Procurement Category Manager - IT Services

Category Manager - IT Services | Competitive salary & benefits | Farnborough - 3 days a week in the office | QinetiQ - A global leader in Aerospace, Defence and Security

Background

We are a £2BN global defence and security company delivering mission-critical solutions that protect lives and enable operational advantage. Our vision is “to be the chosen partner around the world innovating for our customers’ advantage”. To do this, we combine deep technical expertise with a bold approach to innovation – helping our customers solve complex challenges across land, sea, air, space and cyber. We employ circa 8,000 people in 50 locations across the UK, Europe, US and Australia.

About Procurement and Supply Chain

Finance is a Global Group Function with Procurement and Supply Chain, a key department, reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer and influencing £1BN spend across directs and indirects. The Procurement and Supply Chain department has several key pillars including Business Partnering, Category Management, Supply Chain, Responsible Procurement and Operational Excellence.

To deliver QinetiQ’s five-year growth strategy, we need to foster and enable a progressive mindset. We aspire to be a key business enabler and a value creator. To do this we need to shape and influence stakeholder strategies, drive value, deliver excellence and manage supply chain opportunities and risk.

IT & Tech

The IT category has a spend of circa £100m across key categories including Software, Hardware, Networks and IT Services. This role is responsible for the IT Services Category.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, driving early engagement to influence business planning and ensure alignment with organisational priorities
• Support with development and execution of category strategies for IT Services, using market insights and data to challenge existing approaches and maximize value
• Lead sourcing activity, including the design of sourcing strategies, working with the business to support investment case development, run competitive tenders, and negotiation of mid-value and complex contracts
• Manage category-specific risks, including information security, IR35, supply resilience, geopolitical, financial and sustainability considerations
• Support stakeholders to drive Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) across key contracts to ensure performance, innovation and value realisation from strategic partnerships
• Support the Finance and Business Systems transformation, including transition from SAP Ariba to Oracle Fusion and establishment of a mature Source-to-Pay model

Key Person Attributes

• Clear and confident communicator who can adapt their style to suit stakeholders
• Builds trusted relationships with stakeholders and suppliers
• Collaborates effectively across teams and coach others when needed
• Ability to work independently and takes accountability to resolve problems, interpreting data and drawing relevant insights to inform decision making
• Ability to balance commercial, operational and risk considerations to drive the best outcomes in ambiguous or dynamic environments and collaborates x-functionally to achieve this
• Demonstrates resilience and adaptability during transformation
• Role-models integrity and a growth mindset
• Proactively challenges existing ways of working and contributes to Supply Chain and Procurement functional development

Experience and Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent professional experience
• MCIPS qualified or working towards completion - preference
• Minimum three years’ strategic category management experience in similar categories of spend
• Proven track record of building successful relationships with stakeholders
• Demonstrable experience negotiating IT contracts
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Practical experience with Source to Pay (S2P) technology