Sourcing Business Partner

AWE is seeking a Sourcing Business Partner to play a pivotal role in shaping and articulating business requirements, ensuring they are clearly understood by procurement delivery teams. This role involves fostering a deep understanding of procurement operations and promoting stakeholder education. The successful candidate will act as a strategic commercial advisor, building strong partnerships with business stakeholders to support effective procurement outcomes. This is a great opportunity for someone looking for diversity in their role, as no two days are the same and you will be faced with new challenges to overcome on a regular basis.

Package: £47,760 to £62,250 (depending on your suitability, qualifications, and level of experience).

Location: Reading, with visits to Aldermaston and Burghfield when necessary.

Working pattern: AWE operates a 9-day working fortnight. We will consider flexible working requests so that your work may fit in with your lifestyle.

Your role as a Sourcing Business Partner is to actively contribute towards securing short and long-term successful business for AWE and act as single point of contact for your designated business function for all procurement and sourcing activities. You will also be responsible for:

• Act as the Commercial representative for assigned business areas, accountable for sourcing contributions including efficiencies and risk mitigation.
• Ensure early engagement with stakeholders to align category strategies, preferred suppliers, and business needs with Category Managers.
• Serve as the single point of contact (SPOC) for sourcing matters, building strong stakeholder relationships and managing escalations.
• Support make/buy decisions and link business strategies and forecasts with Category Management for upcoming projects.
• Collaborate on tailored sourcing strategies for specialized teams (e.g., R&D/Product Development) with Category Management.
• Drive savings and efficiencies through sourcing plans across relevant spend categories.
• Provide input to Process & Performance and support Service Centre development.

We are ideally seeking an individual with an understanding of Procurement / Category Management, Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Relationship Management, with excellent stakeholder management skills and a resilient approach to driving change. You should be able to demonstrate an innovative approach to problem solving.

We do need you to have the following:

• Good standard of general education including Maths and English or equivalent experience.
• MCIPS, CIPS or APM Project Management qualification would be beneficial.

Whilst not to be considered a tick list, we’d like you to have experience in some of the following:

• Previously worked in a procurement environment.
• Drafting, reviewing, negotiating and managing contracts.
• Application of supplier management strategies to maximise benefits and minimise risk.
• Working with multiple stakeholders and delivering multiple objectives, on time in full.
• Dealing tactfully and constructively with challenging people and situations.
• Knowledge of public procurements regulations (desirable).

Work hard, be rewarded:

We ask a lot and set the bar high because our work truly matters. In return we offer balance, with award winning benefits including:

• 9-day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
• Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
• Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
• Discounts – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.

Hybrid working is available for this role on an informal, non-contractual basis. Typically 3 days onsite per week.

Next steps: Everyone who works at AWE brings unique skills and perspectives to the table. We recognise that great people don’t always ‘tick every box’. That’s why we focus on your potential, your fit with our values, your transferable skills as well as your experience. Even if you don’t meet every point above, but you feel that this role and AWE are a great fit for you, please go ahead and apply, we’d love to receive your application.

Important things you need to know:

• We encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment if applications are high and the role therefore closes.
• You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE. The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.
• We want you to feel comfortable and able to shine during our recruitment process. Please let us know on your application form if you need any adjustments/accommodations during the process.
• Our interviews typically take place over Teams and for most roles are a 1 stage process.

Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants. Any inclusion information you provide will be stored in accordance with GDPR and kept separate from your application form and CV, and the information will not be shared with anyone involved in interviewing or making hiring decisions.

Please note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us. If you’re looking for a role with excitement, intrigue and something that really makes a difference then now is the time to join AWE. We are at the start of a once in a generation – possibly two generations – programme to design and produce a replacement warhead for the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent. We will do this while continuing to deliver the Trident programme as well as managing ambitious state-of-the-art capital and construction projects – some of which have never been done before.