Procurement - Technology Lead

Procurement - Technology Lead inc. Infrastructure and Professional Services Responsible to: Procurement Director UK day-to-day leadership, coaching and performance management. Technology function leads across Infrastructure, Networks, IT Operations, Core Tech and Transformation — business partners on demand planning, sourcing pipeline and supplier performance. Finance, Legal, Risk and Group Sustainability — cross-functional partners on budgets, contractual risk, savings validation and ESG alignment. UK and international colleagues across the JD Group, including recently acquired businesses, to surface and convert Group leverage opportunities. Strategic external suppliers and partners across the Technology supply base — relationship ownership, performance management, governance and innovation engagement. Skills/Experience/Knowledge required: Commercial experience within fast-paced omni-channel retail and/or relevant commodity/services experience with the ability to manage a high level of ambiguity or change. Confidence to own problems and issues, propose solutions and ensure deadlines and/or business goals are achieved. A self- starter who has the initiative and confidence to seek out opportunities to deliver value. Influence - engage and drive change, owning and resolving issues and challenges. Strong engagement and communication skills and experience of successfully delivering process improvements and efficiencies. Attention to detail – focused and confident with a breadth of experience in related categories. Driven by data and analytics. You bring strong analytical skills with a passion for using data to develop innovative, effective solutions to address business needs, initiate opportunities and deliver margin improvement. A strong negotiator with the ability to influence using excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills. A natural relationship builder — able to establish credibility quickly with senior internal stakeholders (including C-suite), peers across the Group, and strategic suppliers, and to sustain those relationships through both commercial negotiation and day-to-day delivery. Organised and deadline-driven, bringing strong project management and analytical skills. Autonomous self-starter with high levels of drive and energy — comfortable setting own direction, prioritising across a broad portfolio and progressing multiple workstreams in parallel without close supervision. Strategic: you recognise and resolve situations that are ambiguous or challenging and use logic to identify alternatives, evaluate, and present solutions while thinking about contingency plans. Confidence and credibility to constructively challenge senior business and Technology stakeholders — pushing back on assumptions, surfacing commercial risk, and holding the line on procurement governance while preserving strong working relationships. The Successful Applicant Degree in Supply Chain Management, Business, Finance, Engineering or a related discipline; relevant professional accreditation (e.g. CIPS / MCIPS) preferred. A minimum of 4+ years' experience as a Procurement Manager (or equivalent senior category role) leading Technology procurement, with deep category knowledge across Infrastructure and Professional Services and exposure to SaaS experience with sourcing, contract lifecycle and spend analytics tools (e.g. Coupa, Ariba, Ivalua, SAP) is advantageous. Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, rapidly changing omni-channel retail environment with shifting priorities and high stakeholder visibility.