between demand, scope and cost of a contract
• The ability to analyse data, present insights and provide recommendations to senior executives (e.g., for business cases and investment decisions)

Other attributes that will make you successful in this role

• Enjoy working with data and using data to drive business decisions at a senior level
• Resilience and tenacity to succeed in a demanding fast‑paced environment
• Excellent attention to detail
• Responsive in a fast‑changing environment; resilience & willingness to challenge
• Flexibility, ability to plan and organise, creativity, self‑starter
• Able to collaborate well and build solid working relationships with peers and senior leadership across different teams
• Ability to demonstrate strong written, verbal communication and presentation skills to all levels of seniority and disciplines within the organisation

Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer’s favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or out on the move. Our core purpose is ‘Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day’. Serving means more than a transactional relationship with our customers. It means acting as a responsible and sustainable business for all stakeholders, for the communities we are part of and for the planet.

We are proud to have an inclusive culture at Tesco where everyone truly feels able to be themselves. At Tesco, we recognise the value and opportunity that diversity brings and are committed to creating a workplace where differences are valued and all colleagues are given the same opportunities. We are accredited Disability Confident Leader and are committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. For further information on the accessibility support we can offer, please click here.

We’re a big business and we can offer a range of diverse full‑time & part‑time working patterns across our many business areas, which means that we can find something that works for you. We work in a more blended pattern – combining office and remote working. Our offices will continue to be where we connect, collaborate and innovate. If you are applying internally, please speak to the hiring manager about how this can work for you – everyone is welcome at Tesco.