INTERIM SENIOR BUYER IT

£500 per day (via Umbrella Company) 12-18 month contract

Location: Hybrid/Remote - Sites in the South East/Home Counties & North West

When recruiting a role that involves the protection of critical UK infrastructure, there's a temptation to get all James Bond about it.

We could try and get your attention by saying things like, "Have you dreamed of protecting the nation and being a national hero or heroine"?

But, let's face it, you're a Senior IT Category Buying Specialist. And high-speed car chases around UK cities aren't usually part of the job. Unless you've just dropped your caramel latte in your lap, perhaps.

However, this is a crucial role for our client, a global player within the specialist energy, electricity and power generation sector. Our client is offering a 12-18 months contract to join their IT procurement team.

They're focused on improving efficiency in their global operations and making sure their data and systems are secure and robust.

As such, they want to strengthen their IT procurement team with the appointment of a category and procurement management professional into the role of Senior Buyer/Category Specialist - IT.

That's where you fit in. And you won't need a car that turns into a submarine.

Currently, their IT Infrastructure, Cyber Defence and Application Development are outsourced. So, your focus will be on next generation outsourcing with high levels of customer satisfaction as a key driver for our client's IT strategy.

Reporting to a Senior Category Manager, you will also work closely with the IT/Information Technology team, and your role will take on a UK and European perspective.

Core Aims:

• Working across different departments, develop plans for the next few years that incorporate the crucial aims for the category and a list of actions to achieve these goals.
• Build solid relationships with suppliers to ensure they understand your requirements and deliver on SLAs. Then, use those strong relationships to confidently challenge business partners to think and act differently, to be creative and open to new ideas and to explore new supply chain possibilities.
• Contribute to the development of the Procurement function's capability by bringing your experience of best practices from other industries and employers.

The Ideal Person will possess the following qualifications, experience, skills and competencies:

• Available imminently to commence a 12-18 months contract paying £500 per day via an Umbrella company.
• A university degree and, ideally, CIPS (or equivalent) qualification
• Experience working across global operations or multi-site environments and a keen sense of cultural awareness
• Currently working within a high-security sector such as defence, nuclear, aerospace, marine, ministry of defence, utilities etc.
• Understanding of the nuances of IT contracts.
• A proven track record in value delivery, improvement activity and best practice development in IT procurement.
• Understanding Information Technology markets, suppliers and technologies and how to leverage them for value for our client
• Building IT sub-category and category strategies to describe how value will be delivered in the short, medium and long term
• Negotiating with IT- suppliers to drive the right commercial and contractual outcomes
• Building relationships internally and externally to enable you to be successful in your role and to contribute to the development of our client as a world-class procurement organisation
• A thirst for knowledge, an inquisitive mindset and a drive for results.
• Knowledge of Procurement systems and technologies and the ability to put operational measures in place to ensure contracts deliver brilliantly.

In return, our client offers a very competitive salary and blue-chip benefits package and the opportunity to develop your career within a market leader. The role is offered on a interim 12-18 month contract and hybrid/remote basis with regular visits to sites in the North West and Home Counties for cross-functional engagement.

To apply without delay, please email your CV, quoting reference LX 1183415 for the attention of Roheela Khan, Telephone 00 44 (0) 1905 381 320 www.martinveasey.com

STRATEGIST - PROCUREMENT CATEGORY MANAGEMENT & PLANNING

£/€Very Competitive + Bonus + Blue Chip Benefits

Location: Flexible/Hybrid Role - UK, Netherlands, or Germany

"It's a slightly unusual role".

And that's a great way of summarising this position for our client. They're a well-established organisation in the specialist renewables and power generation industry that wants to become "best-in-class" in terms of its procurement process.

As part of this strategic development plan, they would like to appoint a Category Management Specialist to sit within their large pan European procurement team. The main focus of this role is to work alongside each Category Manager to help them develop longer-term procurement strategies for each category.

