Senior Category Manager: Strategic Partnership

At LSEG, we are recruiting for a Senior Category Manager for a significant LSEG strategic Partnership. Group Procurement manages third-party supplier engagements, partnering with the business to drive performance and sustainable value from our supplier relationships. We aim to make LSEG easier and more attractive to do business with and we consider our suppliers as a source of competitive advantage and total cost of ownership.

We operate a business partnering and supplier relationship management (SRM) model, aligned to partner groups and spend categories, ensuring value through early and strategic engagement and insightful vendor spend analytics. In December 2022, LSEG announced its ground breaking 10-year partnership! This is a strategic partnership for next-generation data and analytics and cloud infrastructure solutions with the partner making an equity investment in LSEG through acquisition of shares. Our partnership consists of a number of co-development initiatives such as Workspace which are jointly funded by both organisations and a $2.7bn minimum cloud consumption commitment.

The partnership, under the Foundation+ (F+) workstream, has built a secure, scalable landing zone within the partner's cloud environment for the migration of hundreds of LSEG applications. Some key characteristics of the Group Procurement organisation include:

• Supplier spend c £2BN and c. 5,000 suppliers.
• Team structured around three towers aligned to Technology, Services and Corporate spend, focused on category management, sourcing, supplier relationship management and business partnering.
• A Strategy & Performance centre, enabling function to drive and implement the strategy of the Group Procurement function, outstanding procurement policy and processes.
• Key hubs for the category teams in London, Bangalore and New York with a small amount of decentralised activity to support local markets which are in various global locations including Europe and Asia.

The purpose of this role is to deliver an excellent procurement service with the express intent of contributing to the overall success of the partnership and ensuring LSEG is maximising value to the Group in terms of innovation, speed to market, quality, efficiency, risk mitigation and optimal cost. This role engages across all Procurement Towers – Technology, Corporate and SRM and Services.

This role sits in the Services tower, reporting to the Head of Services Procurement, who is responsible for the global procurement activities including engagement and ongoing management of third-party suppliers, the sourcing, risk, vendor strategy, and roadmap for the spend. The role will perform a combination of sourcing, supplier relationship management and business partnering activities, primarily supporting the partnerships Executive Sponsors, Leadership team, Foundation+ Programme Director, the Group Heads of D&A, and Engineering.

In addition, there is significant engagement with the partners nominees for Group functions and Engineering. It also entails working closely with the rest of the Services Procurement team (in particular Technology Services), Technology Procurement team (cloud, software and broader services supplier by the partner) and the wider Group Procurement team to support the evolution of the wider procurement strategy and transformation roadmap, ensuring this is reflected across all categories of spend within this remit.

F+ is currently largely funded from an investment fund, which is funding provided by the partner to support Application Migrations. In addition, some initiatives are jointly funded by the partner and LSEG.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Lead and deliver high quality, innovative and intelligent category management for the relevant sourcing activities, defining the procurement (commercial) strategy to achieve the strategic goals of the partnership programme and providing specialist insight to ensure full benefits are realised and sustained.
• Manage the value of opportunities, the degree of risk and criticality of timing.
• Lead on SRM for the partnership related activities, including Service Review meetings, performance management, contract obligation management and ensuring coordination with the non-partnership relationship and SRM activities within Group Procurement.
• Provide the appropriate resource and support to ensure that appropriate governance, structure, performance and risk management are in place.
• Build strong working relationships with internal customers (senior management and their leads), and the joint partnership team in order to influence decisions and align with the programme's long-term strategic objectives.
• Lead on delivery of value for money from both LSEG and the partners invested funds for the programme.

Operational responsibilities include:

• Lead and deliver high value sourcing exercises from inception through to delivery, particularly for funded spend with the partner and jointly funded initiatives.
• Manage third party risks to ensure they are identified, detailed and where possible mitigated or reduced through strong controls.
• Ensure application of appropriate governance and controls in line with internal and external policies.
• Actively manage the material outsourced services, ensuring services are delivered in line with good business practice and regulatory requirements.
• Produce and maintain any required reporting and inputs to Governance forums.

Experience and skills required:

• Extensive sourcing and category management experience including experience of complex sourcing arrangements, e.g. material outsourcing.
• Experience of working within a partnership relationship with a third party and applying sourcing and negotiation strategies within a sole supply arrangement.
• Knowledge of Technology Professional Services.
• Strong understanding and experience working with complex contractual arrangements.
• Strong, hands-on experience of sourcing in a global business, across the full sourcing lifecycle, including negotiation, contract creation, contract management and ongoing supplier relationship management.
• Proven track record in delivering results and using knowledge of suppliers, markets and contracting techniques to provide input to senior customers and advise on strategic sourcing decisions.
• Strong financial knowledge, including familiarity with using business case drivers to negotiate optimal value.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills (written and verbal).

Desirable:

• Strong experience of working with the business and product teams on innovation and revenue generating opportunities.
• Technology sourcing experience; specifically cloud related products.
• Procurement / supply operation qualification, e.g. MCIPS or IAACM.

LSEG is a leading global financial markets infrastructure and data provider. LSEG offers a range of tailored benefits and support, including healthcare, retirement planning, paid volunteering days and wellbeing initiatives. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer.