Strategic Sourcing Manager

United Utilities’ (UU) purpose is to deliver great water for a stronger, greener and healthier North West of England. We are committed to providing our services in a way that respects the environment, supports the economy, and benefits society. We value diversity, inclusion and innovation in our workplace, and we foster a culture where our people can grow, excel, and be themselves. We uphold our ethics, values and business model to fulfil our mission and, by setting clear goals and objectives, we create sustainable long-term value for our colleagues, customers and communities.

This role is accountable for supporting the leadership and delivery of business-critical and medium to high spend category strategies through a combined market management and sourcing-led approach. Operating across the full commercial lifecycle, the role supports the development and execution of integrated strategies that enable the wider category team to influence total contracted spend of up to £300m, ensuring delivery of multi-million-pound savings and benefits, aligned with the Commercial Balanced Business Scorecard.

• Support the development and execution of Integrated Market Strategies.
• Deliver the end-to-end sourcing process for complex, medium to high value projects.
• Operate the full business partnering model to maximise stakeholder engagement and commercial outcomes.
• Support strategic supplier collaboration activities where appropriate, working alongside the Supplier Collaboration team.

Accountabilities & Responsibilities:

• Support the creation and implementation of Integrated Market Strategies for high-value categories, aligned with organisational priorities and market insights.
• Undertake the full sourcing delivery lifecycle – from business requirement through to contract execution – to enable strategy execution, with an annual sourcing pipeline supporting spend of up to £150m.
• Operate as a business partner to senior stakeholders (Executive and ‘Head of’ level), supporting integration of category plans and ensuring all activity complies with legislative, risk, and regulatory requirements.
• Collaborate with Finance and key stakeholders to build and maintain a multi-million-pound qualified savings and benefits pipeline, aligned to budgets.
• Lead complex negotiations to deliver significant savings, cost avoidance, and wider value outcomes.
• Provide key input into annual Integrated Market Planning reviews, working in collaboration with Market, Sourcing, and Supplier Collaboration teams.
• Contribute to demand challenge activities, promoting the aggregation of common requirements and the pursuit of innovation.
• Introduce external market insight and best practice thinking, including Total Cost of Ownership models, benchmarking, competitor and market watch analysis.
• Support transition of awarded contracts into supplier performance management and collaboration frameworks.
• Work alongside the Supplier Collaboration team to ensure suppliers are aligned with business objectives, and contribute to supplier performance reviews and improvement initiatives where relevant.
• Lead and develop a team of sourcing and/or category professionals to maximise contribution, capability, and value delivery.

Technical Skills & Experience:

• Preferably degree educated, with a relevant post-graduate qualification (e.g., CIPS, RICS, MBA, MSc).
• Significant experience across sourcing and/or market strategy development, including delivery of complex, high-value programmes.
• Exposure to supplier management frameworks and involvement in supplier performance or collaboration activity is desirable.
• Proven track record of senior stakeholder engagement and business partnering.
• Strong understanding of procurement and category management methodologies, tools, and frameworks.
• High-level negotiation, influencing, and dispute resolution capabilities.
• Experienced in collaborative working across functional teams and matrixed environments.
• Demonstrable problem-solving capability within large and complex organisations.
• Knowledge of the Utilities sector is desirable.
• Project management experience is advantageous.
• Demonstrable people and team management experience.

We rely on every employee to ensure our customers receive the best possible service, day in, day out. In return, we ensure that you will be well rewarded for your efforts, from an excellent salary through to development opportunities that will really kick start a thriving career here at UU.