As such, you'll be mentoring, coaching, and developing the category management team to help them think differently and innovate new ideas. This may take the form of working one-to-one with the managers or running workshops to create an open culture of collaboration between the team.

So, they're looking for a category management expert who's used to working in a blue-chip, world-class procurement function and can bring new ideas into the company. Experience of working in the power generation industry is not essential, and they're open to considering candidates from any highly regulated industry in the public or commercial sector such as utilities, defence, aerospace, chemicals, automotive, FMCG as long as it's within a multinational matrix structure with a substantial procurement and category management function. Candidates who combine in house and leading procurement consultancy backgrounds would also be very interesting

Your personality will be a deciding factor in this role, as you'll need the drive and desire to develop a high-performing team. You'll be a natural people-person who can connect with colleagues to help them become the best versions of themselves. In addition, you'll have the vision and the presentation skills to convey it to the team and get them excited about the levels they can achieve. Career development prospects are excellent.

This role can be based at any of our client's business units in the UK (North West or Buckinghamshire), Germany (Lower Saxony), and the Netherlands (Overijssel).

Candidates should be university degree/Masters degree educated ideally with a professional procurement/purchasing qualification such as CIPS or equivalent.

It really is a unique role, but it's going to be a rewarding one for the right candidate. As you can imagine, there's plenty more detail to discuss about this role, so please indicate your interest by emailing your CV, quoting reference LX 1175876

Research & Development Manager - Asphalt Technology

"Excellent opportunity for Asphalt Technology specialist to head up sustainable innovation research and development projects for global market leader."

Midlands HO Hybrid Working

£Very Competitive + Car/Allowance + Bonus + Blue Chip Benefits

Are you a commercially focused project manager?

Do you have a technical understanding of the formulation of building products such as asphalt?

Would you like to lead a global R&D project to use sustainable materials in asphalt production?

If so, our client needs your skills.

They're a major global manufacturer of construction products focusing on reducing their carbon emissions. As such, they are investigating the use of sustainable materials, like bio-oil, to replace bitumen as the binder for their asphalt products.

So, although this role involves R&D Management, they're not looking for someone to perform the lab activities, as they have staff to do the detailed investigation work. The ideal candidate will be someone who understands asphalt technology and asphalt binders. Particularly, their chemical properties and constituents in order to see how bio-oils and other similar products could be successfully applied and give the same performance levels as bitumen.

This is an innovation role for a project manager who can oversee the whole process from ideation to innovation and then to market. As you can imagine, this covers a whole host of activities, including:

* Technical development

* Lab trials, assessment and analysis

* Pilot projects with manufacturing plants

* Certification and accreditation

* Launch to market

As such, you'll be skilled in relationship-building with internal and external bodies. This will likely include engaging with suppliers, customers, certification/regulatory bodies, academia, and production units.

Our client feels the ideal candidate must have experience and understanding of asphalt technology, bitumen and bituminous products/materials. In particular, they are keen to find a sustainable replacement for bitumen as the binder in their product.

So you'll have a degree in a technical discipline, and your background will need to involve asphalt but could be from various sources, such as:

* Building products manufacture

* Academia, e.g. PhD or research into construction materials

* Marketing

* Civil Engineering

* Chemical Engineering

Ultimately, our client sees this role as a continuous cycle of innovation and market launches, so they are looking for someone who can grow with the role and help to position the company for future success.

With a role like this, it's challenging to capture all the nuances in a single advert, so if you feel you have the skills and background required, please indicate your interest by emailing your CV, quoting reference LX 1236662 or calling us on 01905 381 320, so we can discuss it in more detail.

INTERIM SENIOR BUYER IT

£500 per day (via Umbrella Company) 12-18 month contract

Location: Hybrid/Remote - Sites in the South East/Home Counties & North West

When recruiting a role that involves the protection of critical UK infrastructure, there's a temptation to get all James Bond about it.

