Procurement Category Manager

Procurement Category Manager - Hardware Sourcing

A global Financial Services organisation with a large, complex technology estate is expanding its procurement function and creating a dedicated hardware sourcing team. They need an experienced category specialist to own the commercial strategy for one of the biggest and most business critical areas of technology spend across the group.

Servers, storage, networking equipment and end user devices all sit at the core of how this organisation runs. The person in this role will work closely with engineering and infrastructure teams to keep supplier relationships strong, manage exposure to a volatile global supply chain, and make sure the sourcing approach keeps pace with a growing and demanding technology environment.

It is a practical, delivery focused position for someone who wants to combine commercial negotiation with genuine technical partnership, inside an organisation where engineering drives the agenda.

Responsibilities

• Work alongside the category leadership to build and roll out sourcing plans covering the full hardware portfolio
• Run competitive tender processes for compute, storage, networking and related equipment, building the pricing models and negotiation positions behind them
• Take ownership of relationships with major manufacturers and suppliers, agreeing pricing, warranty terms and support arrangements directly
• Track supplier delivery, stock allocation and equipment lifecycles, flagging risks to supply before they become problems
• Sit alongside technical teams as their go to person on sourcing, converting engineering plans into supplier decisions and cost comparisons
• Work with procurement peers across other regions to keep commercial approaches and processes consistent
• Stay close to the wider hardware market, including component supply, pricing movement and availability risk, to inform sourcing choices
• Keep procurement activity aligned to internal policy and governance, with clean records maintained in the relevant systems
• Look for ways to use automation and AI tools to remove manual effort from routine sourcing tasks

What we are looking for

• 5 years working in technology procurement or category management, with real depth in hardware specifically
• Direct experience buying servers, compute, storage and networking equipment at scale
• A history of running full sourcing projects solo, from the initial business request through to a signed contract
• Confidence negotiating commercial terms directly with manufacturers and distributors, covering price, contract length, warranty and support
• Solid understanding of how hardware supply chains actually work in practice, including delivery timeframes, stock constraints and refresh cycles
• Comfort building cost models and total cost comparisons to support sourcing decisions
• A track record of working closely with technical stakeholders and translating what they need into a commercial plan
• Experience working across multiple regions or business units with different priorities
• Familiarity with sourcing platforms such as Coupa or SAP Ariba
• A relevant degree in a business, supply chain, finance or engineering discipline
• Exposure to operational resilience requirements or third party risk frameworks would be useful
• A recognised procurement qualification would be an advantage but is not essential