Senior IT Procurement Manager

Location: Fully remote

Type: Perm

Position Overview:

Procurement is a key part of the transformation of the business and this role will be critical to success. Operating across 26 countries and over 100+ studios, the role will collaborate across studios to develop solutions while also supporting them in maximising their value for money through quality, risk, delivery, service, and cost improvements. The role will also work closely with the central IT teams requiring support from Procurement.

Key Responsibilities:

• Support and develop category strategies, setting a clear contracting and negotiation roadmap across the service line, managed through to delivery with key stakeholders.
• Instigate and maintain strong relationships with business stakeholders, developing an understanding of the business direction, requirements, and priorities.
• Collaborate effectively with colleagues in Procurement, IT, InfoSec, Finance, and Legal to identify opportunities and mitigate risk.
• Support the development and embedding of best practice procurement across Keywords Studios.
• Provide guidance to internal stakeholders on the Procurement process and influence behaviours in accordance with best procurement practice.
• Provide support throughout contracting and post-contracting to the internal stakeholders.
• Development of KPIs and SLAs to track and manage supplier performance once in contract.
• Ensure that supplier risk is understood and managed within the contract.
• Support the studios with their local strategies for the service line.
• Monitor adoption and change relating to any sourcing projects being implemented in studios and provide guidance and support to maximise the realised benefits, while allowing studios to retain their entrepreneurial spirit.
• Communicate key market issues, risks and changes with your business stakeholders.
• Ensure that you have comprehensive knowledge of the supply markets, supplier capabilities, technology, processes, and geography of the service line.
• Lead supplier selection process across commodities within the service line and create longer-term strategies for the business.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with IT vendors, negotiate contracts, and manage vendor performance to achieve optimal terms and conditions.
• Understand the key customer drivers that define priorities and opportunities.
• Analysis of supplier-specific data and metrics to define sourcing strategies across IT and service lines.
• Achieve the cost savings targets in contracts through robust strategic sourcing of requirements.
• Mentoring and development of junior staff within the team
• Supervision and line management of any assigned Procurement team members

Qualifications and Core Competencies:

• Experience working in either Senior Procurement Specialist/Category Specialist/Senior Buyer/Category Manager role(s)
• Minimum of 3 years' experience managing technology Procurement spend.
• Understanding of TCO and ability to manage this with business owners and wider stakeholder groups.
• A clear understanding of commercial contracts and critical negotiation points; including but not limited to KPIs, SLAs, commercial models, service credits.
• Ability to manipulate, evaluate and draw conclusions from large sets of data and present information in the right format to a senior audience to support procurement recommendations.
• Able to work on their own initiative but be part of the wider procurement team, think on your feet, but not cutting corners.
• Highly numerate
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with well-developed influencing skills, personal gravitas and presence
• Additional language skills would be useful but not essential
• Tenacity, drive, and an attention to detail
• Demonstrable success in driving strategies to completion - a starter finisher!
• Extensive experience of delivering category strategies in a global organisation
• Strong leader who can drive category strategies and influence all levels of the organisation.
• Experience in a fast-paced, rapidly growing business

ECS Recruitment Group Ltd is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.