Subcontract Manager

Description:

Your new role

The Subcontract Manager is responsible for developing, managing and strengthening effective, collaborative relationships with key strategic suppliers and selected external clients. The role focuses on building trust-based partnerships, influencing supplier behaviours, negotiating balanced outcomes and driving continuous improvement across performance, capability and delivery.

This role places a strong emphasis on interpersonal skills, stakeholder engagement, and relationship ownership. The role holder acts as the primary interface between the organisation, its suppliers, and, where appropriate, external clients, ensuring expectations are aligned and issues are managed constructively.

The role requires regular external engagement and the flexibility to travel to supplier premises, client locations and operational or project sites on an ad-hoc basis. This is a hybrid working role with 2 days in the office.

Key Responsibilities:

Supplier Relationship Management

• Act as the primary relationship owner for allocated key and strategic suppliers.
• Build and maintain long-term, trust-based relationships that support organisational, supplier and client objectives.
• Develop and maintain Supplier Relationship Plans where appropriate, including engagement cadence, joint objectives, and improvement initiatives.
• Facilitate regular supplier reviews, including senior-level and executive engagement where required, and ensure monthly or quarterly supplier 360° scoring and feedback is completed to support reporting cycles.

External Client Engagement

• Support engagement with external clients to help align suppliers, delivery teams, and client expectations.
• Assist in joint meetings with suppliers and clients as a professional point of contact.
• Contribute to client discussions on supplier capability, performance, risk, and improvement plans.

Negotiation, Influence & Issue Resolution

• Work with Project Procurement Managers to negotiate with suppliers, focusing on collaboration, value creation, and sustainable outcomes rather than purely contractual leverage.
• Influence supplier behaviours through effective communication, credibility and relationship management.
• Proactively manage emerging issues, resolving conflict at the lowest possible level and avoiding formal escalation wherever possible.

Performance & Continuous Improvement

• Monitor supplier performance using agreed metrics, with a strong focus on continuous improvement rather than punitive enforcement.
• Collaborate with suppliers and the quality assurance team to determine the root causes of underperformance, and agree on corrective or improvement actions.
• Encourage innovation, efficiency improvements and best-practice sharing across the supplier base.

Internal Stakeholder Management

• Act as a key interface between suppliers and internal stakeholders (projects, engineering, quality, operations, commercial).
• Manage competing priorities and expectations through clear communication, influence and stakeholder alignment.
• Provide insight to internal teams and leadership on supplier capability, risks, constraints and behavioural dynamics.

Risk, Ethics & Governance

• Proactively identify relationship, capability and dependency risks within the supplier base and support mitigation planning.
• Promote ethical, transparent and professional conduct in all supplier and client interactions.
• Ensure activity is aligned with organisational policies and governance requirements, applying judgment rather than rigid process adherence.

About you

Relevant Skills:

• Strong relationship management and stakeholder engagement capability
• Excellent communication skills (verbal, written and interpersonal)
• Proven ability to influence, negotiate and manage conflict constructively
• High levels of emotional intelligence and cultural awareness
• Ability to build credibility and trust with suppliers, clients and internal stakeholders
• Problem-solving mindset with a collaborative, solutions-focused approach
• Comfortable operating in complex, matrix and sometimes ambiguous environments
• Willingness and flexibility to work externally and travel as required

Essential Criteria:

• Demonstrable experience managing key or strategic supplier relationships
• Experience working directly with external suppliers and, ideally, clients
• Track record of resolving complex or sensitive issues through negotiation and influence
• Experience in a procurement, supply chain, operations or project-based environment
• Working knowledge of contracts and commercial frameworks
• MCIPS qualification preferred

Desirable Experience

• Experience supporting supplier development or continuous improvement initiatives
• Exposure to rail, infrastructure, engineering or regulated environments
• Experience working with senior stakeholders or supplier leadership teams

Travel Requirement

• The role requires ad hoc travel to supplier premises, client locations and operational or project sites to support effective relationship management, engagement and issue resolution.

Closing date for applications is 8th November 2026.

At Hitachi Rail, there is a place for everyone. We welcome and value differences in background, age, gender, sexuality, family status, disability, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, and world view. It is our commitment to create an inclusive environment - we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

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