Procurement Category Manager - Insurance in Slough

Exciting opportunity with our client to help build teams from the ground up. What makes this especially compelling is that you’re not just stepping into a role—you’re helping shape how the business operates moving forward, with real visibility and impact. It’s a chance to be part of a well-known global brand at a pivotal moment of transformation and growth.

Location: United Kingdom - London - Hybrid

Role Overview:

• Owns the end-to-end Risk & Insurance procurement category, including strategy development, sourcing, contracting, and ongoing carrier/broker management across key insurance spend areas (e.g., property, casualty, auto, cyber, D&O, E&O, general liability, workers’ compensation, specialty lines, umbrella).
• Acts as the primary commercial partner to Risk Management, Finance, Legal, and business stakeholders, translating risk and coverage requirements into effective category/sourcing strategies and contract structures.
• Leads commercial negotiations with insurers and brokers to deliver optimal total cost of risk, cost savings and avoidance, robust coverage, and risk mitigation while ensuring that service-level outcomes align with business priorities.
• Plays a critical role in standing up and maturing the indirect procurement function, with specific focus on insurance program design, provider selection, and contract execution in a separation/stand-up environment.
• Ensures all insurance-related providers, their selection, and contracts comply with regulatory requirements, the company’s code of conduct, and internal procurement and risk policies.
• Participates as an invited member of the senior risk/finance leadership forums, acting as the bridge between business leadership and procurement, while providing commercial input and ensuring strategic alignment of insurance programs with enterprise risk appetite.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain a multi-year risk & insurance category strategy, including detailed spend and loss analyses by line of coverage, demand and exposure assessments, sourcing roadmaps, and policy renewal calendars.
• Ensure category strategies support the organization’s objectives for resilience, safety, sustainability, and operational continuity.
• Lead scoping, RFPs, market exercises, and negotiation of insurance policies and broker agreements, including commercial terms, coverage limits and sub-limits, deductibles/retentions, SLAs, pricing models, and risk provisions.
• Partner closely with Risk Management, Finance, Treasury, Legal, and business units to understand risk exposures and coverage needs, align on priorities, and ensure contracts support operational, strategic, and legal requirements.
• Establish and manage ongoing performance and governance for insurers and brokers, including scorecards, QBRs, issue and claim escalation, service quality, and value realization tracking across the insurance portfolio.
• Support transition and stand-up activities as part of the separation (e.g., Day 1 readiness, stand-up of new master policies/programs, novation or migration from legacy contracts), ensuring continuity of critical insurance coverage.
• Drive standardization and optimization of insurance procurement processes, documentation, and controls as part of building a scalable indirect procurement model.
• Monitor insurance market trends, regulatory changes, and emerging risks; provide insights into the budget process, sourcing strategies, renewal plans, and risk financing recommendations.
• Collaborate with internal risk owners to identify opportunities for loss prevention and risk engineering that can improve terms and reduce total cost of risk.
• Act as an agent of change by respectfully challenging the status quo to ensure optimum outcomes are achieved between Risk Management, Finance, and Procurement.

Experience & Qualifications:

• 8–10+ years of experience in procurement, category management, strategic sourcing, or risk/insurance management, with direct experience managing insurance and/or risk financing categories (carrier or broker side experience a plus).
• Proven track record of leading complex commercial negotiations with insurers and brokers and managing strategic vendor relationships in a matrixed, global environment.
• Strong understanding of insurance products, program structures, and market models (e.g., primary/excess towers, captives, global programs, brokerage models, TPA arrangements).
• Experience supporting organizational change, separations/carve-outs, or procurement function stand-ups is strongly preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree and/or professional designations (e.g., CPCU, ARM, or procurement certifications such as CPSM) are a plus.
• Strong analytical and financial skills, including comfort with exposure and loss data, scenario modeling, and total cost of risk analyses.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills, with an ability to work effectively across risk, finance, legal, and business teams.

What Makes This Opportunity Unique:

• Shape and build a new indirect procurement organization from the ground up, including stand-up of critical insurance contracts and development of the overarching insurance sourcing and risk financing strategy for the new company.
• Play a visible, strategic role with senior leadership at a pivotal moment for the business, ensuring that insurance programs enable growth while protecting the company’s balance sheet.