Supplier Relationship Manager - Professional services | Edinburgh, UK

Supplier Relationship Manager – Professional services

Supplier Relationship Manager – Professional services

Supplier Relationship Manager – Professional services

Job Description

At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK\’s leading Wealth & Investments group.

Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry\’s best talent.

Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders, and society.

We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent.

Aberdeen comprises three businesses, interactive investor (ii), Investments, and Adviser, each of which focuses on meeting and adapting to our clients\’ evolving needs:

• interactive investor, the UK\’s second largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, enables individuals in the UK to plan, save, and invest in the way that works for them.
• Our Adviser business provides financial planning solutions and technology for UK financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their customers.
• Our Investments business is a specialist asset manager that focuses on areas where we have both strength and scale to capitalise on the key themes shaping the market, through either public markets or alternative asset classes.

About the Role:

To lead the strategic and operational management of Consultancy supplier relationships, ensuring alignment with business objectives, maximising value from third-party engagements, and embedding best-in-class contract and vendor management practices across the enterprise.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Supplier Relationship Management (SRM):

• Own and evolve the SRM strategy for consultancy suppliers, ensuring alignment with the organisation\’s goals and cost-saving targets.
• Contribute to the formalised SRM community to drive standardisation, capability uplift, and shared best practices.
• Act as the senior escalation point for supplier performance issues and contract disputes.

Contract and Commercial Management:

• Oversee the full contract lifecycle, working with procurement on negotiation and drafting to renewal and exit, ensuring compliance with internal policies and external regulations.
• Drive rigorous contract compliance and ROI-focused outcomes, particularly for above-the-line consultancy spend.
• Champion the use of Statement of Work (SoW) frameworks and pre-approved spend controls.

Governance and Risk Management:

• Embed Third Party Risk Management (TPRM) principles into supplier oversight, including due diligence, ongoing risk assessment, and audit readiness.
• Lead policy and controls reviews, including procurement thresholds and spend governance.
• Collaborate with Legal, Risk, and Compliance to ensure supplier arrangements meet regulatory and operational standards.

Operational Excellence and Tooling:

• Support the implementation of procurement and SRM tooling (e.g. ServiceNow modules) to automate workflows and improve data visibility.
• Address pain points in current systems including tax and finance and drive continuous improvement in supplier onboarding and performance tracking.

Stakeholder Engagement and Transformation:

• Partner with senior stakeholders across COO, IT, Legal, and Transformation to align supplier strategies with business needs.
• Contribute to the design and delivery of the Third Party Operating Model, including cross-vector initiatives and cost-efficiency programmes.

About the Candidate:

• Proven leadership in consultancy sourcing, or supplier management within a regulated or complex enterprise.
• Deep understanding of contract law, commercial negotiation, and vendor performance frameworks.
• Experience implementing SRM and TPRM frameworks, ideally with exposure to ServiceNow or similar platforms.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence at senior levels.
• Achievement of targeted cost savings (e.g. £5m cross-vector savings by year-end).
• Increase in procurement maturity score (e.g. from 2.7 to 4.0).
• Reduction in policy breaches and improved contract compliance rates.
• Successful transition from contractor to permanent SRM leadership, delivering sustainable capability.
• Implement adaptive sourcing strategies to support digital agility (Gartner).
• Focus on four pillars: vendor selection, contract management, performance evaluation, and relationship management.
• Use maturity assessments to benchmark and evolve sourcing capabilities.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits

There\’s more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days\’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.

Our business

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients\’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

An inclusive way of working

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we\’d like to hear from you.

At Aberdeen we\’ve adopted a \’blended working\’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we\’ll be happy to help.

We\’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment. We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance. We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.

If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.

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