Strategic Category Procurement ManagerThorpe Park, Leeds – Hybrid working between home and office (3 office/2 home)FTC 2 years to Permanent ContractStarting from £55,942 (dependent upon experience)Up to 10% bonus We have an exciting opportunity to join us here at Northern Gas Networks (NGN) as a Strategic Category Procurement Manager. Your role would be to implement category or commodity strategies to optimise business efficiency, executing elements of the overall category strategy to ensure service delivery improvements whilst performing category management including all aspects of strategic sourcing, supplier relationship management and risk management. Working with Category Business Managers and wider Stakeholders in understanding the category spend and identifying opportunities to increase quality and improve value for money. Perform procurement reporting and analysis of management information to identify potential improvement opportunities, identifying innovative procurement solutions that provide savings and process efficiencies for the business. Throughout the Procurement phase and beyond, address vendor issues to ensure the highest level of service delivery and maintain contractual and business relationships throughout. Facilitate implementation of procurement change initiatives within the category to improve business performance. Key Accountabilities and Responsibilities • Develop and execute an ongoing procurement strategy for significant and defined areas of spend within assigned category (circa £60-80m spend), identifying areas of opportunity to drive out cost, improve efficiencies to ensure value• Lead and manage a range of complex and high-value procurement activities and negotiations from conception to contract, including; establishing procurement structure, identifying and engaging relevant stakeholders, identifying a wide-range of deliverables and scoping the business needs whilst ensuring compliance• Provide expert commercial, procurement and strategic advice on a wide-range of matters, especially as they relate to the defined areas of spend which the role is responsible for managing and influencing and take accountability for the implementation of procurement deliverables • Identify, source and assign resources and lead and develop a high-performing procurement and commercially-astute team, maintaining a high performance culture that delivers quality service outcomes and continuous improvement• Develop complex implementation and contract management plans to ensure there is a robust post-procurement framework including roles and responsibilities for managing contracts with external providers• Contribute to the strong governance and transparency of the businesses procurement framework and associated policies and procedures, ensuring that a sustainable forward plan of procurement activities is developed and executed effectively, assisting in the regular assurance and audit exercises undertaken• Initiate, develop and maintain strong partnerships with relevant business units, functional areas and key stakeholders About you • Commercial and procurement experience involving high-value and or high-risk categories within a large complex organisation as well as exceptional commercial and procurement management skills with a proven record of successfully managing all aspects of large, complex and organisational-wide procurement• Demonstrated leadership capability in creating and leading strong and high performing multi- disciplinary teams that encourage professionalism, innovation and continuous improvement• Interpersonal and communication skills including the ability to prepare professional reports, stage summaries for business approvals and provide authoritative advice, and communicate complex information to Senior members • Knowledge, understanding and experience of OJEU practices and procuring within a regulated environment with the capacity to monitor and apply best practice and innovative strategies• Ability to define, own and manage define areas of spend to develop, implement and realise sustainable financial benefits and outcomes through procurement activities• Consulting and negotiation skills, with the demonstrated ability to manage high value and high-quality initiatives and strategies that align to business objectives with excellent planning and organisational skills• Analytical, evaluation and research skills including demonstrated ability to quickly assimilate new concepts and information and deliver positive, innovative solutions• Advanced computer literacy, particularly experience with current procurement and contract management software and related application capabilities such as SAP S4 Hana, SAP Ariba and e-tendering portals What we offer • A competitive starting salary from £55,942 per annum, exact starting salary dependent upon skills and experience up to 10% bonus• 25 days holiday per year, plus 8 days bank holiday, plus 2 half days (Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve) We are Northern Gas Networks. We deliver gas to 2.7 million homes and businesses in the North East, Northern Cumbria and much of Yorkshire. That’s around 6.7million individual customers. Our Values are at the heart of what we do. In addition to your key responsibilities, you will incorporate these into the daily life of your role. We are Trailblazing, Empowered, Heartfelt, Community Focused, Intellectually Curious and most of all we are Happy Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion culture at NGN is embedded in everything that we do. We will be delighted to hear from a diverse range of applicants, so we can continue to grow our great team of people. Next Steps. Please apply by clicking apply and uploading your CV. We love to see how your experience and skills are transferable to this role so please ensure these are all included in your application. Once the advert has closed, we will be contact within a week to let you know if you have progressed to the stage. We are looking to hold interviews for this role in mid April 2025. If you require adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process, we want to hear about how we can helpby contacting the Recruitment Team at