Location: Portsmouth, UK – On-site
Department: Procurement / Supply Chain
Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent
F.P.T. Industries Ltd is part of the DART Aerospace Group and manufactures safety-critical products for the commercial and defence aerospace sectors.
We are looking for an experienced Procurement Team Leader to lead and transform our site Procurement function.
This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can move Procurement beyond reactive order management and expediting toward a more strategic, data-driven and commercially focused operation.
You will take ownership of supplier performance, team capability, cost management and procurement execution, helping ensure the business has the right materials, at the right time, at the right cost.
What You’ll Do
Lead the Procurement Team
- Lead the day-to-day Procurement function with clear accountability for performance and results
- Establish clear priorities, roles, standards and expectations across the team
- Build a culture of ownership, urgency and proactive problem-solving
- Coach and develop Buyers and procurement professionals
- Manage individual performance and support succession planning
- Ensure the team anticipates future material requirements rather than reacting to shortages
- Establish structured supplier performance management across key and strategic suppliers
- Develop and maintain supplier scorecards covering Quality, Delivery, Cost, Responsiveness and Risk
- Implement supplier recovery and corrective-action plans where required
- Build strong supplier relationships while maintaining appropriate commercial challenge
- Identify supplier capacity, resilience and continuity risks before they impact production
- Develop procurement strategies aligned with business growth, production requirements and SIOP
- Support sourcing, dual-sourcing, localisation and supplier development initiatives
- Identify opportunities for supplier consolidation and long-term agreements
- Improve commercial terms through structured negotiations
- Ensure Procurement is actively involved in demand, capacity and growth planning
Own Procurement Performance
- Establish meaningful procurement KPIs and an effective operating rhythm
- Improve supplier On-Time Delivery, lead times, shortage performance and supplier quality
- Monitor Purchase Price Variance and cost-reduction performance
- Use data to identify emerging risks before they affect production
- Ensure corrective actions have clear ownership and completion dates
- Escalate material risks early with robust recovery plans
Deliver Commercial Value
- Lead supplier negotiations and commercial reviews
- Deliver measurable year-on-year material cost reductions
- Challenge supplier pricing and understand underlying cost drivers
- Improve payment terms, minimum order quantities, lead times and contractual conditions
- Partner with Engineering, Quality and Operations on cost-reduction and value-engineering opportunities
- Reduce unnecessary premium freight, excess inventory and supplier-driven costs
Protect Production
- Translate SIOP and production requirements into procurement actions
- Maintain visibility of material demand, shortages and supplier capacity
- Ensure critical shortages have clear recovery plans
- Reduce dependence on manual expediting and reactive intervention
- Work closely with Planning, Operations, Engineering and Quality to protect production output and customer delivery
- Simplify and standardise procurement processes
- Improve use of ERP systems, data and automation
- Reduce manual reporting and unnecessary transactional activity
- Develop visual management and exception-based reporting
- Drive continuous improvement across both Procurement and the wider supplier base
How Success Will Be Measured
Your performance will be measured through:
- SIOP and material plan fulfilment
- Purchase price and cost-reduction performance
- Lead-time reduction
- Inventory and excess / obsolete material
- Premium freight and expedite costs
- Team capability and individual performance
What We’re Looking For
Required experience:
- Strong procurement or supply chain leadership experience within a manufacturing environment
- Proven experience improving supplier performance
- Strong supplier negotiation and commercial management capability
- Experience leading, coaching and developing procurement professionals
- Ability to translate demand forecasts and operational requirements into procurement actions
- Strong analytical skills and confidence working with procurement data
- Experience using ERP systems within a manufacturing or supply chain environment
- Experience implementing procurement KPIs and supplier scorecards
- Strong supplier relationship and performance-management experience
- Ability to challenge suppliers and internal stakeholders constructively
Experience in the following would be advantageous:
- Aerospace manufacturing
- Defence
- AS9100 or another regulated manufacturing environment
- SIOP / Sales, Inventory & Operations Planning
- Strategic sourcing
- Dual-source strategies
- Lean or continuous improvement
The Profile
This role will suit someone who combines strong operational execution with strategic procurement thinking.
You should be comfortable moving between supplier negotiations, shortage recovery, team leadership, performance data and longer-term sourcing strategy.
The successful candidate will be expected to challenge existing ways of working and help build a Procurement function that is increasingly proactive, commercially focused and capable of supporting business growth.
Why Join DART Aerospace?
You will have the opportunity to directly influence:
- Production continuity
- Cost reduction
- Supply-chain resilience
- Team capability
This is an opportunity to take genuine ownership of a Procurement function within an international aerospace manufacturing organisation.
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