Head of Commercial Relationship Management in Glasgow

The Head of Commercial Relationship Management will be responsible for the management of the Procurement and Commercial relationship with a specific Customer for City. This would involve managing key procurement related projects, savings and change, leading supplier relationship management for key partners, supported by the wider Procurement - Category Management team who would be responsible for savings delivery.

You will have a team consisting of dedicated CRM support, helping you manage suppliers and report on performance (service delivery and financial). You will create strong oversight and assurance processes and use data driven insight to give a view across the whole supplier network. Once in place, you’ll use this to monitor any emerging issues and risks in relation to supplier performance, legal or regulatory compliance, due diligence or financial control.

A key requirement of the role will be to lead on the customer’s supplier management improvement programme, owning supplier performance, communicating and embedding new governance in line with procurement best practice to enable the City to consistently measure and manage supplier performance and risk according to the materiality of the relationship and the services delivered.

This SRM approach, once established will set targets to deliver additional value from its relationships, building partnerships that yield innovative solutions and continuous improvement.

• Own relationship management for all supplier relationships and contract delivery within the client account.
• Build strong engagement and trust with the customer contacts through the wider client team using performance scorecards to demonstrate achievement of delivery targets and contractual compliance.
• Drive the team to deliver excellent service to the client and to drive the suppliers to excel in their delivery.
• Create and oversee a regular supplier audit regime to assure City and its customers of suppliers’ compliance regarding health and safety, and other key compliance aspects.
• Work with customers to set annual budgets and ensure alignment within SRM Team to deliver schedule of services in line with budget.
• Act as an escalation point for all supplier related issues.
• Ensure that the supply chain delivers an effective reactive job process.
• Work with suppliers to ensure contractual commitments are adhered to.
• Exercise financial control by monitoring actual spend versus budget on a monthly basis, ensuring that any overruns are challenged and reported.
• Manage all budgets within target, optimising the best value and where possible the lowest cost, without compromising service.
• Review management information to ensure delivery of customer KPI’s/SLA’s and statutory obligations meet or exceed requirements.
• Create a standard reporting pack for all key supplier relationships, providing a management summary to update Head of Procurement and Strategic Partnerships.
• Attend regular monthly supplier service reviews, investigate any supplier escalations, assessing the situation and ensuring remedial action plans are put in place.
• Communicate all material breaches or escalations to the Head of Procurement and Strategic Partnerships.
• Ensure the effective implementation of escalation and critical incident management processes to protect service delivery.
• Develop and promote a culture of behavioural safety within the team, ensuring effective reporting and investigation of any potential hazards or near misses, incidents and accidents.
• Work in conjunction with the Sourcing Managers and the customer onboarding team to ensure effective contract mobilisation following new services being added to the client account.
• Actively promote supplier development in order to help identify and target efficiencies and innovative solutions that deliver more value to City and its customers.
• Work with the strategic supplier management lead to ensure full integration with performance management programs across all suppliers.

The Head of Commercial Relationship Management will be responsible for ensuring contract charges are accurate and aligned to the services delivered. In addition, the Head of CRM will tightly monitor actuals versus budget, regularly reporting any under or overspend. The Head of CRM will also be expected to positively impact the P&L of the company through the delivery of in life savings.

The Head of CRM will be responsible for a team that supports the client specific supplier management activity. People management responsibility will include:

• Lead, coach and motivate your team to drive excellent service delivery.
• Develop and promote an effective team culture, aligned to City values.
• Develop effective talent management and succession plans, ensuring regular 121 review, appraisal, and PDP planning meetings are held in line with the employee lifecycle.
• Ensure skills levels are maintained and mandatory training needs are delivered.
• Ensure company policies and practices are implemented consistently.
• Develop engagement action plans for the team, based on feedback from engagement surveys, listening groups and team meetings.
• Review and follow up to ensure effective implementation and performance improvements.
• Work with the head of procurement to recruit team members that will deliver in line with our wider business strategy.
• Develop and actively promote “Ambition 25 Survey” actions for each colleague.

Educated to degree level or equivalent experience. CIPS qualification or equivalent is desired. A working knowledge of the maintenance service within the FM industry is preferable, with previous working knowledge of a multi-site contracted environment being desirable. Knowledge of retail and hospitality or customer service industry is preferred, but not essential.

• Strong commercial and supplier management experience and capability.
• Ability to lead and manage team performance.
• Ability to build, nurture and grow relationships with suppliers and customers.
• Credibility to deliver a successful SRM programme.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to critically challenge.
• Excellent understanding of contracts and the key service deliverables within contracts.
• Ability to build strong stakeholder relationships, influence and work with people at all levels across a diverse and complex business structure.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills to communicate persuasively and confidently at senior management level.
• Ability to work comfortably in a fast-paced, changing and high-pressure environment.
• Able to demonstrate a high level of strategic and commercial acumen.

• Experience of developing and embedding a supplier management programme in a large organisation.
• Previous experience of effectively leading and managing a team.
• Substantial supplier and contract management experience in a senior role.
• Experience in negotiating significant supplier contracts.
• Demonstrable experience in managing supplier relationships.
• Experience in delivering change.
• Excellent analytical skills and understanding of management information and the ability to evaluate and assess financial data to make informed decisions.
• Gravitas to build strong relationships with internal stakeholders, senior leaders, suppliers and customers.
• Proven track record in educating stakeholders and gaining alignment to a supplier management framework.
• Proven track record of managing supplier performance and resolving commercial and contractual issues.
• Strong communication skills and ability to present confidently and credibly.
• Experience in managing regional multi-site suppliers.
• Strong PC literacy, with experience in extracting, collating, and presenting performance data.
• Strong results focus, takes accountability for own performance and that of the team.
• Experience in managing financial budgets.