Category Lead - Customer Procurement

About Us

I am part of International Airlines Group (IAG), one of the world’s leading airline groups and owner of some of the biggest brands in the sky. IAG Transform provides creative and innovative solutions to drive sustainable transformation by delivering procurement and airline services, as well as group-wide systems across IAG. Each operating company benefits from the Transform centralised model, driving efficiencies, automation, and economies of scale.

Purpose of the role

Customer Procurement is responsible for sourcing and managing the Inflight Catering, Products & Services, and Retail Services used across our partner airlines. Our Inflight Catering partners design, produce, tray up and deliver all meals for passengers and crew. The Products & Services category covers the full inflight service proposition, including items such as trays, cutlery, glassware, beverages, blankets, pillows and other cabin service equipment. In addition, our Retail team manages the contracts for Buy on Board food and onboard boutique retail propositions. These are high value, strategically critical contracts that have a direct impact on brand perception, customer satisfaction (CSAT) and commercial performance across the Group airlines. The category works in close partnership with Airline Customer and Brand teams, Finance, Operations and Property, as well as with a global supplier base operating in highly constrained airport environments. The purpose of this role is to support the delivery of Catering 2030, a major multi year transformation programme reviewing and re‑contracting inflight catering provision across key global airports and regions.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a 3-5 year category plan for the given sub‑category.
• Develop and implement local and global sourcing strategies for all external spend related activity.
• Manage stakeholder relationships in all operating companies, ensuring appropriately robust challenge while delivering the operating companies’ business plans.
• Manage supplier risk to protect the operating companies and the Group from financial, operational and reputational damage.
• Provide commercial innovation to internal stakeholders through interaction with the supply base.
• Work with internal stakeholders and external suppliers to resolve commercial and contractual disputes; in particular suppliers with high complexity and/or high spend.
• Support operating companies’ tier 1 (high strategic/high risk/high spend) projects.
• Work with strategic suppliers to grow and develop supplier markets.
• Through liaison with the Procurement Operations Centre and operating company stakeholders, ensure supplier performance management is robust, effective and compliant.
• Work alongside business areas to identify, challenge, harmonise and simplify specifications and processes across the operating companies to ensure that Group buying power is maximised.
• Ensure that all procurement activity is carried out in line with Group and operating company governance principles.
• Develop effective working relations with key interfaces across the Group and operating companies including line, finance, legal and other stakeholders.
• Take active role in cross‑departmental strategic and leadership activities.

Key Relationships/Interfaces

• Business leaders in each of the operating companies.
• Finance.
• Legal.
• Suppliers.

Your skills, experience and qualifications

• Degree and/or ability to demonstrate strong knowledge of working in an international procurement environment.
• Strong demonstrable commercial expertise including contract negotiation and dispute resolutions.
• Strong aptitude and knowledge across full commodity lifecycle and awareness of market trends and suppliers.
• Excellent people management with the ability to inspire, lead, build and deliver through high‑performance teams.
• Strong business and financial acumen with the ability to evaluate, analyse and solve problems.
• Ability to influence, align diverse views and gain consensus, providing clarity and direction on what is to be achieved and break down barriers that get in the way of effective team working.
• Ability to prioritise, maintain clear focus and provide direction in constant ambiguity and change, using knowledge, judgment, resilience and courage to resolve conflicting priorities and manage crises.
• Ability to operate effectively in an environment with tight deadlines, finite resource and uncertainty.
• Senior level experience of partnering with Senior Leaders and Executives in a fast moving and agile business environment.
• Senior level experience in Procurement gathered in a complex global organisation.
• Experience of working in an environment of change involving people, process, policy and technology.
• Experience managing teams for success across multiple countries and cultures.
• Willingness to travel and work in a multi‑site/location environment.

What we offer

The chance to enjoy a challenging career in an exciting, fast‑moving environment in a dynamic industry. The opportunity to work in a multi‑cultural environment with great offices in many locations. We support our people in maintaining work/life balance, as well as providing the many benefits one would expect from a global organisation, including health insurance, pension and performance bonuses.

We are an equal opportunities employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.