We could try and get your attention by saying things like, "Have you dreamed of protecting the nation and being a national hero or heroine"?

But, let's face it, you're a Senior IT Category Buying Specialist. And high-speed car chases around UK cities aren't usually part of the job. Unless you've just dropped your caramel latte in your lap, perhaps.

However, this is a crucial role for our client, a global player within the specialist energy, electricity and power generation sector. Our client is offering a 12-18 months contract to join their IT procurement team.

They're focused on improving efficiency in their global operations and making sure their data and systems are secure and robust.

As such, they want to strengthen their IT procurement team with the appointment of a category and procurement management professional into the role of Senior Buyer/Category Specialist - IT.

That's where you fit in. And you won't need a car that turns into a submarine.

Currently, their IT Infrastructure, Cyber Defence and Application Development are outsourced. So, your focus will be on next generation outsourcing with high levels of customer satisfaction as a key driver for our client's IT strategy.

Reporting to a Senior Category Manager, you will also work closely with the IT/Information Technology team, and your role will take on a UK and European perspective.

Core Aims:

• Working across different departments, develop plans for the next few years that incorporate the crucial aims for the category and a list of actions to achieve these goals.
• Build solid relationships with suppliers to ensure they understand your requirements and deliver on SLAs. Then, use those strong relationships to confidently challenge business partners to think and act differently, to be creative and open to new ideas and to explore new supply chain possibilities.
• Contribute to the development of the Procurement function's capability by bringing your experience of best practices from other industries and employers.

The Ideal Person will possess the following qualifications, experience, skills and competencies:

• Available imminently to commence a 12-18 months contract paying £500 per day via an Umbrella company.
• A university degree and, ideally, CIPS (or equivalent) qualification
• Experience working across global operations or multi-site environments and a keen sense of cultural awareness
• Currently working within a high-security sector such as defence, nuclear, aerospace, marine, ministry of defence, utilities etc.
• Understanding of the nuances of IT contracts.
• A proven track record in value delivery, improvement activity and best practice development in IT procurement.
• Understanding Information Technology markets, suppliers and technologies and how to leverage them for value for our client
• Building IT sub-category and category strategies to describe how value will be delivered in the short, medium and long term
• Negotiating with IT- suppliers to drive the right commercial and contractual outcomes
• Building relationships internally and externally to enable you to be successful in your role and to contribute to the development of our client as a world-class procurement organisation
• A thirst for knowledge, an inquisitive mindset and a drive for results.
• Knowledge of Procurement systems and technologies and the ability to put operational measures in place to ensure contracts deliver brilliantly.

In return, our client offers a very competitive salary and blue-chip benefits package and the opportunity to develop your career within a market leader. The role is offered on a interim 12-18 month contract and hybrid/remote basis with regular visits to sites in the North West and Home Counties for cross-functional engagement.

To apply without delay, please email your CV, quoting reference LX 1183415 for the attention of Roheela Khan, Telephone 00 44 (0) 1905 381 320 www.martinveasey.com

Sales Managers - Very Financially Rewarding Career Opportunity

"A rare chance for established Sales Executives to join a successful asset finance business and develop their sales management skills to the next level".

Base Salary £50-60000 (DOE) OTE £150,000 Fantastic Benefits

East Midlands

Commutable from: Northampton, Kettering, Wellingborough, Rushden, Olney, Newport Pagnell, Towcester, Daventry, Buckingham, Brackley, Corby, Milton Keynes, Luton, Bedford, Higham Ferrers, Banbury

Are you a Sales professional at the top of your game?

Maybe you've left college or university, taken a job in sales and reached a high level of achievement in your industry.

Life is good. You're earning decent money.

But perhaps you're wondering what's next? Have you reached a ceiling but have the ambition and drive to go further?

Our client is looking for someone like you. They work in the commercial finance industry and want a rising star to develop into a superstar through their fast-track sales management programme.

