Procurement Strategy Lead IT - Infrastructure & Technical Services

Job Title: Procurement Manager Strategy Lead IT - Infrastructure & TS

Business Function : Business Operations / Procurement

Location: Kingston / London UK

JOB PURPOSE 

ABOUT PROCUREMENT

Part of the Global Business Operation family, Procurement is responsible for significant material and services spend globally with more than 60,000 suppliers, over half of them in Marketing & Business Services. Getting the right services and materials, sustainably sourced and ensuring responsible procurement is critical to ensuring our brands with purpose grow. Our teams work closely with the business to understand stakeholders needs, bring innovation to meet changing consumer, employee and customer needs, and drive financial value for Unilever through competitive buying. We’re at the forefront of digital procurement, bringing new tools and analytics to drive data-based decisions.

ABOUT IT Procurement

Global IT Procurement, manages an annual spend of ~1.3B Euro with a supplier base of about 3,000.  The team has mission of ‘be the trusted advisory team to enable sustainable competitive business solutions and value thru mastery of IT industry and supplier knowledge, total cost of ownership, bold priority, and efficiency.  It operates under ‘Together we Grow Higher’ culture which includes Empower, Empathy, Constructive Challenge, Fulfillment and Have Fun.   

Global Strategic Sourcing Lead IT for Infrastructure and TS is responsible for development and implementation of the sourcing strategy for IT in the areas of Infrastructure and Technical Services. This role will be business-partnering the IT VP Infrastructure & TS.  This role will lead a team and be fully responsible for all global IT spend. This includes Cloud and Infrastructure foundation, Network and Mobile, Security Access Management as well as Employee Experience Tech Platform.  In addition to being part of the IT procurement leadership team, this role should also be a member of the leadership team of the VP Infrastructure and TS.

In this portfolio, Unilever is more and more embarking on long term strategic relationships with global IT companies like Google, Microsoft, BT, Cisco etc. The Global Strategic Sourcing Lead IT for Infrastructure and TS needs to be able to build and drive these relationships with these companies, and with key people in these companies over many years in a non-confrontative way, while still being able to represent and defend Unilever’s interests.

He/she will increase efficiency by driving scale where it makes sense, decreasing fragmentation, pooling expertise across geographies, prioritizing higher impact spend areas, leveraging technology and data, and drive performance that unlocks growth for Unilever.

The role will foster and build a culture of collaboration and agility to enable an efficient project rollout. It will ensure close alignment in strategy with UniOps Service Line Leads, Finance partners, Legal partners, MBS Leadership team and Business Unit Procurement Directors by defining and utilizing a robust support network for the whole team and providing clarity on the ways of works and roles and responsibilities.

RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Partner with Tech Service Leadership team to understand the business needs, bring deep expertise and insights and develop procurement sourcing strategy and supplier relationship management strategy.   

• Connect strategy & execution aligned to Unilever Compass, Global Divisions, Functions & Markets goals and priorities, aligned with Procurement Lighthouse Strategy and UniOps Strategy.

• Deliver against financial targets and other KPIs (including value delivery) as per business plan objectives, accountable for delivery of results from all markets across the globe, Divisions and functions globally.

• Develop and drive vendor rationalization in the set Portfolio at global level and market level by closely working with regional procurement leads, Enterprise Architect team, Service Lines and Sparta Program Team.

• Lead a geographically dispersed team to inspire, develop, and support our people, deliver results, and create and promote a healthy business culture.

• As a member of Global IT procurement leadership team, he/she will be accountable to support to build the talent pipeline, nurture the culture towards Team Vision and Mission.

• Lead rigorous execution of the priorities and transformation initiatives across the globe.

• Ensure Portfolio fundamentals (i.e