Procurement - Centre of Excellence Manager in Chelmsford

You will shape how Procurement operates across Intact UK by enabling consistent, compliant and efficient delivery. You will provide the structure and insight that allows teams to focus on strategic value, supplier outcomes and risk management, while delivering a high quality experience for the business.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the design authority for Procurement ways of working, setting governance and direction for the delivery model, and ensuring policies and frameworks are clear, proportionate and consistently adopted across Category, Sourcing and Buying.
• Establish demand orchestration and operating rhythm, setting the approach to intake, triage and prioritisation, routing demand effectively, and providing oversight of volumes, throughput and constraints.
• Lead Buying Enablement and oversee transactional execution, govern procure-to-pay processes, approved buying channels and supplier onboarding, while maintaining separation between buying and sourcing activity.
• Own procurement systems, data and reporting, ensuring tools support policy adherence and efficient execution, and deliver high quality insight for decision making.
• Set direction for automation and AI, ensuring solutions align to governance and risk controls, while driving benefits realisation, best practice adoption and continuous improvement across Procurement.

Key Qualifications and Experience

• Experience in procurement, procurement operations or transformation within financial services or similarly regulated environments, with an excellent understanding of operating within a controlled environment.
• Proven capability in designing and governing procurement policies, frameworks and operating models that support consistency, compliance and efficiency.
• Background in leading procurement enablement, buying or procure-to-pay functions, including oversight of shared service or transactional delivery teams.
• Considerable knowledge of procurement systems, data, reporting and automation, with the ability to translate these into effective and controlled delivery.
• Experience setting direction for AI or digital enablement in a way that balances innovation with governance and risk management.
• A governance and risk mindset, combined with the ability to balance control, efficiency and usability in day-to-day delivery.
• Considerable stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with experience influencing at senior levels and supporting organisational change.

Benefits

• Annual discretionary bonus
• Up to 11% pension contributions
• Hybrid working + flexible hours
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays + buy/sell options
• Health & wellbeing + virtual GP
• Career development and mentoring
• Inclusive culture + employee networks
• Share investment options

DEI Commitment

We celebrate individuality and believe our differences make us stronger. We’re proud to foster a culture where everyone feels respected, valued, and empowered to thrive. As an Equal Opportunity and Disability Confident Employer, we ensure fair consideration for all applicants and offer interviews to all disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria. We understand that everyone’s circumstances are different and are happy to explore flexible working options such as reduced hours or job shares to support work–life balance. If you meet the core criteria but not every requirement, we’d still love to hear from you.