Category Lead- IT in Preston

Location: Preston with national travel as and when required. We offer a range of hybrid and flexible working arrangements – please speak to your recruiter about the options for this particular role.

Salary: £50,000-£53,000 depending on skills and experience.

What you’ll be doing:

• Undertaking proactive supplier management of key IT Service/Software Providers including supplier relationship management, contract change, escalations, risk management and leading Governance forums.
• Being the primary Procurement point of contact for all emerging project requirements. This will involve support to all stages of the IT project lifecycle starting with stakeholder and demand management, sourcing and tendering, contract negotiation through to contract award.
• Promptly addressing any escalations from internal business stakeholders within the IT community.
• Lead and support the Resource Review Panel to ensure compliance.
• Negotiate and agree contractual terms, pricing and service levels on behalf of BAE Systems.

Your skills and experiences:

• Essential: Commercial and contractual acumen, experience of managing large suppliers with significant spend. Strong communicator, able to effectively influence and build relationships with challenging stakeholders.
• Desirable: Proven experience in Indirect Procurement, specifically within the IT and Technology categories. Professional or academic qualification in ITMCIPS or studying towards.

Benefits:

As well as a competitive pension scheme, BAE Systems also offers employee share plans, an extensive range of flexible discounted health, wellbeing and lifestyle benefits, including a green car scheme, private health plans and shopping discounts – you may also be eligible for an annual incentive.

The IT Services and IT Software Team:

As part of this role you will have an exciting opportunity to support a large scale programme which will transform the way IT is currently procured within BAE Systems. This will involve transition activity from incumbent suppliers to new providers and will require excellent stakeholder management and engagement.

Why BAE Systems?

This is a place where you’ll be able to make a real difference. You’ll be part of an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought, rewards integrity, and merit, and where you’ll be empowered to fulfil your potential. We welcome people from all backgrounds and want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition (for example dyslexia, autism, an anxiety disorder etc.) that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Please be aware that many roles at BAE Systems are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as your nationality, any nationalities you may have previously held, and your place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform within the organisation. All applicants must as a minimum achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role, to allow for meaningful security vetting checks.

Closing Date: 27th January 2026. We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.