You'll be working alongside the Managing Director, Operations Director, and Sales Director, who will all give you first-hand training of their business to help you develop into a Sales Manager in 18 months. As part of that training, our client will support and pay for you to obtain your LIBF Diploma in Asset Finance (DipAF), if you wish.

Currently, you may be working in a role such as prestige car sales, high-end property sales, or capital equipment, or other B2B or B2C sales and you'll have learned the art of consultative selling. You'll have developed your communication skills to work with companies of all shapes and sizes. And that variety is one of the key features of this role. For example, you could go from talking to a small wine-bar owner about finance for new fridges to the FD of a £10m business wanting finance to purchase a fleet of commercial vehicles.

Your day-to-day role will combine generating new business from warm leads, which you'll aim to convert into long-term accounts for you to manage. Getting to know your clients' businesses will be critical to your success as you'll be able to identify further opportunities to provide financial solutions to help them grow and thrive.

Our client's industry works at a fast pace, and you will have multiple deals in progress at any one time (perhaps 30-40), which can go from initial contact to funds in the bank in a matter of days. As such, you'll be able to flex your time-management muscles and enjoy your sales commission being paid shortly after the client is onboard.

As you rise through the business, you'll then mentor, train and lead other sales executives to bring through the next generation of brokers in the business. And to top it all you will also benefit from an override commission on earnings generated by the team, as well as many other market-leading benefits.

STRATEGIST - PROCUREMENT CATEGORY MANAGEMENT & PLANNING

£/€Very Competitive Bonus Blue Chip Benefits

Location: Flexible/Hybrid Role - UK, Netherlands, or Germany

"It's a slightly unusual role".

And that's a great way of summarising this position for our client. They're a well-established organisation in the specialist renewables and power generation industry that wants to become "best-in-class" in terms of its procurement process.

As part of this strategic development plan, they would like to appoint a Category Manager Specialist to sit within their large pan European procurement team. The main focus of this role is to work alongside each Category Manager to help them develop longer-term procurement strategies for each category.

As such, you'll be mentoring, coaching, and developing the category management team to help them think differently and innovate new ideas. This may take the form of working one-to-one with the managers or running workshops to create an open culture of collaboration between the team.

So, they're looking for a category management expert who's used to working in a blue-chip, world-class procurement function and can bring new ideas into the company. Experience of working in the power generation industry is not essential, and they're open to considering candidates from any highly regulated industry in the public or commercial sector such as utilities, defence, aerospace, chemicals, automotive, FMCG as long as it's within a multinational matrix structure with a substantial procurement and category management function. Candidates who combine in house and leading procurement consultancy backgrounds would also be very interesting

Your personality will be a deciding factor in this role, as you'll need the drive and desire to develop a high-performing team. You'll be a natural people-person who can connect with colleagues to help them become the best versions of themselves. In addition, you'll have the vision and the presentation skills to convey it to the team and get them excited about the levels they can achieve. Career development prospects are excellent.

This role can be based at any of our client's business units in the UK (North West or Buckinghamshire), Germany (Lower Saxony), and the Netherlands (Overijssel).

Candidates should be university degree/Masters degree educated ideally with a professional procurement/purchasing qualification such as CIPS or equivalent.

It really is a unique role, but it's going to be a rewarding one for the right candidate. As you can imagine, there's plenty more detail to discuss about this role, so please indicate your interest by emailing your CV, quoting reference LX 1175876

SALES MANAGERS - B2B

"Take a leap & switch your sales career to a more financially lucrative and rewarding B2B sales environment"

Base Salary £50-60000 OTE £125-150,000 (Year 1-2 Fantastic Benefits

East Midlands (Office Based) Commutable from Bedfordshire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire. Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire

Are you a graduate calibre, high performing sales professional looking for a new challenge in a more financial rewarding and lucrative career? Then the world of commercial asset finance sales could be the perfect opportunity to excel and be handsomely rewarded for your efforts. Our client can offer a rising star like you a development programme that will make you a superstar

They provide tailored funding solutions for businesses wanting to growth and innovate. This could include capital investment in new fixed assets, such as new machinery, vehicle/fleet leasing and materials handling or other business equipment or in soft assets such as IT/ERP systems.

