Senior Procurement Manager - Policy & Compliance

Who are we?

South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England, and the Isle of Wight.

Join our team and help us continue to bring people together to get the most out of life.

About the job

To develop and deliver the Procurement Improvement Plan and associated Procurement systems and reporting for South Western Railway liaising with relevant associated Procurement departments to maximise efficiencies.

Responsibility for drafting and maintaining the departmental Business Continuity plan.

Your main responsibilities will be:

• To lead, develop and deliver the processes, policies and tools to manage the Procurement and contract negotiation of goods and services within the business, liaising with relevant associated Procurement departments to maximise efficiencies and utilising best practise where appropriate.
• Ensuring that the sourcing, contracts and R2P agreed with suppliers by the procurement team are aligned with SWR policies, procedures, governance and values, with support and guidance to team members and stakeholders where required.
• Ensuring that cost, risk and compliance is managed through robust processes and systems with approved suppliers and that trading terms and conditions are aligned with SWR legal governance, requirements and obligations.
• Overall accountability for the creation and deployment of Procurement Improvement Plan and Business Continuity plan.
• Deployment of process and system changes required to increase capability leading to meaningful and measurable improvement.
• Collaborate with the business to remove roadblocks and enable the practical delivery of change programs, maximising value.
• Support the Head of Procurement in people capability development objectives in line with business requirements.
• Developing KPIs, reporting and scorecards. Agree targets against KPIs with Business.
• Ensure the appropriate management of change and mitigation of risk is applied to the Procurement Improvement Plan.
• Contribute to Procurement communication vehicles, including but not limited to the intranet ”, internal communication publications and Board/governance reporting.
• Embedding appropriate and suitable processes ensuring that the appropriate Governance is in place, effectively briefed to increase compliance and reduce risks.
• Participate in the selection of and adoption by SWR of Procurement management software, in Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), Savings tracking, Sourcing, etc.
• Ensuring that Processes are aligned with SWR policies, procedures, governance and values.
• Support and aid in the development of a preferred supplier list that is refreshed every 3 months based on commodity, category, performance and cost.
• Any other reasonable requests or requirements to support the Procurement function as directed by the Head of Procurement, which may from time to time include Category Management and specialist tendering activity where appropriate. 

You'll need to be:

• Strong leadership experience with the ability to communicate at all levels across the organisation and motivate and engage a team. 
• Knowledge of procurement legislation and contract law.
• Proven ability to meet deadlines and targets, results driven.
• Project Management Experience
• Ability to identify and deliver innovative solutions
• Ability to develop and manage collaborative business relationships both internally and externally
• Resilience
• Flexible and adaptive to changing priorities and objectives
• Confidence, poise with ability to relate to and communicate with senior stakeholders
• Highly organised with ability to work autonomously and prioritise own workload to meet pre-defined objectives
• Proven ability to meet deadlines and targets
• Ability to work autonomously within a defined scope

Beneficial:

• Qualified or working towards membership of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (MCIPS – Level 6)
• Working knowledge of the UK transport industry (notably Rail) legislation and Supply Chain
• Procure to pay and Finance systems experience (Notably SAP and Neptune)
• E-tendering tools knowledge
• Experience of planning and budgeting including business planning, expenditure mapping and development of strategies to create efficiencies

Working pattern

You will work an average of 37 hours across 5-days per week, typically; Monday to Friday, office hours

The Reward

In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits, including:

Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employees

Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependent)

75% discount on many other train operating companies

Full training and support with development

Excellent pension scheme

We all belong at SWR. Our vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.

We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.

We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.

If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below.  We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.

https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/

https://www.healthassured.org/blog/neurodiversity/