Category Manager

at  Aspen Insurance Holdings

Date: Aug 21, 2024
Location: London, GB, EC3M 3BD
Company: Aspen Insurance
Since Aspen was founded in 2002, we have become a leading, diversified specialty insurance and reinsurance company. We respond thoughtfully and creatively to find the best outcomes for our clients and business partners through carefully-tailored solutions.
We believe the way we work is just as important as the work we do, and we are guided by our core values of respect, honesty, trust and professionalism.
Aspen is a great place to develop your career offering an exciting and challenging environment where achievement is rewarded.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Strategy and Planning

• Own and lead the strategy and vision for the global category.
• Own and lead negotiations on all category supply contracts and other critical agreements for the business
• Identify, drive and deliver savings, to a set target, to meet the agreed category and functional objectives.
• Own category areas of strategic change projects (e.g. continuous improvement, automation led initiatives, etc.), to drive innovation for the client area and ensure it is negotiated, contracted and delivered.
• Leads implementation of function/ category strategies to maximise business efficiency and achieve cost synergies.

Policy, Process and Procedures

• Develop appropriate governance frameworks to maintain adherence to procurement/Group/regulatory governance.
• Provide the Head of Talent Attraction & Development with timely and relevant information on all areas of responsibility, including regular reports on progress against plans and budgets and on key performance indicators.
• Establish and deliver contractual servicing - deliver workflow tools and create process efficiencies.

Technical Performance

• Continually manage key commercial terms, trends, performance and risks
• Provide technical expertise and business guidance on procurement and operational processes and practices to strengthen and develop Aspen’s credibility both internally and in the marketplace
• Lead with the provision of category expertise in relevant change programme commitments.
• Support the Head of Talent Attraction & Development to drive operational and process excellence across partners and throughout the organisation, leading in their own category/ area.

People Management

• Provide leadership, motivation and support to the junior team members to empower them to deliver to plan.
• Adopt a culture and capability that effectively promotes management of strategic 3rd party partners to ensure timely solution delivery

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE:

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to build relationships and trust at all levels with internal customers.
• A consultative approach to working with our suppliers/ partners and address any commercial issues that arise.
• Analytical mindset, but also creativity to seek, encourage and find non-traditional approaches.
• Strong negotiation skills
• Ability to persuade, influence and negotiate both directly and indirectly
• Ability to analyse and use data for decision making
• Able to communicate effectively orally and in writing
• Able to produce detailed reports at various levels
• Sound commercial judgement
• Strategic and innovative thinker
• Strong reasoning capabilities-creative and lateral thinking, with strong problem-solving skills
• Able to use MSoffice applications, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint
• High impact presentation skills
• Experience managing stakeholders at all levels and possess strong influencing skills
• Wide demonstrable knowledge of client areas Procurement, Process Excellence and Contracting.
• Led complex commercial negotiations of multi-million $ with outsourcing or BPO partners
• Experience of driving and enabling operational and process excellence
• Familiar with the full lifecycle ofsupplier management from procurement and into operational governance and leadership.
• Satisfy regulatory competence requirements.
  At Aspen we know that having a diverse and inclusive workforce is good for our people, good for our business and good for the environments in which we operate. We therefore welcome applications from people which allows us to draw on diverse cultures, perspectives, skills and experiences.

The VP - Global Category Lead – owns, leads and delivers the client area.
The role holder owns, drives and develops all strategic, sourcing and commercial activity, to efficiently and effectively ensure third party engagements deliver the appropriate service, value and risk management to Aspen.
Whilst the focus of this role is the management of the global category, the role holder will be proactive, agile, and adept, and will be required to lead on activities and initiatives in other categories and Procurement areas, in support of the Procurement and Commercial Services function operating model and business priorities.
Our Aspen Values are expected to be reflected in the delivery and performance of this role.