So, it's a B2B consultative selling process rather than a purely transactional one. Our client is looking for sales professionals with proven skills in understanding business needs and creating an appropriate solution as this is a core part of this role.

You will be generating new business from warm leads, which you will aim to convert into long term accounts.

Our client is keen to speak to ambitious, results focused, graduate calibre sales professionals currently working within the following sectors, although they are flexible to consider other B2B sales experience:

* Wholesaling and Distribution - Branch Managers who sell B2B

* Banking - Business Relationship Manager

* Vehicle Fleet Leasing & Rental

* Commercial and Private Vehicle Dealership - Senior Sales Managers

* Business Enterprise Software Sales

* Industrial Plant/Materials Handling Sales

* Catering/Manufacturing Equipment Sales

* Parcels/Freight Solutions to SMEs & Corporates

* Property Rental & Sales

* Commercial Asset Finance

Our client will provide first hand training to help you to develop your commercial asset finance sales skill. Our client will also support and pay for your LIBF Diploma in Asset Finance (DipAF) if you wish.

Our client's industry works at a fast pace, and you will have multiple deals in progress at any one time (perhaps 30-40), which can go from initial contact to funds in the bank in a matter of days. As such, you'll be able to flex your time-management muscles and enjoy your generous sales commission being paid as soon as the deal is complete-there's no waiting for the month's figures to be announced.

As for your skills, our client envisages you will be degree educated and have a sound grasp of company financials such as balance sheets and P & L statements. You'll be working with company MDs and FDs, so you must be able to speak their financial language. Ideally, you will have managed others in your previous roles so you can provide mentoring and guidance to your team.

As you rise through the business, having benefited from our client's fast track development programme, you will take a leadership role as both a "player coach" and individual contributor, managing a team. As a result, you will also benefit from override commission on earnings generated by your team as well as other market leading benefits.

TECHNICAL MANAGER - CONCRETE TECHNOLOGY
"High profile role for commercially astute, technical leader and concrete technology specialist to join blue chip multinational at a prestigious customer site."

£Very Competitive Bonus Blue Chip Benefits

Cumbria/Lake District

As an expert in concrete, you'll have already laid the foundations of your career and built a library of knowledge and experience. But would you like to extend your skills even further?

Putting aside the terrible puns, our client is offering the rare opportunity for someone with your ability to join a unique, long-term project at their site in Cumbria.

If we say they're providing concrete, made to exacting standards, to their client in the nuclear industry, you don't need to be a genius to fill in the blanks of the companies involved.

It's a long-term supply contract which should provide you with enough job security to consider relocating to the region if you live outside a commutable zone. Plus, it has a high level of prestige with the instantly recognisable organisations you'll be working for who could catapult your career to new highs.

So, as the Technical Manager, you'll lead a small team of six technicians at the concrete manufacturing plant. The overview of the role is to provide expert knowledge and technical support to the sales and operational teams regarding customer specifications and product manufacture/delivery.

Given the construction projects involve, you can imagine that ensuring the quality and specification of the concrete is critical. So this is an active role where you'll be a visible presence in the manufacturing plant and on-site at the end user's facility. You won't be stationed in a lab, crunching data all day, as you'll provide technical support and advice to main contractors and engineers.

As Technical Manager, you'll already have a solid working knowledge of aggregates and Ready Mix (RMX) concrete products and their applications. Plus, you'll be familiar with EN206 standards and specifications.

Qualifications-wise, you'll likely have a University Certificate or Diploma in Concrete Studies, City and Guilds Concrete Technology and Construction (similar). But, most importantly, you'll thoroughly understand the concrete production process and be confident in communicating with engineers and technicians at all levels.

