Senior Category Manager

Procurement Heads is delighted to be representing one of the UK's top insurance companies to hire a Senior Category Manager.

Reporting to the Head of Procurement, you’ll be responsible for all property spend for the function as well as three direct reports.
  
The business is open to a generalist skillset however previous procurement experience in financial services or insurance would be desirable.
  
If you have category management expertise with the ability to develop meaningful category strategies, then this could be the perfect role for you.

A strong understanding of governance and ESG would also be beneficial for the role.
  
The procurement function encourages agility and steers clear of micromanagement, giving staff the autonomy to use their initiative.
  
Historically, this business has been recognised for its values-based culture, providing excellent employee satisfaction and continues to offer a warm family feel as well as unmatched long-term development opportunities.
  
The role would see you in one of the business's many UK offices (Bournemouth, Bristol, Birmingham, Croydon, Brentwood, Leeds, Huddersfield or Ipswich) approximately twice weekly with the rest of the working week being conducted remotely.

Key responsibilities of the Senior Category Manager:

• Designing, building, executing and maintaining the overall category strategy including a prioritised set of procurement opportunities agreed upon with stakeholders
• Ensuring that the above delivers end-to-end commercial, contractual and relationship lifecycle value, in the eyes of key stakeholders and from the bottom line, specifically ensuring that:
  • Developing optimum routes to market based on market developments and business requirements
  • Developing clear service specification documents that enable the best service provision fit
  • Understanding cost drivers and value levers when formulating specifications, ensuring the total cost of ownership is fully understood and a central part of Procurement activity
• Building, developing and maintaining key relationships ensuring that your assigned category is recognised as a centre of excellence with up-to-date market insight
• Ensuring your leadership behaviours are first class and align to the business framework, support and develop your team, ensuring solid performance and continual development of the colleagues within your team
• Be a lead negotiator in developing commercial opportunities. You will have the required skills to draft contracts and appropriate schedules using a suite of approved templates/clauses
• Seek out new areas where procurement can bring value by being involved in activities not traditionally supported by procurement

Key skills and behaviours for the Senior Category Manager:

• You will have attention to detail and the capability to assess and mitigate relationship issues and commercial risk with experience in third-party contractual work
• The ability to lead and deliver initiatives to improve the quality and value of the components of our cost base within your assigned category area
• A deep understanding of the customer journey and how to continually improve service as a key differentiator in the marketplace is essential
• You will have excellent communication skills written and verbal with demonstrable stakeholder management ability up to the Executive level
• You will have the skills to interact, influence and negotiation with demonstrable experience leading complex sourcing projects which release substantial value for the business
• You will have experience providing day-to-day line management, coaching and development of others to ensure that performance objectives are met team engagement is high, valued and motivating
• You will be dynamic and self-motivated with strong organisational skills and the ability to plan, prioritise and deliver work to timescales
• A high level of PC literacy across the Microsoft Office suite is required

Benefits of the Senior Category Manager:

• £65-73,000 basic salary
• Annual bonus scheme
• Private medical insurance
• Double-matched pension (up to a max of 7/14%)
• 4 x life assurance
• 30 days holiday