Procurement Manager (fixed term)

About the Company

Our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. With a heritage dating back more than 175 years, we have a long history of innovation in savings and investments, combining asset management and insurance expertise to offer a wide range of solutions.

Our two distinct operating segments, Asset Management and Life, work together to provide access to balanced, long term investment and savings solutions. We will consider flexible working arrangements for any of our roles and also offer workplace accommodations to ensure you have what you need to effectively deliver in your role.

Role Overview

The Procurement function is responsible for balancing opportunity, risk and responsibility to drive better business outcomes through the third party supply chain. The Director of Procurement reports into the Director of Finance Transformation, Ops and Data in the Finance function and works closely with the Senior Procurement Manager (who reports into the Head of Procurement). The focus is to protect the business against commercial, operational and regulatory risk while delivering value for money for business budget holders.

The role holder will lead and drive forward all third party engagements supporting allocated business units, building partnerships and executing contracts with suppliers to optimise cost base, operating models and deliver innovation. This includes negotiating new BPO deals, renewing existing deals, managing informal resources out of India and ensuring risk mitigation in all buying activities. In addition, the role provides Business Partnering Services for all procurement activities, improving engagement between Procurement and business functions to develop and deliver a savings pipeline and demonstrate value through cost, innovation or transformation opportunities.

Key Responsibilities

• Supporting the development and delivery of the procurement strategy for indirect spend, driving efficiencies and savings for the business and supporting the delivery of the business strategy and third party supply chain control.
• Delivering an excellent procurement service to internal customers and stakeholders.
• Managing supplier relationships throughout procurement projects and interventions.
• Creating a supply chain that aligns with the commercial and business strategy.
• Accountable for the delivery of procurement projects driving efficiencies and savings.
• Understanding and identifying market trends and intelligence to deliver value and innovative solutions that achieve business success.
• Building strong working relationships with core centralised teams such as IT Security, Legal and Financial Crime.
• Driving continuous improvement for the processes utilised within the team and across the Procurement function.

Key Qualifications

• Good knowledge of strategic procurement and category management theories and concepts, financial risk and liability, including commercial risks associated with indirect supply chain.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to cut through information and draw out key trends and insights to support category improvement.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate to a range of stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.
• Strong knowledge of procurement best practice and a good network of external bodies and individuals in category management across other industries.
• Strong knowledge of the UK indirect supplier marketplace in terms of pricing, breadth of suppliers and geographical coverage, supplier financial standing, and a broad understanding of market trends and dynamics.
• Experience drawing key trends and insights from complex data and driving action from that insight.
• Experience working with a range of external suppliers, able to tailor approach based on needs.