In return, our client offers the kind of benefits package you'd expect from a company of their size and will help with your relocation if you live outside of the area.

As you can imagine, there are many other details to discuss. So please indicate your interest by emailing your CV, quoting reference LX 1209217

REGIONAL PRODUCTION OPERATIONS MANAGER -SOUTH EAST

"Multi-Site Transformational Change & Leadership Role for Engineering Professional"

C£90000 Car/Allowance 30% Bonus Blue Chip Benefits

Location: South East, Surrey, Sussex, Southern Home Counties

As an Operations Manager with a strong lean/CI skillset, would you relish the opportunity to transform a multi-site manufacturing business?

And we don't mean by tweaking a few things or doing a bit of 5S here and there. We're talking about the widescale implementation of modern manufacturing techniques across five businesses.

It's a job you can really get your teeth into and make huge improvements to this historic organisation, who have an excellent reputation in the construction industry and a highly rated product.

They've seen massive success during their life but know they can improve by replacing ingrained practices and behaviours with the latest techniques in lean manufacturing.

But it won't be easy as they've never embarked on a transformation project of this scale before. So, you'll need to draw on your previous successes to overcome resistance to change by teaching, mentoring, and coaching the individual factory managers and teams on each site.

As you can imagine, you must have a proven track record in delivering business transformation in a manufacturing environment. Ideally, construction materials, but it's not essential. Of more importance are your key strengths of tenacity, patience, and communication skills, as you'll be working with people at all levels of the organisation.

Our client is keen to see you demonstrate your knowledge of formal methodologies such as Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, Six Sigma, Root Cause Analysis, 5S, Standard Work and Visual Management.

In addition to the transformation project, you should also have one eye on succession planning. The company are keen to invest in and train potential high-flyers within the workforce who can be the managers and leaders of tomorrow.

Ultimately, this role could progress to director level, giving you a personal goal to achieve as well. So please indicate your interest by emailing your CV, quoting reference LX 12088631

BUYER/CATEGORY BUYER- ENERGY (PART TIME 20 hours)

£38-42000 Pro Rata (20 hours per week) Excellent Benefits

Location: Hybrid Working - Client Site in North West

Commutable from Ellesmere Port, Mold, Wrexham, Birkenhead, Wallasey, Chester, Warrington, Runcorn, Widnes, Liverpool, Crewe, Knutsford, Macclesfield, South Manchester, Wigan, Newton le Willows, Leigh, Heywood, Skelmersdale.

This is a great part time opportunity for a degree educated and procurement professional within a global multinational energy environment. Our client is a multi-site manufacturing/processing and complex matrix organisation.

Our client has an opportunity for a Buyer to join its pan European procurement management team as Energy Buyer on a part time 20 hours per week basis. Previous experience of the Energy category is not necessary.

This role will offer good career development to a self-starter with lots of initiative, drive and ambition, keen to learn and to build the skills and technical procurement capabilities to progress to Senior Buyer. Our client will support your CIPS studies, if you are part qualified, as well as offering you lots of other training and development to enhance your career.
An interest in and previous experience of indirect categories such as utilities or energy or facilities or other would be a good foundation for this role. Some previous experience of drafting and executing model form contracts, such as the management of term and framework contractors will be very useful. Our client will provide extensive training.

The Role:
* Manage the delivery of energy buying activity for planned spend opportunities within defined contractual spend levels.
* Ensure energy services/solutions are purchased in the most cost- and time-efficient manner, delivering 'agile' solutions to implement and ensure purchasing best practices
* Manage transactional negotiating and buying activities and support wider strategic procurement management including raising purchase orders in line with SAP P2P.
* Prepare RFQ's, evaluate, re-tender, renegotiate or extends contracts and suppliers in order to facilitate tactical and strategic sourcing with relevant stakeholders.
* Use of eProcurement tools to assist in the development of detailed business needs analysis for use by Procurement Managers.
* Assist with the commercial management of procurement contracts.
* Assist in the development and execution of detailed tender documentation.
* Assist with the development of supply chain strategies and value delivery plans for energy categories of.
* Identification of savings targets, baseline agreements and methodologies for reporting purposes.
* Reporting on forecasts, actuals, annualised and cumulative savings figures.
Assisting with the delivery of actual value savings in line with agreed forecasts and contractual parameters.
* Assist with risk analysis of key areas of the supply chain and asset base to establish demand pipeline and drive value delivery targets.

