Strategic Supplier Manager

Job title: Strategic Supplier Manager Location: Wilmslow Contract: Permanent At Royal London we want to attract the best talent to help us achieve our vision of becoming the most trusted and recommend financial company in the UK. We are the largest mutual life, pensions and Investment Company in the UK The Procurement Team is a successful and growing team entering the second year of our three year transformation strategy. We have the ambition and drive to be the best in our market. Due to our success in 2019 we have been able to secure additional roles so that we can increase the impact of our department on the Royal London Group. In 2019 we smashed our savings target, built our relationships and reputation across the Royal London Group and attained market leading employee engagement scores. Our success however led to demand for our services outstripping our capacity and we are now in a position where we need to recruit new people into the team. With the support of new recruits we will be pushing boundaries into new areas of spend and business strategy. Those who join us will have the opportunity to join a team that is supportive, fun, high performing, focussed and has a relentless hunger to innovate. We have an excellent track record of supporting professional development through CIPS and specialist negotiation sponsorship. We are looking for ambitious people with a strong procurement or supplier management background to join our team to help build on our success and deliver an improved service for our stakeholders and members. As the Strategic Supplier Manager in the Business Services team, this is a unique opportunity to join a thriving Procurement team as we develop and deliver our vision for how supplier management operates in Royal London. As a team, we have ambition to be market leading and award winning. This role will lead a team of two Supplier Managers which are both part of this exciting recruitment campaign. Key Accountabilities • Lead and develop a high performing Supplier Management team across Business Services suppliers to drive mutual value and build customer of choice benefits in strategic relationships • Maximise the value and minimise the risk to Royal London and our customers through effective, consistent and innovative supplier management. • Support in the design, of a new strategic supplier management framework based upon business and supplier collaboration models. • Lead the implementation and embed the new supplier management vision and framework across Business Services Strategic partner relationships • Develop Supplier Account plans and strategies for Tier 1 and 2 suppliers, in collaboration with stakeholders and suppliers to include revenue targets, continuous cost and service improvement and innovation plans, issues, potential growth/change contractual and regulatory requirements, risk/reward and exit strategies. • Form part of the Steering Group for Supplier Management and be an active and engaged leader within the pan-group Supplier Management community • Build a complete picture of how Business Services use Suppliers, our supply and value chains and maintain a detailed level of insight across key suppliers’ organisations, markets and product innovation • Ensure Procurement and Supplier Management are aligned at on boarding stage • Ensure annual segmentation and attestations are complete for Tier 1 and 2 suppliers and risk is appropriately managed. • Drive significant cost, risk, performance and relationship value from best in class approaches to supplier management. • Build and develop strong senior stakeholder relationships throughout Royal London relevant to owned suppliers. Become a trusted supplier management advisor through successful stakeholder engagement whilst also educating Royal London on the value of supplier management. Skills and Experience • Ability to build and lead great people and develop strong senior stakeholder relationships throughout Royal London, becoming a trusted supplier management advisor through successful stakeholder engagement. • Demonstrable experience in strategic supplier management working on high value projects. • Very strong knowledge of commercial models and approaches/techniques necessary to achieve best in class supplier management. • Proven ability to achieve substantial cost benefit and ensuring that we are getting value on all supplier relationships. • Proven negotiation skills and comprehensive knowledge of contract law. • Significant change management experience • Strong analytical skills – a strong attention to detail and capability to see, assess and mitigate commercial risks Essential Criteria • Proven Supplier Management leadership experience • Strong communicator with the ability to translate complex information into understandable terms to multiple audiences. • Confident communicator who can present and run events to engage suppliers. • Ability to manage a variety of complex projects simultaneously. • Clear thinker, with proven commercial acumen and strategic supplier management focus Outstanding relationship management skill set at all levels, ability to build and maintain effective business relationships (internal and external)002E • Good analytical skills with a strong attention to detail and capability to spot, assess and mitigate commercial risks. • Strong planning and organisational skills to see project through to completion and support where needed. Desirable Criteria • Graduate calibre or relevant professional qualification desirable, e.g. MCIPS, MBA • Represent the team in a wholly professional and ethical manner • Good technical skills – systems, Microsoft Office suite etc What we offer • We've always been proud to reward employees by offering a number of benefits • such as Pensions and Protection, Performance and role-related benefits, Lifestyle and Wellbeing • Our culture comes from within, or to put it another way, it comes from our people. It’s what makes Royal London a great place to work. • Our People Promise is something we live up to every day. We know we can rely on you, and you can expect plenty from us in return. • Glassdoor have again ranked as among the best places to work in the UK We are an equal opportunities employer. We work hard to attract the best talent for our award-winning team. We believe that embracing difference makes us stronger. Our diverse people bring us different skills – whatever their educational background, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief. In fact, the first pillar of our People Promise is designed to make sure you 'work somewhere inclusive'. We want to live up to this promise; it’s good for our people and good for our customers too, because our workforce should reflect our communities.