Interim Procurement Manager - Water Division in Watford

Interim Operational Procurement Manager working closely with Group Procurement and divisional stakeholders.

£600 per day - start 21st of Sept - Inside IR35 - Inital three month contract
Operational procurement activity across the Water division, ensuring robust process control, supplier performance, and compliance with procurement policies and preferred supplier frameworks. The role focuses on driving cost avoidance, improving purchasing behaviours, reducing invoices on hold, and delivering supply chain rationalisation.
Maintaining governance over P-card spend and master data integrity. Responsible for producing and leveraging data insights to improve operational performance, supporting bid and mobilisation activity, embedding new suppliers into business processes.

• Requisitioners from different contracts/regions from the Water division have recently had reporting lines changes into the Head of Procurement to Water, to build a buying desk for the Water business.
• The Water business to build a common operating model for requisitioning to support all regions
• The vision is to align & simplify processes, creating capacity, embedding best practice, enabling the team to flex across regions. Support the team's development beyond requisition processing, including directing orders to preferred suppliers, correcting pricing, & obtaining quotations to secure best value.
• Creating a buying desk, supporting all agreed regions/contracts within Water and delivering value

Role/Responsibilities

• Manage the performance of the Buying Desk team as part of wider operational procurement delivery, ensuring adherence to lead time SLAs and quality management KPIs
• Escalation point for procurement-related queries, including those arising from the Buying Desk
• Develop, implement, and maintain standard operating procedures for operational procurement activities
• Monitor compliance with preferred supplier pathways across all purchasing activity
• Drive improvements in catalogue utilisation and reduce non-catalogue purchasing activity across the business
• Lead the delivery of supply chain rationalisation activities across the BGEN supply base
• Produce and analyse procurement data to support performance management and decision-making
• Support the reduction of invoices on hold by acting as a key Procurement contact and driving issue resolution
• Work closely with preferred suppliers to support operational performance and strengthen day-to-day business engagement
• Support the onboarding and implementation of newly approved preferred suppliers into business operations
• Liaise with Group Procurement to maintain accurate master data and support supplier onboarding processes
• Oversee and control P-card spend in line with company policy and governance requirements

Behaviours and Competencies

• Demonstrate strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Exhibit a proactive approach to problem-solving with attention to detail.
• Showcase strong data analysis and presentation skills to make effective procurement decisions.
• Promote health and safety as a top priority, ensuring compliance and active engagement in safety protocols.

Skills and Experience
Essential:

• Operational procurement roles with strong understanding of procurement processes, policies, controls, within a multi-site or operational environment
• Experience delivering cost avoidance and driving value through day-to-day procurement activity
• Experience managing and enforcing compliance with preferred supplier frameworks and purchasing policies
• Strong supplier management experience, including performance monitoring and issue resolution
• Experience improving purchasing behaviours (e.g. catalogue adoption, reducing non-compliant spend)
• Developed, implemented, and maintained standard operating procedures/processes
• Experience managing transactional procurement activity
• Strong MS Excel data analysis and reporting skills, with the ability to translate data into actionable insight
• Experience managing escalations and resolving complex or non-standard procurement queries
• Working knowledge of procurement systems (e.g. ERP, P2P systems) and master data management
• Experience overseeing financial governance controls such as P-card spend or similar

Desirable

• Degree-level education or equivalent experience/qualification
• Professional certifications such as MCIPS or CIPS
• Experience leading or supporting supply chain rationalisation programmes

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