Procurement Manager - Argos in London

Argos is entering an exciting new chapter, and we’re building its procurement function from the ground up. It’s a rare chance to bring a start-up mindset to a household name with a long-established legacy – helping a lean, newly formed team manage c.£500m of spend and shape the commercial direction of a business. If you want your work to be visible and to make a real difference to the bottom line, this is a great moment to join.

The role is based in London or Coventry, with hybrid working – typically two days a week in the office on average.

As one of our Procurement Managers, you’ll take end-to-end ownership of the commercial and sourcing strategy for a blend of categories. With a significant proportion of contracts and spend transferring from the existing business, one of your first priorities will be to gain a thorough understanding of the incumbent supply base, develop robust category plans, and create a credible roadmap for value delivery. This will require balancing the efficient management of established contracts with the identification of new sourcing and innovation opportunities, while protecting quality, service, and supply continuity. Your impact will be measured mainly by P&L, alongside CapEx efficiency and working capital. Day to day, you’ll lead sourcing projects and supplier negotiations, agree and manage contracts, and bring in external market insight to challenge established thinking. You’ll also work with colleagues across the business to make change happen. You’ll think creatively about cost and help shape how a brand-new procurement function works.

As the function grows and evolves, there may also be the potential to take on line management responsibility.

You’re a procurement professional who enjoys ownership and pace. You’ve delivered category plans from start to finish, you’re comfortable leading negotiations and working through the detail of contracts, and you use data to build a clear case for change. You’re a self-starter who gets up to speed quickly, handles ambiguity well and brings stakeholders with you to reach decisions. Experience from any fast-paced, complex organisation could transfer well, and time in a smaller business, where working across several categories is normal, may be an advantage. Specialist experience in Technology & Digital or Logistics would be particularly valuable, as would knowledge of Marketing or Property spend. We’re equally keen to hear from category generalists with broad commercial experience.

Essential criteria

• Proven experience developing and delivering end-to-end procurement category plans that balance cost, quality and supply risk.
• Demonstrable experience leading supplier negotiations and applying knowledge of contract law to agree commercial terms.
• Evidence of managing third-party supplier relationships, including maintaining compliance with procurement policies.
• Demonstrable experience leading cross-functional projects to deliver procurement-related business change, including securing stakeholder agreement on priorities and decisions.
• Evidence of using data and analysis to identify and deliver cost savings and supply chain improvements, with measurable outcomes.

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you here at Sainsbury’s. For a FTSE business, we move incredibly fast. When we’re not leading projects, we’re supporting teams across the wider group to achieve their goals. And here, you can see the impact of your work as soon as you walk into a store, giving you a real sense of purpose and responsibility. Better still, the team around you will listen to your ideas and opinions, and you’ll have every chance to try something new. The scale and complexity of our business mean there’s always something new to learn, and we’ll support you every step of the way. We’re trusted to get on with it. So get ready to make things happen.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new — whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

• Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to save 10% on your shopping online and instore at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat, and we regularly increase the discount to 15% at points during the year.
• We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover.
• You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.
• Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy up to an additional week's holiday, and we provide private healthcare.
• We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, salary advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers.
• And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme.
• Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).