Indirect Procurement Category Manager in Cambridge

Are you ready to accelerate your potential and make a real difference within life sciences, diagnostics and biotechnology? At Abcam, one of Danaher’s 15+ operating companies, our work saves lives—and we’re all united by a shared commitment to innovate for tangible impact. You’ll thrive in a culture of belonging where you and your unique viewpoint matter. And by harnessing Danaher’s system of continuous improvement, you help turn ideas into impact – innovating at the speed of life.

At Abcam, we believe the scientific community goes further, faster when we go there together. That’s why we work with life scientists to provide biological reagents and solutions that enable faster breakthroughs in critical areas like cancer, neurological disorders, infectious diseases and metabolic disorders. Our talented team of over 1,400 colleagues worldwide is our greatest asset. By applying our expertise and pushing boundaries, together we strive to better serve our customers, strengthen our impact across our industry, and ultimately our positive impact on society.

You will be leading a set of indirect sub categories on behalf of the global indirect procurement function, with a significant portion of the role being focused towards Abcam’s non-IT service and supplier requirements. This will include MRO, Logistics, and Business Services categories (inc. HR, Legal and Finance). This is an on-site, permanent role, based in Cambridge, UK.

You will utilise broad knowledge of sourcing to develop and execute sourcing strategies with service suppliers that support the business short and long-term business needs - building and maintaining reliable and high quality supply strategies at the best possible cost. You will establish the approach to maximising value, while maintaining supplier relationships. You will work directly with key business stakeholders to understand strategic initiatives required to support business objectives, as well as opportunities for supply network consolidation and managing business risk. The Category Manager needs to understand market trends and work to identify areas of improvement and leverage to drive additional value for the organisation, while meeting the business requirements.

You will use your relationship management, operations optimisation, continuous improvement, contract design & oversight skills to deliver best total cost, pushing the implementation of best practices within the category of responsibility.

In this role, you will have the opportunity to:

• Lead indirect service categories.
• Be globally accountable for a cost-efficient sourcing models for all requirements and locations in scope, including benchmarking the markets specific to the indirect categories and an ability to demonstrate what best value is.
• Partner with the relevant internal and external stakeholders to deliver best in class sourcing for the category, ensuring to understand and incorporate market trends, dynamics and requirements are ‘fit for purpose’.
• Use Category management tools and techniques that address cost, value added opportunities, business continuity, quality and service of supply.
• Negotiate contractual terms with suppliers of the category to achieve quality, service and cost targets.
• Management of the end to end contracting process using our contracts repository and working closely with our legal team to ensure the best commercial terms and value delivery short and long term.
• Create SRM models that address the business needs above and beyond price, developing strategic suppliers and short and long term risk and rewards model that create gains that address the ongoing challenges of the business and supplier base.
• Display a total cost of ownership mindset to drive value within Abcam.
• Apply risk management techniques to ensure appropriate measures are taken to mitigate against financial, reputational, legal, business continuity and performance risk exposure.

The essential requirements of the job include:

• Degree in Business, Operations / Engineering, or Supply Chain Management. Holder of CIPS accreditation or equivalent experience.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in procurement and previous experience with most Indirect Procurement categories.
• Proven track record in creating and executing Category Management strategies.
• Ability to lead negotiations and deliver cost savings.
• Previous experience leading contract negotiations that minimise / reduce risk exposure to the business.
• Strong influencing skills to manage stakeholders and suppliers.

Abcam, a Danaher operating company, offers a broad array of comprehensive, competitive benefit programs that add value to our lives. Whether it’s a health care program or paid time off, our programs contribute to life beyond the job. Check out our benefits at Danaher Benefits Info.

Join our winning team today. Together, we’ll accelerate the real-life impact of tomorrow’s science and technology. We partner with customers across the globe to help them solve their most complex challenges, architecting solutions that bring the power of science to life.

For more information, visit www.danaher.com.