Accenture Hiring for VP of Procurement (Non-Tech Procurement) at Knutsford Full Time

Procurement operates the global sourcing, purchasing, supplier and spend management within COO and is responsible for working in partnership with Business Units and suppliers to deliver innovative solutions for balancing costs against service levels and risks, to achieve its ambition of becoming the bank of choice. This includes responsibility for leveraging group wide spend to best effect, delivering effective global spend management across central teams, setting the framework for Procurement and Third Party risk management, ownership for the procurement systems and processes which support and control buying activity and delivering firm-wide Accounts Payable & expense payments.

Flexible working gives everyone the opportunity to integrate professional and personal lives, if you have a need for flexibility then please discuss this with the hiring manager.

We are recruiting for s across the HR and Professional services categories, and welcomes applicants with experience across some or all of the subcategories listed in the Key Accountabilities section.

Overall purpose of The holder will be a senior category and sourcing manager within a team of category and sourcing managers with responsibility to shape and execute deals within the Category and Sourcing tower with a prime focus on HR Services and / or Professional Services (PS).

This group are directly responsible for managing commercial deals in excess of £1bln annually and are required to work collaboratively and strategically with internal teams sitting within Procurement, Legal and SME functions, and with External Suppliers, to deliver a consistently high-quality product, service and minimise risk to the Bank.

It is very important that with respect to the Implementation aspects of the , there is a very high expectation to work closely in partnership with stakeholders and Supplier Management teams to provide an end-to-end view of the supplier lifecycle, to maximise value, whilst reducing risk to the firm.

The holder will provide HR and/or PS category knowledge and sourcing deal execution expertise to manage and deliver commercial negotiations with third parties, liaising with key business users to ensure favourable commercial terms which mitigate business risk. Ensuring end to end sourcing cycle visibility, creating line of sight on demand, cost, service and risk

Support the Procurement teams and Head of HR/PS Category and Sourcing (the POD Lead) with the day-to-day management of key stakeholders and executing deals according to policy and agreed timelines.

Key Accountabilities

The holder will be responsible for end to end delivery of Procurement deals primarily for indirect sub-categories within the HR and Professional Services category with third parties.

Professional Services covers:
Management Consultancy

Legal

Statutory and Non-Statutory Audit

Tax

Translation Services

HR Services covers:
Employee Benefits & Rewards

Employee Relations

Talent Acquisition

HR Operations (Mobility, Payroll)

Talent Development and Learning

The holder will manage end to end Sourcing projects including RFX, commercial negotiations with relevant suppliers, and partner as appropriate with the legal support teams to ensure consistent and favourable commercial terms which always mitigate business risk. The holder must possess excellent project management skillset to ensure that Sourcing projects are delivered in accordance with relevant timings agreed with business stakeholders.

The holder will be accountable for ensuring that all relevant Sourcing documentation is input to the deal management and contract systems to be in compliance with business and internal procurement policy requirements

There is a genuine global dimension to the remit as well as substantial autonomy and responsibility. The holder will be interacting at senior level both internally and externally and must possess excellent interpersonal skills.

Responsible for key Sourcing process activities across the sourcing team ensuring adherence to all control, risk and governance processes.

Develop a thorough understanding of procurement structure, policies and procedures, and ensure Management Assurance results with high degree of compliance, and all project documentation is kept current with a high degree of accuracy.

The holder will be required to build and maintain a strong operational and strategic network with other Procurement colleagues to improve end to end sourcing lifecycle processes, value and capability.

The holder will be able to work under pressure and multi-task to support a number of concurrent deals with multiple sourcing managers, stakeholders, contract managers and suppliers

Work with the POD Lead, Supplier Managers and key business users to agree strategy that will optimise supplier costs whilst enabling the business to maintain appropriate service levels and minimise risk.

Executing all projects in accordance with policy and evidenced by management assurance testing results.

Stakeholder Management and Leadership

The Sourcing Manager VP may be required to lead a cross functional team with multiple business stakeholders and/or SMEs to deliver complex deals or a portfolio of deals.

The holder will be working closely and collaboratively with the Category Management Leads (Director level) and their direct reports as well as stakeholders up to MD, senior executive level who are key users/owners of the spend category. This will be in an operational and strategic capacity with an emphasis on driving further operational value and excellence for Procurement.

Sourcing works closely with the internal legal teams to ensure commercial and legal risk is minimised on the deals they are negotiating and remediating as well as the internal clients’/business areas.

They will of course need to work with and negotiate with the external suppliers.

Decision-making and Problem Solving

Deliver, manage and lead team members to deliver end to end Sourcing activity from requirements scoping, sourcing strategy development, eRFX, Negotiations, deal implementation, and, savings sign-off and reporting

Support category and BU teams in opportunity assessment and identification

Risk and Control Objective

Ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise Wide Risk Management Framework and internal Policies and Policy Standards.

Person Specification

The successful candidate should have a detailed knowledge of cost drivers, appropriate commercial models and approaches/techniques necessary to achieve best in class deals for the HR/Professional Services spend category. They should have a proven ability to conduct engagement/communication with suppliers in the Professional Services spend categories. Strong knowledge and experience of HR/Professional Services supply market in relevant sub-category spend areas is key to this .

The successful candidate should have good contract negotiation skills, the relevant Financial Services experience, strong networking and stakeholder management skills.

They should be recognised internally as technical expert and SME in the area of Professional Services and have a good understanding and experience with the full suite of Sourcing tools and techniques to leverage commercial value and service excellence.

The successful candidate should a proven track record of overall coordination of virtual teams and cross functional groups to execute required deals and other Sourcing activity as required.

The successful candidate must maintain a sound awareness of risk, process and controls in the Procurement process and within the HR/Professional Services spend area.

They must understand the commercial value drivers over a medium term timeframe with a good knowledge of competitors and current industry practices relevant to HR/Professional Services sub-categories

The successful candidate must be a decision maker and setting strategic direction with their own category area where driving continuous improvement and innovation will be core objectives. They need to be confident and effective in communicating both internally and externally and continually building on/making new relationships. A further key aspect is proven experience of initiating/influencing and implementing change in the spend category to drive commercial value, innovation and service excellence.

They absolutely need to be passionate about developing talent within the team and being a provider of regular feedback and coaching to their colleagues and team members. They need to consistently facilitate constructive functional and personal development of others.

Essential Skills/Basic Qualifications:
At least 5 years’ strategic sourcing experience in either HR or Professional Services category with at least an additional knowledge in the other, or knowledge outside of these two categories.

Academic degree or equivalent course or experience

Understand various commercial value drivers with a good knowledge of best procurement industry practices.

Negotiating supplier contract terms and conditions.

Strong networking and senior stakeholder management skills.

Excellent communication skills both written and verbal, able to present to senior management.

Project management expertise/experience of managing and delivering complex Sourcing deals spanning multiple business areas/with multiple stakeholders/suppliers.

Desirable skills/Preferred Qualifications:
Additional sourcing experience within another category such as: Marketing, Property/Real Estate or Technology.

CIPS or CPM/CPSM

Experience of managing procurement operations and procurement systems is highly desirable. This may include content management, analytics/data management and maintaining/updating systems such as Fieldglass or Coupa.