About us

We're a truly international company, fourth largest in our industry and operating across 119 markets. An inclusive, innovative global FMCG business supported by 26,000 employees. As we embrace a new era of growth, we are transforming. Our ways of working and culture are driven by a challenger mindset, constantly questioning the status quo where people can bring their best selves to work. Our agility and collaboration are driving our ambitions, innovation and success all supported by our award-winning development programmes that creates exciting and rewarding career opportunities for all.

As we move forward, our consumers will be at the heart of what we do, evolving to needs and expectations and committing to a more meaningful contribution to harm reduction by building a successful NGP business. Integral to our long-term success is our sustainability strategy, behaving responsibly and supporting our ambitions, all underpinned by high governance.

Encouraging inclusion at local levels and supporting a developing and robust diversity agenda globally, we’re fully committed to creating and maintaining an environment that celebrates and respects difference.

The role

Category Manager - IT Portfolio

Location - Bristol or Warsaw

Develop & Execute global, enterprise wide category strategies whilst working in partnership with key stakeholders, other category teams, suppliers and external partners. Provide commercial and market intelligence to internal stakeholders to support strategic planning and project delivery Drive efficiencies, mitigate risks and maximise value generation to Imperial.

Key accountabilities

• Category Managers are responsible for managing and coordinating all strategic and tactical sourcing activities within their category
• Responsible for the development, implementation, management, and performance of sourcing strategies within a given category, to meet business goals and objectives
• Provide relevant information and support (strategy, contracts) to each tier and service archetype as required
• Execute category strategies through close collaboration with key business stakeholders, suppliers and buyers
• Develop and maintain a sustainable and reliable supplier base to mitigate supply risk for the category
• Conduct negotiations with key suppliers and make the contracts available to the regions
• Manage the assessment, selection and development of strategic suppliers to meet cost, performance goals while delivering an optimal quality
• Perform supplier relationship management with key suppliers and support supplier management activities with the procurement excellence team
• Conduct research and benchmarks on current market trends, developing technologies, and supply/demand challenges to gain a competitive advantage and drive continuous improvement
• Forecast price and market trends to identify possible changes of the buyer-supplier power
• Maintain a vendor performance database

Portfolio Specific 

• Leadership, development and management of a small Indirect Procurement team responsible for strategic commercial agreements and category development optimising value for money for Global IT and supported functions.
• Regular and direct engagement at IT Leadership Level - Head of Global IT and IT Leadership team, IT Vendor Management, IT Business Partners and Procurement Regional / Market Leads.
• Category solution / deployment support focus on Tier 1 and Tier 2 markets working alongside Procurement Regional / Market Leads.
• Collaboration with Governance teams in relation to Information Security, Data Privacy and related topics on a cross-category basis and embedding required compliance standards in procurement category area.
• Triage, governance and oversight of strategic procurement projects if procurement team augmentation is required for external delivery.
• Engagement with strategic transformation and improvement programmes.
• Category leadership and supplier strategy development for Global IT supply base of c. £110m and 1,300 suppliers – spend is expected to grow significantly with strategic investments underway for Finance / Digital Transformation and E2E Supply Chain Transformation Programmes.
• Global influence and category ownership for a supply base of c. £100m suppliers, with additional £60-80m investment spend each year over the next 5 years due to strategic investments underway for Finance / Digital Transformation and E2E Supply Chain Transformation Programmes.

Skills & experience

• Ambitious and driven to achieve results.
• Well organised, reliable and a commercially awareness.
• A highly credible individual with a proven track record to influence and manage internal and external stakeholders, and in managing strategic relationships.
• Strong ability to collaborate in a multi-cultural environment
• Outstanding communication skills
• Expert Negotiation skills
• Minimum 5 years specific Procurement category experience of portfolio considered.
• University degree preferably with a numerical basis. MCIPS preferred.
• Able to deal with a changing environment.
• Analytical and Strategic
• FMCG background preferred.
• Fluent oral and written English is essential
• Cross cultural experience is preferred
• Some international travel on short notice likely to be required

What we offer

Competitive salary, bonus scheme, pension, and 25 days holiday (with an additional 4 days on top to cover the Christmas period, and bank holidays), corporate discounts, Health Cash Plan, and other wellbeing initiatives.

Next steps

Interested applicants are encouraged to apply, highlighting their suitability to the role.