Senior Procurement and Contracts Manager

Department: Procurement and Contracts

Location: London

Compensation: £90,000 / year

Bonus: Discretionary

Working Hours: Kings Cross, London (Tuesdays–Thursdays - 3 days in our office, Monday + Friday - anywhere)

Employment Type: Permanent, full time

Closing Date: From 13th of May; role will remain open until a shortlist of candidates is identified.

Role Summary

At ARIA, we believe that breakthroughs are driven by people. As a member of the procurement and contracts team, you will be at the heart of our operational engine. While others see procurement and contracts as a process, you see it as enablers of innovation, creating the right conditions for ambitious ideas to flourish. Acting as the bridge between Programme Directors, operational teams, and external partners and our mission, you will be the custodian of ARIA’s commercial and funding relationships, ensuring every interaction is human, thoughtful, and engaging. You will use your expertise to make everything run smoothly, allowing genuine connections to flourish.

What You’ll Do

• Design and deliver funding and procurement approaches: Work at pace with Programme Directors to shape and deliver funding mechanisms from early concept through to award.
• Support programmes as they evolve: Partner with teams post‑award, helping adapt contracts and funding structures as programmes pivot, scale, or change direction.
• Manage contracts with purpose: Oversee the end‑to‑end lifecycle of contracts, ensuring clarity, fairness, and effectiveness.
• Improve systems and ways of working: Continuously refine templates, processes, and guidance to make procurement and contracting simpler, smarter, and more scalable as ARIA grows.
• Enable innovation within a governance framework: Help navigate the balance between agility and accountability, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations while supporting novel and non‑traditional approaches.

Who You Are

A successful candidate will bring many of the following skills/experience to the role:

Essential Criteria

• High Autonomy: We don’t micromanage; we trust you to take full accountability, proactively identifying bottlenecks and building solutions before problems escalate.
• Agile & Adaptable: You thrive in environments where the "right way" isn’t always written down. You are comfort operating in ambiguity, with a proactive, solutions-focused mindset.
• Strong procurement commercial experience: You bring experience across procurement, commercial, contracts, or funding delivery. You’ve led open and competitive sourcing processes and know how to run them effectively in practice, not just in theory.
• Strong commercial judgement: You combine sharp attention to detail with sound judgement, navigating contractual terms and conditions with confidence while keeping broader outcomes in mind.
• Strong communication and relationship-building: You build trust quickly and work effectively across multiple stakeholders and projects, ensuring alignment and momentum even in complex environments.

Desirable Criteria

• Systems Thinker: You don’t just do tasks; you build systems to make everything run smoother.
• Cross‑Sector Experience: You’ve worked across both public and private sector environments and understand how to navigate different commercial, regulatory, and delivery contexts.
• You bring an appreciation for innovation-driven settings, whether in research, technology, or fast-moving organisations, and know how to adapt your approach accordingly.
• CIPS or equivalent.

Benefits

• 27 days annual leave provision, with the option to buy/sell additional days.
• Hybrid working arrangements; 60% in office / 40% at home.
• Discretionary performance related pay.
• Supportive environment for learning and development opportunities.
• Enhanced family leave arrangements.
• A free and confidential 24/7 employee assistance programme.
• Life Assurance.
• 2 days of paid volunteer days.
• 5% defined contribution pension scheme with Smart Pension.
• Cycle to Work scheme.
• An excellent office location in Kings X, London.

Accessibility

If you require any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please notify us and we will make every effort to accommodate you. Disclosing any requests will provide ARIA with the best opportunity to support candidates and will have no negative impact on your recruitment process.