The Ideal Candidate:
* University degree educated
* Interested in working 20 hours per week part time.
* Part or Fully Qualified MCIPS or willing to study.
* Experience gained within a multinational, corporate and regulated environment such as utilities, chemical, nuclear, energy, power generation, aerospace, construction, pharmaceutical, engineering, capital intensive industry, public sector
* At least 18 months procurement experience in a Buyer role within Direct or Indirect Spend area, Energy, Utilities, Manufacturing, CAPEX, Capital Projects, Engineering, Facilities Management, General Building Projects, Construction arena.
* Some experience of assisting with the preparation and execution of model form contracts and the management of term and framework contractors highly advantageous but training will be provided.
* An understanding of category management principles and a working knowledge of SAP processes and functionality across the procurement process and integration with other functions.
* Some experience of supplier management including implementation of supplier management programmes with key suppliers would be highly advantageous.
* Confidence and capability to influence at all levels of the organisation through strong relationship management.
* Excellent analytical, research, communication, and presentation skills.
* Excellent team working ability, particularly with suppliers and procurement and category managers.
* Ability to develop and manage strong relationships both internally and externally (e.g. suppliers).
* Highly motivated with a drive for results - performance focused.

Our client offers excellent development and the opportunity to make a real difference in a complex and challenging business that really values its people.

To apply without delay, please email your CV quoting reference LX 1208574 01905 381 320 www.martinveasey.com

STRATEGIST - PROCUREMENT CATEGORY MANAGEMENT & PLANNING

£/€Very Competitive Bonus Blue Chip Benefits

Location: Flexible/Hybrid Role - UK, Netherlands, or Germany

"It's a slightly unusual role".

And that's a great way of summarising this position for our client. They're a well-established organisation in the specialist renewables and power generation industry that wants to become "best-in-class" in terms of its procurement process.

As part of this strategic development plan, they would like to appoint a Category Management Specialist to sit within their large pan European procurement team. The main focus of this role is to work alongside each Category Manager to help them develop longer-term procurement strategies for each category.

As such, you'll be mentoring, coaching, and developing the category management team to help them think differently and innovate new ideas. This may take the form of working one-to-one with the managers or running workshops to create an open culture of collaboration between the team.

So, they're looking for a category management expert who's used to working in a blue-chip, world-class procurement function and can bring new ideas into the company. Experience of working in the power generation industry is not essential, and they're open to considering candidates from any highly regulated industry in the public or commercial sector such as utilities, defence, aerospace, chemicals, automotive, FMCG as long as it's within a multinational matrix structure with a substantial procurement and category management function. Candidates who combine in house and leading procurement consultancy backgrounds would also be very interesting

Your personality will be a deciding factor in this role, as you'll need the drive and desire to develop a high-performing team. You'll be a natural people-person who can connect with colleagues to help them become the best versions of themselves. In addition, you'll have the vision and the presentation skills to convey it to the team and get them excited about the levels they can achieve. Career development prospects are excellent.

This role can be based at any of our client's business units in the UK (North West or Buckinghamshire), Germany (Lower Saxony), and the Netherlands (Overijssel).

Candidates should be university degree/Masters degree educated ideally with a professional procurement/purchasing qualification such as CIPS or equivalent.

