Strategic Procurement Lead for Bids & Supply Chain

This role is a key part in a relatively newly established Project Procurement team with a focus on growth and future supply chain design and spend and transforming our regional procurement practices. The new team forms part of the UK & Ireland (UK&I) region's Operations, Innovation & Improvement team. To help achieve our growth ambition and mitigate downstream delivery & compliance risks, Procurement and Supply Chain has been recognised as a key capability required to support our most important pursuits & bids.

It is during the Win Work stages where AtkinsRéalis can create winning solutions specific to the project or client. Decisions are often made at this stage that establish supply chain partnerships and/or subcontractor arrangements to help differentiate our market position relative to our competitors and that can significantly impact delivery outcomes over the longer term.

In this role you are expected to pro‑actively reach out to the business drive involvement in bid capture stages as well as live bid support. You are expected to develop and execute procurement strategies and plans as an integrated member of capture and bid teams. Not only will you support critical pursuits & bids on an individual basis producing necessary bespoke inputs as required, you will also support make/buy strategies to inform and build supply chain solutions for common/aggregated requirements derived from longer‑term growth pipelines.

You will require strong influencing skills to help the function become an integral part of win work and get involved early as the go‑to expertise for engaging third parties. As well as leading the end‑to‑end procurement aspects of the role, given the business' strong ethos of collaboration and teaming with suppliers in bids, solid understanding and experience of contracting, commercial models, workshare agreements and strong negotiations skills are required. NEC 4 contracts are used heavily across the business and hands‑on experience of NEC 4 Subcontracting in the Professional Services and Works space in a contracting organisation is therefore essential.

The role will work closely with the regional Win Work team to ensure involvement in our most important pursuits & bids, and help identify and deliver improvements in processes, governance, guidance, and templates regarding effective use of suppliers during the Win Work cycle. This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced Procurement and supply chain professional to play a key role across the UK&I region and help shape the role that the Project Procurement team plays in growing the UK&I business. The individual will also be expected to contribute to a wider global Procurement Transformation agenda.

You will be joining a relatively new team where your ideas and strategies will be considered and supported and where you have the room to help shape our further direction for Project Procurement. The role works across our different businesses within the UK&I region.

Your role:

• Deliver and execute partnering and supply chain strategies in identified priority pursuits & bids across the region.
• Draft partner MOUs, Teaming /Workshare Agreements at campaign/bid stages as required.
• Be proactive in seeking involvement in major bids across the Core markets and embed yourself as an integral part of campaign and bid teams.
• Support make/buy strategies on individual bids.
• Influence the "in‑delivery" strategy/proposed roles and responsibilities and estimates for the management of the supply chain on individual bids to drive consistency of approach in delivery.
• Actively drive change to ensure early and consistent engagement of the function in campaigns and win work through actively demonstrating added value as well as through recommendations in structural changes to ways of working.
• Work with multi‑functional teams along the end‑to‑end supply chain process to ensure we select and subcontract with the right suppliers and appropriate checks are done.
• Work with the appropriate commercial teams on new contracting models where supply chain forms an integral part of our client offerings.
• Help to shape the supply chain strategy in relation to future client offerings and targeted growth pipeline.
• Act as key point of contact for advice & guidance around Procurement and supply chain in Work Winning.
• Train, develop and advise bid and delivery teams in on supply chain best practice.
• Embed the AtkinsRéalis values and act as role model in all interactions internally and externally.
• For successful bids lead on contractually mobilising external partners/suppliers in support of programme teams - be the conduit from tender stage.
• The role may acquire other responsibilities as the supply chain function develops and matures and the successful candidate has an opportunity to help shape this role and its remit.

About you:

Your primary focus will be to directly support the business strategy and growth agenda, demonstrating an uplift in functional capability and helping to change how supply chain is more consistently considered and used across the region as early as possible in the project lifecycle. To be successful in this role, having the ability to quickly develop strong relationships with senior leaders across the region is key, demonstrate the value‑add and being proactive and agile during execution is considered critical.

A robust understanding of procurement and supply chain management, including supply chain design, business partnering, supplier relationship management and bidding is required. This is a hands‑on role to help demonstrate the value of procurement and the successful candidate will be required to implement supply chain design into tangible agreements/outputs at the different stages of project life cycle, including campaigns, bids and mobilisation. An engineering background would be highly beneficial given the nature of the organisation/its service offerings.

If you have the necessary technical expertise and contracting organisation experience, have a drive for improvement, want to actively shape the direction of the Project Procurement function and make a real difference in an organisation where supply chain is recognised to be instrumental to deliver on our future strategy and successful growth, this role is for you.

Significant amount of experience and proven track‑record in Procurement & Supply Chain in contracting organisations (preferably in work winning). Significant experience of drafting partnering /teaming agreements and supply chain subcontracts in a contracting organisation. Experienced in developing and executing procurement and supply chain strategies in work winning. Experience in analysing clients ITTs, extracting requirements, writing RFQs, managing competitive tenders, supplier selection, and complex negotiations. Ability to operate at a strategic level and develop effective relations internally with business leaders and externally with suppliers whilst having the technical ability to create bespoke arrangements. Experience in delivering change in a procurement function in a project based contracting organisation. Commercial acumen and strong negotiation skills. Strong collaborator, self‑starter with excellent communication skills. Analytical and ability to problem‑solve. Pro‑active, strong multi‑tasking skills and resilience. Ability to deal with ambiguity and conflicting demands from stakeholders on a regular basis.

Rewards & benefits:

Enjoy competitive salaries, employee rewards and a brilliant range of benefits you can tailor to suit your own health, wellbeing, financial and lifestyle choices. Make the most of a myriad of opportunities for training and professional development to grow your skills and expertise. And combine our hybrid working culture and flexible holiday allowances to balance a great job and fulfilling personal life.

About AtkinsRéalis:

We're AtkinsRéalis, a world‑class engineering services and nuclear organisation. We connect people, data and technology to transform the world's infrastructure and energy systems. Together, with our industry partners and clients, and our global team of consultants, designers, engineers and project managers, we can change the world. We're committed to leading our clients across our various end markets to engineer a better future for our planet and its people.

Additional information:

This role may require security clearance and offers of employment will be dependent on obtaining the relevant level of clearance. If this is necessary, it will be discussed with you at interview. The vetting process is delivered by United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) and may require candidates to provide proof of residency in the UK of 5 years or longer.

We are committed to creating a culture where everyone feels that they belong – a place where we can all be ourselves, thrive and develop to be the best we can be. So, we offer a range of family‑friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements and employee resource groups to support all employees. As an Equal Opportunities Employer, we value applications from all backgrounds, cultures and ability. As a Disability Confident Leader, we are committed to offering an interview to all applicants who have a disability and meet the essential criteria. If you would like to be considered under this commitment, please let us know at the application stage.

At AtkinsRéalis, we seek to hire individuals with diverse characteristics, backgrounds and perspectives. We strongly believe that world‑class talent makes no distinctions based on gender, ethnic or national origin, sexual identity and orientation, age, religion or disability, but enriches itself through these differences.