Job Title: Procurement Manager Strategy Lead IT - Infrastructure & TS

Business Function : Business Operations / Procurement

Location: Kingston / London UK

JOB PURPOSE

ABOUT PROCUREMENT

Part of the Global Business Operation family, Procurement is responsible for significant material and services spend globally with more than 60,000 suppliers, over half of them in Marketing & Business Services. Getting the right services and materials, sustainably sourced and ensuring responsible procurement is critical to ensuring our brands with purpose grow. Our teams work closely with the business to understand stakeholders needs, bring innovation to meet changing consumer, employee and customer needs, and drive financial value for Unilever through competitive buying. We’re at the forefront of digital procurement, bringing new tools and analytics to drive data-based decisions.

ABOUT IT Procurement

Global IT Procurement, manages an annual spend of 1.3B Euro with a supplier base of about 3,000. The team has mission of ‘be the trusted advisory team to enable sustainable competitive business solutions and value thru mastery of IT industry and supplier knowledge, total cost of ownership, bold priority, and efficiency. It operates under ‘Together we Grow Higher’ culture which includes Empower, Empathy, Constructive Challenge, Fulfillment and Have Fun.

Global Strategic Sourcing Lead IT for Infrastructure and TS is responsible for development and implementation of the sourcing strategy for IT in the areas of Infrastructure and Technical Services. This role will be business-partnering the IT VP Infrastructure & TS. This role will lead a team and be fully responsible for all global IT spend. This includes Cloud and Infrastructure foundation, Network and Mobile, Security Access Management as well as Employee Experience Tech Platform. In addition to being part of the IT procurement leadership team, this role should also be a member of the leadership team of the VP Infrastructure and TS.

In this portfolio, Unilever is more and more embarking on long term strategic relationships with global IT companies like Google, Microsoft, BT, Cisco etc. The Global Strategic Sourcing Lead IT for Infrastructure and TS needs to be able to build and drive these relationships with these companies, and with key people in these companies over many years in a non-confrontative way, while still being able to represent and defend Unilever’s interests.

He/she will increase efficiency by driving scale where it makes sense, decreasing fragmentation, pooling expertise across geographies, prioritizing higher impact spend areas, leveraging technology and data, and drive performance that unlocks growth for Unilever.

The role will foster and build a culture of collaboration and agility to enable an efficient project rollout. It will ensure close alignment in strategy with UniOps Service Line Leads, Finance partners, Legal partners, MBS Leadership team and Business Unit Procurement Directors by defining and utilizing a robust support network for the whole team and providing clarity on the ways of works and roles and responsibilities.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Partner with Tech Service Leadership team to understand the business needs, bring deep expertise and insights and develop procurement sourcing strategy and supplier relationship management strategy.

• Connect strategy & execution aligned to Unilever Compass, Global Divisions, Functions & Markets goals and priorities, aligned with Procurement Lighthouse Strategy and UniOps Strategy.

• Deliver against financial targets and other KPIs (including value delivery) as per business plan objectives, accountable for delivery of results from all markets across the globe, Divisions and functions globally.

• Develop and drive vendor rationalization in the set Portfolio at global level and market level by closely working with regional procurement leads, Enterprise Architect team, Service Lines and Sparta Program Team.

• Lead a geographically dispersed team to inspire, develop, and support our people, deliver results, and create and promote a healthy business culture.

• As a member of Global IT procurement leadership team, he/she will be accountable to support to build the talent pipeline, nurture the culture towards Team Vision and Mission.

• Lead rigorous execution of the priorities and transformation initiatives across the globe.

• Ensure Portfolio fundamentals (i.e. data consistency, data insights, recurring stakeholder communications, contracts, etc.) are all put in place

  ALL ABOUT YOU

Qualification/experience

• Significant years of procurement experience, including proven and deep experience preferably in IT procurement, alternatively in related field or indirect procurement portfolios

• Strategic sourcing, portfolio strategy expertise, with experience in managing complex portfolio/category, at global or multi-regional level

• Expert in negotiation and contracting

• Understanding of supply market, value chain, and FMCG knowledge. Knowledge of Cloud Computing, Network, Infrastructure, portfolios and supply markets would be a strong plus.

