Role: Category Manager REF 105098
Contract Length: 6 months with possibility of extension
Location: Abbey Wood / London. Hybrid – Min 1 day per week (Wednesday) at Abbey Wood, and as required for business needs.
IR35: Inside
Pay Rate to Intermediary: Market Rate
Security Clearance:SC Requested
Spinwell is recruiting for a Category Manager for an excellent opportunity within the public sector.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CATEGORY MANAGER
Strategic delivery and management of the category:
• Championing Category Management across your category(ies).
• Defining the fundamental components of a category from strategy creation through implementation in terms of its scope, deliverables, time scales, resource requirements and budget.
• Producing category workstream plans, incorporating risk and quality across agreed category scope. Sets priorities for strategies and opportunities.
• Working with key stakeholders to proactively identify, influence, challenge and prioritise future business needs and wants across the full business requirements (RAQSCIS) spectrum encompassing NATO first and UK/Defence Industrial Strategy.
• Identify external marketplace scale, dynamics, suppliers, innovation, and potential solutions. Providing advice and ability to challenge where necessary.
• Initiating market intelligence reports, running industry and/or market engagement days. Works to develop new market opportunities / markets where these do not currently exist.
• Combining market engagement with research, data and economic analysis to produce a holistic market understanding and reports.
• Work with stakeholders to identify, risk assess and prioritise improvement opportunities to deliver Portfolio priorities.
• Working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to build a compelling vision and strategy based on insights, analysis, facts, and data. Ensuring strategies and proposed outcomes are practical aligned to Portfolio priorities and able to be implemented.
• Maintaining category strategies and category plans aligned to Portfolio priorities, refreshing them at appropriate frequencies.
• Provide support and oversight of the implementation of category strategy outcomes (sourcing, supplier management & business change opportunities).
Category coherence & alignment, delivering positive outcomes:
• Understand related/linked category teams and strategies to ensure coherence, alignment, interoperability and integration to support Portfolio outcomes.
• Supporting business cases, where necessary, to demonstrate coherence, integration, through life support, value for money, benefits and risks across platforms and Portfolios Building and maintaining key relationships across the department and with important external stakeholders
• Influencing MSHQ, NAD Options and Commissioning to shape future portfolio priorities adopting Category Management principles.
• Identifying and mapping key internal and external stakeholders including NATO allies for category and specific sub-categories, cultivating and managing proactive relationships including industry to implement category management directly and through the supply chain.
Enabling and developing Category Management
• Bringing the best practices and learning from the external market to the department through leveraging industry and Allies experience to develop deep market insights and knowledge.
• Encouraging and empowering others to adopt best practices, driving collaboration and innovation across the Defence enterprise to demonstrate continuous improvement.
• Developing, sharing and promoting best practices and lessons learned to create a culture of learning and good practice that supports continuous improvement to optimise category delivery. Driving change based on Lessons Learned.
Performance and day to day management of a team to deliver Category Management across the Category Group
• Identifying capacity and capability requirements across the category.
• Planning and leading effective impact assessments of the business and operational impacts of category strategies.
• Identifying change management requirements and processes to influence operational and behavioural change to realise the business benefits from category group and individual category strategies. Ensures category outputs are integrated into Business As Usual (BAU).
• Providing regular management reports and/or updates to Category Group Manager and other senior stakeholders and forums as required.
SKILLS/EXPERIENCE OF THE CATEGORY MANAGER
Essential:
• Experienced Category Manager – 5+ years who understands the fundamentals of building front end Category Strategy
• Experience within one or more strategically important category areas
o Lethality (Weapons)
o Marine (e.g. shipbuilding, Fleet support)
o Direct
o Operational and General categories
• Ability to apply category management principles within complex, high-value and mission-critical environments.
• Understands fundamentals of building Category Strategy
• Experience running large Programmes / Projects
• Strong stakeholder Management and Engagement skills.
o Politely tenacious to move things along.
o High levels of influencing skills
• Consultative nature but also able to roll sleeves up, get stuck in and get things done.
o Positive ‘can-do’ attitude
• Track record of delivering benefits (full range of non-financial and financial benefits) through category management interventions within a complex project/programme delivery environment.
• MS Office / PowerPoint competent
Desirable:
• CIPS but experience is more important.
• An understanding of the Defence Industry, supply chains and/or deep knowledge in related categories e.g. autonomous systems, weapons systems, sense decide & communicating systems, power propulsion & auxiliary systems, would be an advantage.
If you are a Category Manager, apply now or send your CV to Spinwell!
We welcome all applications regardless of background, in line with our commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion.
Applying to this or any other vacancy advertised by Spinwell Ltd constitutes an agreement for Spinwell Ltd to hold your details for 24 months for the purpose of assessing suitability for the advertised position and to make you aware of any other positions deemed suitable of which You will make you aware by means of either email, text or phone. In line with GDPR regulations you are able to request your details be removed from the company data at any time by emailing us.
Disability Confident
As a member of the disability confident scheme, the client guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group.
Armed Forces Covenant
The client is proud to support the Armed Forces Covenant and as such, we guarantee to interview all veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group.
If you qualify for the above, please notify us and quote the role you are applying for.
We will be in touch to discuss your suitability and arrange your Guaranteed Interview.
Should you require reasonable adjustments at any point during the recruitment process or if there is a more accessible way for us to communicate, please do let us know.