Category Specialist Innovation

81541 - Category Specialist Innovation

This Category Specialist Innovation will report to the Procurement Category Lead and will work within Capital Programme & Procurement based in our London or Crawley office. You will be a permanent employee.

You will attract a salary of £46,000 and a bonus of 7.5%. This role can also offer blended working after probationary period (6 months) - 3 days in the office and 2 remote

Close Date: 28/10/2025

We also provide the following additional benefits

• 25 Days Annual Leave plus bank holidays 
• Reservist Leave – Additional 18 days full pay and 22 unpaid
• Personal Pension Plan – Personal contribution rates of 4% or 5% (UK Power Networks will make a corresponding contribution of 8% or 10%)
• Tenancy Loan Deposit Scheme, Season Ticket Loan
• Tax efficient benefits: Cycle to Work, Home & Tech, and Green Car Leasing Schemes
• Occupational Health support
• Switched On – scheme providing discount on hundreds of retailers' products
• Discounted gym membership
• Employee Assistance Programme

Job Purpose:

UK Power Networks is looking for a procurement professional, supporting the Indirect Procurement Category Lead (Corporate Services). You will be a professional member of CIPS Platinum accredited procurement team with an important role to play in delivering a world class procurement service within a full category management environment using acknowledged practices and mechanism.

You will deliver a high quality and value adding service built upon relationships with team members, suppliers and contractors alike.

You will use professional experience alongside industry best practice to push positive outcomes, supporting the business to achieve its vision to be an employer of choice, a respected and trusted corporate citizen and sustainably cost-efficient.

We ask that you have:

• Dynamic approach to procurement to challenge and guide senior partners
• Operate independently whilst uploading corporate and regulatory governance requirements and legislation
• Identify opportunities for cost reduction and performance improvement within a managed category
• Engage with other team members, both Category Specialists and Tactical Procurement Specialists

DIMENSIONS:

Innovation Annual Budget: between £10 ~ 20m

Staff: No direct staff but may have responsibility for managing Commercial Graduates as and when placed in Procurement Function.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• To aim to safely engage, encourage and work throughout our business and beyond in a manner that embraces our values and aspirations.
• Manage compliance to all business, governance and legislative policies and processes.

Category Management

• Category and Strategic Sourcing expert with a desire to lead procurement staff and partners
• Engage with Partners to establish clear needs, apply innovative skills to set near and long-term category strategies. Implement strategic and complex sourcing activities using multiple market approach tools; RFX, e-sourcing etc.
• Use varied and complex data sets to identify new opportunities to push benefits through the contracts E2E lifecycle
• Evaluate and apply the concept of total cost of ownership (TCO) and supplier and contract switching costs to support decision-making options
• Maximise the effectiveness of category management by promoting the optimisation of the UK Power Networks vendor database based on value and risk mitigation
• Manage innovation and knowledge management for the category portfolio

Commercial Negotiation

• Can apply commercial and legal concepts to successful negotiation and contract development.
• Establish structured negotiation strategies of desired outcomes, leveraging stakeholder input and support
• Develop negotiation strategies and work with team members to meet their requirements.
• Identify and implement secure saving opportunities

Supplier Relationship Management

• Identify critical suppliers and create appropriate engagement plans to mitigate Supply Chain risks
• Demonstrate a collaborative approach with supply base and develop integrated plans to push appropriate value for business and customer requirements
• Build appropriate supplier performance measurements (KPIs) into contractual frameworks.

Systems and Analytics

• Understand the reporting from different ERP systems such as SAP, Power BI etc
• Understand how to analyse large data sets and extract information for strategic decision-making
• Responsible for accurate administration for in-category activities and ensures that all related data is up to date

SKILLS, QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPEREINCE:

• Understand strategic sourcing execution, i.e. cost, price and financial analysis, internal and external market analysis, category strategy, market testing and innovation.
• Manage different and often competing priorities from partners.
• Communicate cross-functionally to support critical goals at all levels of the company.
• Work in a pressure environment as part of a focused team.
• Influence and challenge team members and co-workers, and decant measurable needs.
• An equivalent combination of education and subject matter expertise along with procurement experience may be accepted as a satisfactory substitute for the education requirements listed above
• Experienced in Project and Supplier Management.

DESIRABLE:

• Educated to degree level with focus on procurement, engineering or business studies.
• Working knowledge of industry standard contracts, i.e. NEC3.
• Either have or working towards CIPS/MCIPS, plus any other relevant professional certifications.
• Previous experience in understanding of Innovation related contracts.
• Working knowledge of SAP/Achilles and Find a Tender Services (FTS)

Health & Safety Responsibilities:

Managers and supervisors carry both legal and company responsibilities for ensuring the health and safety of their employees, those under their control and those who might be affected by the work undertaken, i.e. public, visitors and employees of other organisations. This includes briefing individuals working for them and ensuring there is the necessary understanding, competence and application of requirements to work safely and without harming the environment.

Employees will ensure they understand the health and safety risks involved in their work activities and their responsibility to apply the controls needed to manage those risks to acceptable levels. Similarly where work activities can have an adverse impact upon the environment, and where there are legal requirements, employees will understand those impacts and the controls they must ensure are applied.

If in doubt ask!

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

If you have any queries in connection to this vacancy or your application, please contact us at careers@ukpowernetworks.co.uk quoting the vacancy reference number and a member of the team will get in touch with you as soon as possible.