Cost and Procurement Manager (Change & Transformation)| S3 | CFO | Milton Keynes

Santander is evolving from a global, high-impact brand into a technology-driven organisation, and our people are at the heart of this journey. Together, we are driving a customer-centric transformation that values bold thinking, innovation, and the courage to challenge what’s possible.

This is more than a strategic shift. It’s a chance for driven professionals to grow, learn, and make a real difference. Our mission is to contribute to help more people and businesses prosper. We embrace a strong risk culture and all our professionals at all levels are expected to take a proactive and responsible approach toward risk management.

The Cost Management and Procurement team is looking for a highly passionate, forward-thinking and driven Cost and Procurement manager, to manage a suite of Agile Categories and workstreams based out of Milton Keynes. This is an expert role at the heart of Santander UK’s cost and procurement agenda. You will lead complex sourcing and cost management initiatives that help the bank achieve its cost-to-income targets, unlock value from our third-party ecosystem and support key strategic programmes, including merger and acquisition (M&A) activity.

Working across the Cost and Procurement function, you will provide analytical, commercial and strategic leadership to senior stakeholders, ensuring we get the best value from our suppliers while managing risk and regulatory obligations.

To succeed in this role, you will be responsible for:

• Leading end-to-end strategic procurement and sourcing activity across key categories, from demand shaping and market engagement through to contract execution and close, ensuring that total cost of ownership and value-for-money are optimised.
• Supporting the organisations transformation plans, supporting key business activity such as mergers, acquisitions and other strategic transactions, including cost due diligence, analysis of standalone and combined cost bases, synergy identification, and the design of supplier and contract integration or separation plans.
• Driving cost transformation activity across Santander UK by designing, improving and embedding cost reporting, management information such as dashboards that give senior leaders clear insight into cost performance, cost drivers and levers to improve the cost-to-income ratio.
• Analysing complex spend and cost data across suppliers, contracts, categories and business areas to perform cost driver analysis, benchmark external markets and develop robust business cases and options for executive decision-making.
• Partnering with senior business stakeholders and strategic suppliers to develop sourcing and commercial strategies that unlock cost efficiencies, innovation and risk reduction, including value-sharing and performance-based commercial models.
• Ensuring that all procurement and M&A-related supplier decisions comply with third-party risk, legal, regulatory and policy requirements, including robust due diligence, onboarding, ongoing monitoring and exit planning.
• Coaching and constructively challenging stakeholders through the sourcing and transaction lifecycle so that specifications, commercial structures and business cases reflect realistic cost assumptions, risks and benefits.
• Contributing to financial planning and forecasting by tracking budgets, challenges, risks, opportunities and benefits across your portfolio, and clearly articulating the cost impact of sourcing decisions and M&A activity.

Our people are our greatest strength. Every individual contributes unique perspectives that make us stronger as a team and as an organisation. We’re enabling teams to go beyond by valuing who they are and empowering what they bring.

The following requirements represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities essential for success in this role:

• Significant experience leading high-value, high-risk strategic sourcing and cost optimisation initiatives in a regulated financial services environment, with a strong understanding of how cost drivers impact the cost-to-income ratio.
• Demonstrable experience of managing complex cost bases in a large financial services organisation, including deep understanding of key cost drivers such as third-party spend, technology, change, property and headcount, and how these translate into budgets and financial performance.
• Hands-on experience leading or supporting procurement and cost workstreams on mergers, acquisitions and/or large strategic transactions, including cost due diligence, synergy sizing, one-off cost assessment and post-deal integration or separation of suppliers and contracts.
• Proven track record of using data and financial MI to perform detailed cost driver analysis, scenario modelling and total cost of ownership assessment, and turning these insights into clear recommendations and business cases for senior and executive stakeholders.
• Experience of supplier relationship management and performance management for strategic suppliers, with a focus on driving cost, service and innovation benefits across the contract lifecycle.
• Experience of operating in an agile, fast-paced change environment and influencing across multiple business areas, functions or entities.

Hard Skills:

• Strong understanding of strategic sourcing, category management and supplier relationship management, including the ability to link sourcing strategies directly to cost outcomes and business strategy.
• Advanced cost analysis and financial modelling skills, including cost driver analysis from source-to-pay, total cost of ownership, scenario and sensitivity modelling, and the ability to link operational drivers to P&L and cost-to-income performance.
• Knowledge of UK contract law and extensive experience negotiating complex commercial contracts, with a focus on optimising cost, managing risk and creating flexible structures that support M&A, integration and separation activity.
• Strong understanding of third-party risk management and UK financial services regulation as it relates to outsourcing and suppliers, and how this interacts with cost, value and speed of delivery.
• Proficient in using procurement, cost management and portfolio tools to track spend, cost initiatives, benefits and compliance.

Soft Skills:

• Commercially astute and highly cost-focused, able to balance cost, risk and value in complex sourcing, budgeting and decisions, and to challenge constructively where proposals do not optimise the bank’s cost base.