Group Indirect Category Manager

Overview

In this role you will own global indirect categories within a manufacturing group undergoing a procurement transformation. You’ll shape 3–5 year category strategies and drive consistency across international sites. You collaborate with operations, finance, HR, IT, and other functions to deliver measurable value and procurement maturity. This is a chance to influence a centre-led global model and contribute to cross-site sourcing and supplier performance improvements.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement 3–5 year global category strategies for indirect spend
• Perform spend and market analyses to identify opportunities
• Create category roadmaps and sourcing pipelines across multiple sites
• Lead end-to-end strategic sourcing: RFIs, RFQs, RFPs, tenders, negotiations
• Negotiate complex supplier agreements, pricing, and performance commitments
• Strengthen supplier relationships with performance management, SLAs, and KPIs
• Identify value through consolidation, demand management, and specification optimization
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders across geographies to provide procurement expertise
• Improve Source-to-Pay processes, governance, and compliance
• Identify and mitigate supplier, commercial, operational, and regulatory risks
• Support procurement reporting, analytics, and performance measurement
• Contribute to procurement transformation and standardisation across the organisation

Key requirements

• Strong indirect category management and strategic sourcing background
• Experience developing category strategies and delivering measurable value
• Sourcing, tendering, negotiation, and contract management experience
• Experience managing supplier relationships and driving performance
• Ability to operate in a complex stakeholder environment
• Commercial and analytical capability with confidence to challenge stakeholders
• Experience across a broad range of indirect categories
• Exposure to global, multi-site or manufacturing environments (advantageous)
• Experience supporting procurement transformation or maturity improvement (beneficial)
• Knowledge of Source-to-Pay, governance, supplier risk and contract management
• Credible, collaborative and commercially focused approach
• MCIPS, or working towards MCIPS or equivalent (advantageous)

• stakeholder influencing
• commercial acumen
• collaboration
• Source-to-Pay
• procurement governance
• supplier risk management

…