Role: 10 month FTC - Automation, Engineering & Logistics Category Manager

Salary: Up to £80k + £5.5k car

Location: Midlands, some travel to London for the first two months (expenses covered)

Fantastic opportunity for the right procurement candidate with project engineering experience to join one of the leading FMCG retailers. You will work on strategy, supplier rationalisations and overall improvements for the category as part of a companywide transformation.

The Logistics area is vital to the success of the company and you will have detailed knowledge of the logistics automation and engineering (automation, spare parts, racking, maintenance regimes, engineering structures, depot fit out and building works) marketplace. The spend is c.£200m p.a. and as such this is a key part of the Procurement portfolio.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Category Management of Engineering, Automation and 3rd Party Logistics
• Build meaningful and close relationships and advise business leaders on commercial strategy and contractual solutions, including SLA's and contractual remedies
• Be a procurement business partner to operations - able to challenge, advise and support stakeholders and suppliers to deliver more for our customers
• Drive commercial change within the business to deliver value and ensuring there is always a balance between cost and service
• Particular emphasis should be a focus on automation (Knapp, Witron, SwissLog), automation maintenance, automation spare parts and engineering (Depot racking, fit-out and building works) as well as general logistics procurement
• Development of cross logistics procurement strategy within the logistics procurement team
• Manages Procurement relationship with senior stakeholders in the organisation
• Ensure business risk and social responsibility is considered and highlighted in all procurement decisions

Preferred experience:

• Ideally, a project engineering background combined with strategic procurement experience
• Specific expertise/experience in building relationships and driving value in logistics automation and engineering projects and initiatives/
• Expert category knowledge across international logistics, ideally with a particular focus on retail or FMCG
• Strong people engagement and influencing skills at all levels in an organisation - a candidate must be able to influence from 'shop floor' to board level
• Proven record across complex large scale negotiations covering commercial, service levels, engineering people structures and maintenance regimes
• Expertise in commercial models and legal contracts including SLA's
• Track record of implementing and delivering SRM process across a business

If you are interested, please let me know ASAP and ideally send your current CV along with a brief outline of your relevant experience to geoff.hunt@1st-executive.com