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Job Description

Procurement Manager

Permanent

Based in Solihull or London (3 days in office / 2 days at home)

We are looking for a Procurement Manager to join our friendly and dynamic team here at Waterstones in either our Piccadilly, London or Solihull office. This is a new role where you will be responsible for ensuring Waterstones acquires necessary goods and services efficiently, cost-effectively, and with high quality, while managing supplier relationships and mitigating risks.

This is a diverse role where you will be able to strategise and negotiate with suppliers and vendors, and ensure purchases of products, equipment, and services across the company align with the company's strategic objectives.

This role will also require you to embed a strong, compliant and effective procurement to pay process embedded across the company and roll out a PO process.

What you will be doing

• Conduct research to source the best products and suppliers in terms of best value, delivery schedules, and quality
• Run tenders, evaluate bids, and make recommendations based on commercial and technical factors
• Negotiate and agree contracts, monitoring the quality of service provided
• Develop and maintain excellent relationships with teams who procure services or goods across the business. Help them understand how you can help them in their role and the importance of good procurement governance
• Build and maintain good relationships with new and existing suppliers
• Liaise between suppliers, manufacturers and relevant internal teams
• Forecast levels of demand for services and products
• Develop and implement a procurement to pay strategy ensuring strong compliance.
• Work with other relevant stakeholders to roll out a PO process across the company
• Develop strategies to ensure cost savings and supplier performance targets are met or exceeded
• Ensure the security and sustainability of sources of essential products and services
• Forecast price trends and their impact on future activities
• Analyse data and produce reports and statistics on spending and saving
• Undertake value for money reviews of existing contracts and arrangements
• Ensure suppliers are aware of business objectives
• Keep up to date with trends and innovations, regulation, and new technology that can impact the business

What we need from you

• Experience in procurement, purchasing, or supply chain management, ideally within retail.
• Proven track record of managing procurement activities, including strategic sourcing, contract negotiations, and supplier relationship management.
• Experience with or comfortable working in a stand-alone procurement role.
• Experience in running tenders, evaluating bids, and making recommendations.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring timely and cost-effective delivery.
• Experience in monitoring and managing the quality of service provided by suppliers.
• Experience in developing and implementing procurement compliance.
• Ability to forecast levels of demand for services and products.
• Experience in undertaking value for money reviews of existing contracts.
• Ability to analyse data and produce reports and statistics on spending and saving.
• Experience and proven ability in developing strong internal relationships.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• Knowledge of procurement regulations and compliance requirements.

Person Profile

• Excellent attention to detail in contract management, supplier evaluations, and analysis
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills for interacting with suppliers, internal teams, and stakeholders.
• Strong analytical skills to assess market trends, supplier performance, and procurement data.
• Confident in making decisions and leading on all procurement activities, working as a stand-alone procurement expert to the business.
• Highly organised.
• Approachable and ability to build excellent relationships both internally and externally.

Why work for Waterstones

At Waterstones, everything we do is about our customers, and we work hard to provide them with the best possible shopping experience, one that will make them want to visit time and time again. We strive to consistently deliver fantastic customer service, whether recommending a book or a gift, keeping our shops beautifully stocked, helping out in our lovely Café W’s, or keeping the wheels turning efficiently behind the scenes. Working with us, you will get to use your expertise and enthusiasm to bring to our customers the irreplaceable pleasures of a good bookshop (including a virtual one).

In return, you will be working in a role that can make a real difference to Waterstones, work in a friendly and dynamic team and get to benefit from our excellent discount in shops and waterstones.com.

If you have the relevant essential experience and you are interested, we would love to hear from you.