Category Manager - Telco division

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Located: Northampton (Hybrid)

Package: Competitive salary, plus bonus and company benefits

About Ricoh: Ricoh is a global technology business. As a company born in print, we design and manufacture graphic solutions that transform communications. To keep up with the pace of change in the workplace, we have built an extensive portfolio of innovative, industry-leading digital services spanning everything from Cloud & IT infrastructure solutions to process automation tools. Everything we do is designed to help individuals achieve fulfilment through work. Through technology, we make work smarter and more creative, enabling people to lead purposeful working lives and organisations to become more productive, sustainable and profitable.

What you will be doing:

• To develop category strategies focused on spend analysis, market assessment, stakeholder engagement, commercial negotiation and risk and compliance management.
• Provide support and insight on suppliers to enable Ricoh as a Procurement Partner providing Hardware, Software, and Professional services amongst many more categories to a customer in the Telecommunications industry.
• Develop category management strategies to enable supplier selection, supplier reduction and spend reduction initiatives on a divisional basis to leverage best value to optimize margins and reduce operating costs.
• Develop divisional spend portfolio assessments to enable detailed understanding of spend trends and to determine future product and service requirements.
• Lead supplier contractual discussions including negotiations, escalations and dispute resolution.
• Implement effective end-to-end supplier management strategies inclusive of contract management, commercial negotiation, request for proposals and performance management to ensure best value and strategic partnerships aligned to Ricoh’s values.
• Support the development of a supplier engagement program focused on Ricoh’s core values.
• Adopt supplier management software to centralize supplier management records including contract management, commercial agreements, performance management and risk and compliance management to protect Ricoh’s brand.
• Maintain strong collaborative relationships with key stakeholders across the business to strategically develop and optimize procurement strategies.
• Deputize for Senior Category Manager during times of absence.

You will ideally have:

• Proven relevant experience in a procurement function and ideally hold CIPS Level 4 qualification.
• Proven experience of a strategic category management approach to procurement underpinned by best practice techniques.
• Proven experience of contract management, commercial negotiation, and supplier performance management.
• Proven experience of undertaking request for proposals, tendering exercises, cost comparisons and commercial cost-based negotiation at all levels.
• Understanding of risk and compliance within a third party supply chain with recognized processes utilized to enable effective management.
• Proven experience of complex contractual discussions including advanced negotiation skills and risk mitigation management.
• Strong relationship management and proven leadership skills underpinned by being professional and confident in manner.
• Ability to communicate effectively with internal/external stakeholders, suppliers, customers, peers, senior management, and the wider business at all levels of seniority.
• Proven ability to adopt and embrace the management of change and culture.
• Confident and professional approach to chairing meetings, building presentations, and delivering to internal/external audiences.
• Good knowledge of the Microsoft suite (Word, Excel, Outlook).

In return for your commitment, we can offer you:

• Flexible and hybrid working in line with role requirements.
• An inclusive workplace.
• Excellent package with solid basic, strong bonus and company benefits including: A competitive holiday entitlement, two days special leave per annum for volunteering, additional holiday purchase scheme.
• Flexible retirement plan.
• Wellbeing schemes to support your physical, emotional and financial health including Employee Assistance Programme, financial protection, life cover and will writing, medical protection, gym, travel and retail discounts, and more.
• Company car / car allowance (role-specific), cycle to work scheme.
• Career development and life-long learning opportunities.

Life at Ricoh: Ricoh’s Core Values encourage us to constantly improve and contribute to the wellbeing of all stakeholders, including our customers, employees and society. For our leaders, we deliver training and mentorship to ensure our managers can positively contribute to our company culture, with inclusive behaviours that are aligned to our values.

We are an equal opportunities employer. We are open to discussing adjustments to the recruitment process if needed. No applicant or employee will be treated less favourably than another on the grounds of a protected characteristic which are defined as sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender reassignment, trade union membership or non-membership, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race and religion or belief.

Striving for inclusion and diversity isn’t just the right thing to do. Diverse approaches, perspectives and experiences make us more innovative, lead to better decisions and help us better understand the needs of our customers.