Category Manager - BPO

At M&G, our purpose is to give everyone real confidence to put their money to work. With a heritage dating back more than 175 years, we have a long history of innovation in savings and investments, combining asset management and insurance expertise to offer a wide range of solutions. Our two distinct operating segments, Asset Management and Life, work together to provide access to balanced, long-term investment and savings solutions.

The Category Manager is the commercial owner of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) category and acts as an internal commercial consultant to the business. The postholder offers senior stakeholders three things: deep knowledge of the category and its supply market, strategic sourcing capability, and negotiation expertise. Using these, the postholder builds and owns the category strategy and savings plan, competes with vendors on commercial strategy, and influences how the business specifies and buys. Success is measured by realised cost reduction across the category and by the value the business places on Procurement’s advice.

M&G Procurement is on a transformation journey, our objectives include: Identifying and delivering material, recurring cost reduction on M&G third-party spend; and materially improving how the business experiences Procurement, measured through an internal NPS. To achieve these objectives, Procurement is moving from a business unit aligned, generalist model to a category structure that operates as an internal commercial consultancy. The UK team offers the business deep category knowledge, strategic sourcing capability and negotiation expertise, so that M&G can compete with its vendors on commercial strategy.

Key Responsibilities

• Build, own and execute the category strategy for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), based on a detailed understanding of supply market structure, vendor commercial models, cost drivers and market trends.
• Maintain living category plans covering market analysis, supply base segmentation, demand profiling, route to market and savings opportunities.
• Develop commercial strategies for key vendors well ahead of renewal, so that M&G negotiates from a position of insight and has credible alternatives.
• Lead high-value sourcing events and negotiations, including setting the negotiation strategy, BATNA and walk-away position, managing concessions and holding positions with incumbents.
• Manage senior supplier relationships under commercial pressure.
• Design sourcing events and evaluation criteria, and decide how much process each event needs based on its value, risk and complexity.
• Introduce competitive tension into renewals and new commitments, moving from single-source and incumbent renewal to structured market engagement, preferred supplier frameworks and normalised rate cards.
• Build and own the category savings plan against an agreed share of the group cost reduction target, sizing and prioritising opportunities by value and deliverability.
• Agree baselines and savings methodology with Finance before work starts, and follow savings through until they show in budgets and run rates.
• Use price, volume and demand levers, including rate reduction, volume aggregation, supplier consolidation and specification change.
• Challenge demand and specification using category and industry knowledge.
• Report savings and cost avoidance separately and accurately, and maintain a forward pipeline that gives Finance and the business visibility of upcoming activity.
• Act as a trusted commercial adviser to senior business owners across the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) spend area.
• Influence stakeholder decisions on sourcing, demand and specification without formal authority.
• Act as the Procurement relationship lead for nominated senior stakeholders where assigned.
• Set the commercial direction for key suppliers in the category and lead the commercial input to vendor strategy.
• Find value in the existing supply base, including through rate review, supplier consolidation and contract optimisation.
• Direct category execution work delivered by the India team, providing clear briefs, priorities and commercial context.
• Shape commercial terms, including pricing mechanisms, indexation, service credits and exit provisions, working with Legal.
• Apply third-party risk management, outsourcing and regulatory requirements as they apply to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
• Use spend data, Power BI dashboards and AI tools to analyse trends and anomalies.

Person Specification

• Substantial category management or strategic sourcing experience, with a track record of delivering measurable savings in a complex organisation.
• Category knowledge and experience as set out in the Category Knowledge Requirements.
• Demonstrable experience of planning and leading negotiations on high-value contracts with major vendors.
• Credibility with senior stakeholders and evidence of influencing business decisions without formal authority.
• Strong commercial and financial judgement, including total cost of ownership and should-cost analysis.
• Confident using spend data and management information to identify trends, anomalies and sourcing opportunities.
• Able to work from the London or Kildean (Stirling) office for the majority of the working week.

People and Capability

• Coach and develop Category Specialists and India colleagues working in the category.
• Plan how onshore and offshore capacity is used across the category.
• Share category intelligence across the Procurement team and support cross-category opportunities.

Working Pattern

This role is based in London or Kildean (Stirling). The postholder is expected to work from their base office for the majority of the working week. Regular, in person contact with senior stakeholders is central to the role.

What we offer:

• A valuable pension scheme of up to 18% (13% made up of employer contributions and 5% employee contributions).
• Access to our Share Save and Share Incentive Plan, alongside financial wellbeing and support services.
• Enjoy 38 days annual leave (including bank holidays), with the opportunity to purchase up to five extra days.
• Our market-leading Inspiring Families policy includes comprehensive support and paid parental leave.
• Health & Protection cover includes Private Healthcare, Critical Illness cover and Life Assurance.

At M&G we strive to have a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds.