UCL is one of the world's leading multidisciplinary universities, with more than 18,000 staff and over 51,000 students from more than 150 countries. Alongside our global reputation for teaching and research, we operate a significant and complex commercial environment, spending more than £900 million each year with third-party suppliers.
Commercial & Procurement Services plays an important role in ensuring this investment delivers maximum value for UCL. Our IT&T commercial activity supports the technology, infrastructure, systems and services that underpin UCL's teaching, research and professional services.
As we continue to strengthen our in-house commercial capability, we are looking for an experienced commercial contracts professional to help shape how some of our most important and business-critical IT&T supplier relationships and contracts are managed.
About the role
As Head of Commercial Contracts - IT&T, you will provide senior commercial leadership across a portfolio of strategic, high-value and business-critical IT and technology supplier contracts.
Reporting to the Director of Supply Chain - IT&T, you will lead the commercial and contract management of key suppliers, ensuring contracts are actively managed throughout their lifecycle and continue to deliver value for money, strong service performance and appropriate protection from commercial, operational and supply-chain risk.
You will lead supplier governance and strategic supplier relationships, oversee complex commercial negotiations and contractual change, and use financial and performance insight to identify opportunities to improve value, manage cost and strengthen outcomes. You will also lead the resolution of supplier performance and commercial issues, ensuring appropriate contractual remedies and escalation routes are used where required.
Working closely with Category Management, Finance, Legal, operational stakeholders and suppliers, you will help establish consistent, data-led commercial contract management practices and strengthen UCL's approach to supplier performance, governance and commercial assurance.
This is a senior and specialist role. Salary is likely to be £75,000-£95,000.
A full job description is attached to this advert.
About you
You will be an experienced senior commercial or contract management professional with significant experience of managing, reviewing, negotiating and improving complex contracts within a large, complex or regulated organisation.
You will bring strong knowledge of contract lifecycle management, supplier governance, commercial and financial management, risk and value-for-money delivery. Importantly, you will have a good understanding of contractual terms and mechanisms relevant to IT and technology services, which could include software, IT services, infrastructure or managed services contracts.
You will be confident leading complex supplier negotiations, managing contractual change and resolving commercial disputes or performance issues. Strong analytical capability will enable you to interrogate commercial and financial information, challenge costs and supplier performance, and use data to provide clear insight to senior decision-makers.
You will also be a credible and collaborative senior stakeholder manager, able to advise, influence and constructively challenge senior colleagues, suppliers and cross-functional teams. With strong commercial judgement and a continuous improvement mindset, you will help strengthen supplier accountability and build a high-performing commercial contract management capability across UCL.
What we offer
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:
- 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
- Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme
- Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
- Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
- Relocation scheme for certain posts
- On-site gym
- Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
- Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
- Discounted medical insurance
Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.
Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent.We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.
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Head of Commercial Contracts - IT&T employer: UCL
UCL School of Management is an exceptional employer that fosters a collaborative and innovative work culture, ideal for those passionate about digital communications. Located in the vibrant city of London, employees benefit from professional growth opportunities, access to cutting-edge resources, and a commitment to inclusivity and diversity. Join us to make a meaningful impact while enjoying a supportive environment that values your contributions.
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