Procurement Director IT

As people increasingly move across channels and platforms, Kantar Media’s data and audience measurement, targeting, analytics and advertising intelligence services unlock insights to inform powerful decision-making.

Working with panel and first-party data in over 80 countries, we have the world’s fastest growing cross-media measurement footprint, underpinned by versatility, scale, technology and expertise, to drive long-term business growth for our clients and partners.

Job Title: IT Procurement Director

Location: London

Work pattern: Full time/Permanent/Hybrid working

#LI-Hybrid #LI-EH2 #LI-KantarMedia

This is a full-time permanent position, based in our London office. We operate in a hybrid capacity and require 2 days in the office. All applicants must have the legal right to live and work in the UK.

Role Description:

As an IT Procurement Director, you are responsible for leading the strategic sourcing and acquisition of technology products and services that align with the organisation’s digital and operational goals. You oversee vendor management, contract negotiations, and procurement governance to ensure cost-effective, compliant, and scalable IT investments. Your role bridges the gap between IT, finance, and legal teams, driving innovation while mitigating risk and ensuring value delivery from third-party partnerships.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead all Technology procurement, including but not limited to Infrastructure, security, apps development and maintenance, software licensing, end user computing and cloud, becoming a value enabler and partner for the business.
• Initially, as well as business as usual activity, a core task will be to support the exit from the Technology Transition Service Agreement (TSAs) with Kantar Group and help build a successful stand-alone technology environment for Kantar Media.
• Ongoing cost management of related contracts within the IT Category, engaging with key stakeholders to jointly and actively manage costs and contribute to overall reduction and value for money targets.
• Category Management which requires strategy development and coordination for all IT categories, including category strategy development and identifying and implementing new strategic sourcing initiatives.
• Lead Strategic Sourcing and Negotiation activities to support the business on a global basis, working closely with the Kantar Media Regional teams to ensure global initiatives and agreements are implemented across Kantar, as required.
• Manage global procurement projects, ensuring alignment across regions, timely delivery of strategic objectives, and effective stakeholder engagement throughout the project lifecycle.
• Subject Matter Expert in IT with excellent knowledge of the market, support terms and licensing metrics.
• Supplier Management, to include, evaluation / assessment of supplier performance, ensuring consistency of service, quality, and compliance to contracts and established service level agreements.
• Act as primary point of contact for all Kantar third-party IT enquiries, providing support to the business on day-to-day queries and issue resolution.
• Proven experience in delivering both transformation initiatives and business-as-usual (BAU) procurement projects, balancing innovation with operational continuity.

Skills & Experience

• 7+ years of experience working within a corporate procurement environment – ideally with international, global experience of Technology categories
• Excellent Hardware and Cloud contracts experience (must have a sound understanding of contract law and comfortable negotiating key terms, with limited legal input).
• A self-starter who is comfortable taking ownership of a full Category Management approach to and working without high levels of oversight from line manager.
• Extensive Excel modelling skills.
• Technology and Information Systems experience is essential.
• Problem solve and recommend solutions independently.
• Successful experience working on multiple projects with competing deadlines.
• Proven relationship builder, including senior stakeholders.
• Ability to complete tasks accurately with strong attention to detail and statistical analysis.
• Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills.

Our offer

At Kantar Media we have an integrated way of rewarding our people based around a simple, clear, and consistent set of principles. Our approach helps to ensure we are market competitive and to support a pay for performance culture, where your reward and career progression opportunities are linked to what you deliver.

We go beyond the obvious, using intelligence, passion, and creativity to inspire new thinking and shape the world we live in. Apply for a career that’s out of the ordinary and join us.

We want to create an equality of opportunity in a fair and supportive working environment where people feel included, accepted, and are allowed to flourish in a space where their mental health and wellbeing is taken into consideration. We want to create a more diverse community to expand our talent pool, be locally representative, drive diversity of thinking and better commercial outcomes.

At Kantar, the diversity of our employees provides a richer environment for our employees and broader depth and breadth of thinking for our clients. Kantar is committed to inclusion and diversity; therefore, we welcome applications from all sections of society and do not discriminate because of age, race, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, marital status, or any other legally protected characteristics.

Privacy and Legal Statement

PRIVACY DISCLOSURE: Please note that by applying to this opportunity you consent to the personal data you provide to us to be processed and retained by The Kantar Group and Kantar Media UK Limited (“Kantar”). Your details will be kept on our Internal ATS (Applicant Tracking System) for as long as is necessary for the purposes of recruitment, which may include your details being shared with the hiring manager(s) and for consideration for potential future opportunities by Kantar and its affiliate Kantar group companies. For full details of our privacy policy please visit www.kantar.com