• Experience in strategic supplier relationship management

• Experience on large-scale project management

• Demonstrated and proven leadership capabilities to lead a virtual global team

• Experience in shaping and leading transformational business process reengineering, with experience driving Change Management initiatives.

• Knowledge of and passion for sustainability, including social sustainability

  General Skills & Competencies

• A thought leader

• A collaborative team player

• Being able to work with strategic suppliers in an open and truly partnership approach, while still strongly representing Unilever’s interests

• Ability to work under pressure and in a complex global environment balancing a broad spectrum of stakeholder requirements

• Comfortable working in conditions of ambiguity, and leading through constant change

• Able to create and drive adoption and execution of a shared vision and strategy for change.

• Ability to interact with senior stakeholders effectively and efficiently to understand their needs and deliver effective balanced solutions

• Delivers change whilst managing the interface between “day to day” and improvement projects.

• Passion for continuous improvement

• Fluent in English, strong verbal and written communication skills, including creation and delivery of effective presentations

• High financial and business acumen

• Strong in selling ideas and concepts

• Inspiring, motivational, and accountable people leader, able to lead remote and cross-cultural teams and connect people and ideas

• Strong in project and time management for complex global projects

• Stakeholder management and people skills

• Passion and practical creativity

• Tenacious and resilient in the pursuit of challenging goals

Travel:

Avg. 20% local European Zone travel and avg. 10% international travel is required.

Contacts:

Internal:

Procurement:

• Chief Procurement Officer and Unilever Procurement Leadership Team

• Marketing Business Services VP and MBS Leadership Team

• Sourcing teams

• Supplier Operations in UniOps

• Procurement Strategy and Insights

• Procurement Partners and Purpose team

  Business partners:

• UniOps

• HR

• Finance

• Legal

External:

• External Partners

• Advisors and benchmarking organizations

Reporting Channel:

Reporting into Global Head of IT Procurement

Leads teams geographically dispersed mostly in centralized hubs UK and India

NOTES

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Dove, Tresemme, Lynx, Lifebuoy, Shea Moisture, Persil, Domestos, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum, Marmite, The Vegetarian Butcher, Graze and Pot Noodle.

Faced with the challenge of climate change and the need for human development, we want to move towards a world where everyone can live well and within the natural limits of the planet. That’s why our purpose is ‘to make sustainable living commonplace’.

Location   

In September 2020, Unilever announced the intention to build a new sustainable campus site in Kingston, London to house the employees who currently work in 100 Victoria Embankment in Blackfriars, Lever House in Kingston and Graze in Richmond. We are creating our own Unilever sustainable, agile work environment, purposefully bringing us together in our own Unilever ecosystem. The campus is due to be completed in early 2025 and will consist of two interconnected buildings, as well as landscaped surrounding areas.  

What We Offer

Not only do we offer a competitive salary and pension scheme, we also offer an annual bonus, subsidised gym membership, a discounted staff shop and shares. You’ll have the opportunity to work directly with our renowned and exciting brands in a flexible and hybrid working environment.

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We are a key advocate of wellbeing and offer a variety of support for our people including hubs, programmes and development opportunities. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities, and growing together for better business performance. We want to push boundaries, and have the flexibility needed to keep adapting in an ever-changing, more dynamic world. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity.

As part of your hiring journey, we are happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments, to improve your recruitment experience.

To find out more, including more information about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here (https://www.unilever.co.uk/planet-and-society/equity-diversity-inclusion-at-unilever-uki/) .

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Job Category: Supply Chain

Job Category: Supply Chain

Job Category: Chaîne d'approvisionnement

Job Type: Procurement Mgr-Portfolio

Industry: UnileverExperiencedProfessionals