Senior Category Manager - Data Centres/Construction Technology

Senior Category Manager - Data Centres/Construction Technology

Location: hybrid/Paddington, London (once a week, ideally Tues/Wed/Thu)

Based on a salary of £100,000 - £110,000 pro rata PAYE depending on experience - 18 month FTC

A global leading cutting edge technology business seek experienced Senior Category Manager to lead strategic sourcing and category management for direct materials across key mechanical categories for EMEA.

Must have direct sourcing experience and ideally experience of working with large scale construction/engineering companies such as: Schneider, Honeywell, Siemens.

CORE NOTES/DETAILS for the Senior Category Manager:

• You will own a category (there are about 7 categories, each head owning 1 category) and will be working closely with engineering and a lot of stakeholders (globally).
• Alternate Job Titles: Commercial Negotiation Supplier, Sr Procurement or Head of Procurement.
• You will need to have a direct procurement/sourcing experience.
• It would be great to have some direct experience (ie consumer electronics, automated background; physical output).
• You must have experience with contract management, commercials and complex stakeholders.
• Needs to be from a big organisation to understand complex Matrix.
• Some connection to Data Centres/Construction - one area is this is air handling units, another cutting edge liquid cooling technology - Schneider, Honeywell, Siemens etc

Background and experience for the Senior Category Manager:

• Proven experience in strategic sourcing and category management for direct materials (ideally 7 years +).
• Strong commercial experience being able to navigate complex cost structures and confidence in negotiation with a track record of cost reduction and cost avoidance results.
• Familiarity with datacenter or industrial procurement environments.
• Proficiency in procurement systems (SAP, Ariba, iCertis).
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Degree in business/engineering/supply chain & ops/Technology.
• Worked in a complex multinational corporate.

Key Responsibilities for the Senior Category Manager:

• Category Strategy & Execution.
• Develop and implement regional sourcing strategies for direct categories aligned with business goals and global category team.
• Lead supplier selection, negotiation, and contracting processes regionally.
• Drive value engineering and cost reduction initiatives.
• Develop sustainability initiatives with suppliers to improve product/solutions.

Supplier Performance & Relationship Management for the Senior Category Manager:

• Monitor supplier KPIs including On-Time Delivery (OTD), Right-First-Time metrics, and H&S compliance.
• Conduct and govern the regional QBR/SBR process and revamp to be more efficient and action orientated.
• Supplier relationship management capabilities (contract, risk, running QBR's, quality assessments etc).

Stakeholder Engagement for the Senior Category Manager:

Collaborate with internal teams (eg DCE, DCD, SQ, H&S) to ensure alignment on technical and operational requirements.

Act as a strategic partner to project teams, anticipating risks and resolving supply issues proactively.

Work seamlessly with engineering and operations team E2E with a responsibility for the success of the category and supplier.

Process & Systems for the Senior Category Manager:

• Standardise procurement processes (eg PO, RFP, Award) to meet delivery SLAs.
• Support SAP/Ariba/iCertis/MDM/IBP implementation and maturity.
• Ability to drive process simplification and digitisation and interest in building/using AI procurement tools.

Senior Category Manager - Data Centre

Location: hybrid Paddington (once a week, ideally Tues/Wed/Thu)

£100,000 - £110,000 pro rata PAYE depending on experience - 18 month FTC