It really is a unique role, but it's going to be a rewarding one for the right candidate. As you can imagine, there's plenty more detail to discuss about this role, so please indicate your interest by emailing your CV, quoting reference LX 1175876

SENIOR BUYER/ CATEGORY SPECIALIST - IT/INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

"Exciting role for ambitious IT/Information Technology procurement specialist with experience of purchasing outsourced IT/Information Technology Infrastructure, Cyber Defence and Application Development."

£Very Competitive (Dependent Upon Experience) Blue Chip Benefits Package

Location: Hybrid/Remote - Sites in North West & South East/Home Counties

Commutable from Uxbridge, Stoke Poges, Maidenhead, West Drayton, Slough, Heston, Marlow, High Wycombe, Beaconsfield, Amersham, Princes Risborough, Chesham, Aylesbury, Rickmansworth, Windsor, Hayes, Hillingdon

Our client is a global player within the specialist energy, electricity and power generation sector.

Our client seeks to strengthen its IT/Technology procurement team with the appointment of an ambitious, university degree educated category and procurement management professional into the role of Senior Buyer/Category Specialist - IT/Information Technology.

Our client is focused on delivering efficiency to its global operations and rising to the challenge of ensuring that its data and systems are secure and robust, delivering significant change to the way IT/Information Technology works within the organisation. Currently IT Infrastructure, Cyber Defence and Application Development are outsourced, and our client is reviewing Operational Information Technology for the its plants. The focus will be on next generation outsourcing with high levels of customer satisfaction as a key driver for our client's IT strategy. Reporting to a Senior Category Manager, the Senior Buyer/Category Specialist- IT/Information Technology will work in close collaboration IT Director will be of paramount importance to a successful transformation.

You will be working closely with the IT/Information Technology team and therefore your role will take on a UK and European perspective.

The Role:
* Working within cross functional teams develop medium to long term sub-category plans setting out the value drivers for the category and the roadmap of actions to deliver them.
* Shape and manage supplier relationships to ensure value is delivered including value definition, value creation including opportunity development and supply chain execution process; value capture including governance and compliance management and value protection to mitigate risk.
* Management and development of robust business partner relationships will be critical to success in the role. You will be expected to leverage experience of procurement strategy and delivery in your field of expertise to build these relationships. The strength of your relationship will enable you to confidently challenge business partners to think and act differently, to be creative and open to new ideas and to explore new supply chain possibilities.
* You will be happy to accept responsibility for delivering the value set out in your sub-category strategy.
* Your experience of influencing and shaping contracts, supplier relationships and contract management will ensure you deliver the expected business benefits from the spend you are managing.
* You will contribute to the development of the Procurement function's capability bringing experience of best practice from other industries and employers.

The Ideal Person will possess the following qualifications, experience, skills and competencies:
 A university degree and ideally CIPS (or equivalent) qualification
 Experience of working across global operations or multi-site environments and a keen sense of cultural awareness
 Currently working within a high security sector such as defence, nuclear, aerospace, marine, ministry of defence, utilities etc
 Understanding of the nuances of IT/Information Technology contracts and knowledge and skill in the development of IT/Information Technology specific contracts which secure value for our client and mitigate risk as much as possible.
 A proven track record in value delivery, improvement activity and best practice development in IT/Information Technology procurement.
 Understanding Information Technology markets, suppliers and technologies and how to leverage them for value for our client
 Building IT/Information Technology sub-category and category strategies to describe how value will delivered in the short, medium and long term
 Negotiating with IT/Information Technology suppliers to drive the right commercial and contractual outcomes
 Building relationships internally and externally to enable you to be successful in your role and to contribute to the development of our client as a world-class procurement organisation
 A thirst for knowledge, an inquisitive mind-set and drive for results.
 A knowledge of Procurement systems and technologies and the ability to put operational measures in place to ensure contracts deliver brilliantly.

In return our client offers a very competitive salary and blue-chip benefits package and the opportunity to develop your career within a market leader. The roles are offered on a hybrid/remote basis with regular visits to sites in the North West and Home Counties for cross functional