Procurement Category Manager - Soft Services

at  OCS Group

ABOUT THE COMPANY:

OCS UK & Ireland is a leading facilities management company with a turnover of £1.7bn and 50,000+ colleagues. We deliver innovative, award-winning services to the public and private sectors and our mission is to make people and places the best they can be.
This role sits within our Procurement department which provides support services to the wider OCS Group and our front-line colleagues.
Working at OCS is more than just a job; it’s an amazing opportunity to begin or expand your career in Facilities Management. OCS has an ambition to become an ‘Employer of choice’ in our sector and is proud to invest in our colleague’s personal and professional development. OCS provides our colleagues with opportunities to gain qualifications through funded development programmes aligned to the knowledge, skills and behaviours attached to their roles.

JOB OVERVIEW

We are seeking a passionate and driven Category Manager for Catering Non-Food to join our team at our Ipswich office. Reporting to the Head of Soft Services, the Category Manager will oversee a multi-million-pound category, including catering equipment, equipment maintenance, vending, laundry, and catering disposables. The role involves building and maintaining strong relationships with supply chain partners, evaluating suppliers, products, and services, negotiating supplier agreements, and managing and reporting on supplier income versus budget. The Category Manager will also identify and drive opportunities through preferred suppliers.
This role requires three days per week at the Ipswich office, with travel to the London office, supply partner and occasionally client visits for meetings
The ideal candidate will be proactive and capable of quickly developing a category plan to identify opportunities and bring spend under management. They should have strong stakeholder management skills, be responsive to communication via email and other methods, and possess excellent verbal presentation abilities. Attention to detail with numerical data and a positive, can-do attitude under pressure are essential qualities for this role.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Functional

• Create and execute a category management plan to reduce total cost, improve the quality of supply and mitigate risk within the supply chain.
• Managing and running end-to-end sourcing activities and supporting the Head of Procurement in high-risk/value opportunities.
• Identifying, evaluating, negotiating, and contracting with new suppliers.
• Being a trusted commercial partner, collaborating with key stakeholders to support the category plan.
• Regular benchmarking of current inputs, services, and suppliers to ensure our supply chain is delivering maximum value and innovation.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to ensure that quality, service and client requirements are considered and applied when negotiating commercial value.
• Form strong, productive relationships with both the business and the supply base ensuring the UK and Ireland business is the customer of choice leading to business growth and profitability
• Delivering cost reduction through procurement activities as well as mitigating inflation to improve EBIT performance.
• Responsible for negotiating and delivering procurement synergy targets on M&A activity when required
• Supporting transformation within the Procurement team and implementing change management throughout the organisation.
• Provide market and supplier insight, expertise and know-how to the organisation through regular reporting.
• Support the roles and functions of internal partners in areas such as compliance, audit, legal and encourage their support in establishing ethical behaviours and cultures.
• Comply with the CIPS Code of Conduct by enhancing and protecting the standard of the profession, maintaining the highest standard of integrity in all business relationships, and promoting the eradication of unethical business. relationships, enhancing the proficiency and stature of the profession, and ensuring compliance with laws and regulations.
• Comply with ethical practices when sourcing goods or services for the UK and Ireland business.

General

• Avoid conflict of interest between personal interests and the interests of the UK & Ireland groups.
• Exercise independent judgment, reasonable care, skill and diligence when carrying out their duties.
• Act in good faith and promote the long-term success of each company within the UK & Ireland group for the benefit of all members and wider stakeholders.
• Adhere to and promote the UK & Ireland group’s policies on equality & diversity, information security, health and safety and data protection in the performance of their duties and the management of the departmental functions reporting to them.
• Support and promote the UK & Ireland group’s sustainability plans and policies, including the Carbon Management Plan, and perform duties in a resource-effective way, recognizing the shared responsibility of minimizing negative environmental impacts wherever possible.
• National role with travel dependent on business needs from time to time.

About you:

• Applicants must have the right to work in the UK
• Category management experience.
• Results-driven with exceptional negotiation skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Commercially focused with a proven track record of cost reduction.
• Demonstrable knowledge of owning supplier management and performance measurement.
• Strong project management skills including cross-functional team management.
• A strong negotiator who understands TCO and utilises SRM to achieve the best value.
• Ability to build sustainable and productive relationships with suppliers.

Desirable

• CIPS qualification.