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About the Role

As a key leadership role, the Category Manager will lead nationally critical categories, working closely with Category Leads to set the vision, direction, and culture of high-performing teams. You will drive growth, embed best practice tools and processes, and deliver world-class category management. This role is central to our strategic delivery, requiring agility, creativity, and the ability to work at pace in a dynamic environment to support excellent patient care. You will develop and implement category strategies to strengthen the supply chain, reduce risk, create competitive advantage, and deliver savings. Through effective product range management and close collaboration with stakeholders, you will maximise value for both NHS customers and NHS Supply Chain. Building strong cross-functional and external relationships will be essential, enabling you to identify opportunities, improve ways of working, and drive efficiencies while enhancing service and value for the NHS.

Responsibilities

Manage a category plan/program in line with the organisations' commercial strategy ensuring realisation of synergies, like cost savings and risk-reduction, and optimisation of the category delivery, while reporting to senior colleagues.
Explore and develop a strong understanding of external developments or emerging issues and evaluate their potential impact on, or usefulness to, the organisation.
Resolve queries from internal or external customers or suppliers by providing information on complex processes and the related policies, referring to others where necessary for interpretation of policy.
Set clear objectives for each category; use standard materials to make a presentation to the customer; and ask relevant questions to evaluate the customer's level of interest and to identify and respond to areas requiring further information or explanation.
Conduct research using primary data sources and select information needed for the analysis of key themes and trends.
Support senior leaders to build and optimise important relationships and interactions with external and internal stakeholders, including key decision makers, regulators, public organisations, governmental institutions, suppliers, NHS providers, professional communities, and customer and patient groups. Work with guidance from senior colleagues.
Develop own capabilities by participating in assessment and development planning activities as well as formal and informal training and coaching; gain or maintain external professional accreditation where relevant to improve performance and fulfil personal potential. Maintain an understanding of relevant technology, external regulation, and industry best practices through ongoing education, attending conferences, and reading specialist media.
Lead and deliver sourcing activities to support end-to-end procurement processes, ensuring compliance, value for money, and effective supplier selection.

Requirements

Educated to a high standard.
Experience of Category Management.
Evidence of successfully co-ordinating the work of others.
Commitment to obtaining CIPS qualification whilst in role if not already held.

Skills

Works without supervision and provides technical guidance when required on analysing data trends for use in reports to help guide decision making.
Works without supervision and provides technical guidance when required on analysing data from multiple sources to draw appropriate conclusions and make suitable recommendations.
Uses clear and effective verbal communications skills without supervision and provides technical guidance when required on expressing ideas, requesting actions and formulating plans or policies.
Uses comprehensive knowledge and skills to negotiate independently while providing guidance and training to others on how to help the organisation by obtaining consensus between two or more internal or external parties who may have different interests.
Works without supervision and provides technical guidance when required on developing appropriate plans or performing necessary actions based on recommendations and requirements.
Communicates with other people without requiring supervision and provides technical guidance when required on speaking in a clear, concise, and compelling manner.

Location

Hybrid – within one of our offices (Nottingham, Alfreton, Daresbury, London, Sheffield or Wakefield)

Work Type

Hybrid
Permanent

Experience Level

Category Management experience

Education Level

High standard of education
CIPS qualification (or commitment to obtain)

Salary/Compensations

£47,874 with the potential to rise to £56,322 over 3 years

Benefits

Hybrid working opportunities
Annual bonus schemes
Long service awards
Colleague recognition awards
27 days holiday plus bank holidays
In-house training
Support for external qualifications
1 day of paid well-being leave
Free access to the 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme
Generous pension scheme (12% employer contribution)
Access to Flexible Benefits Scheme (Life Insurance, Critical Illness Cover, Income Protection, Health Cash Plan, Dental Insurance, additional pension contributions)
2 days of paid volunteering leave
Access to discounts from the Blue Light Card
Access to discounts from NHS Discounts

About the Company

NHS Supply Chain's role is to support the NHS to save lives and improve health.
We are part of the NHS family, and our role is to source, deliver and supply healthcare products, services and food for NHS trusts and healthcare organisations across England and Wales.
We serve every NHS Trust and operate a national network of distribution centres, managing relationships with more than a thousand suppliers and delivering more than 8,000,000 orders each year to more than 17,000 locations.
Doing all of this on behalf of the NHS gives NHS staff more time to focus on their main priority of providing excellent patient care.
SCCL is a company Registered in England and Wales, with company number 10881715, to act as the management function of the NHS Supply Chain.

Equal Opportunity

At NHS Supply Chain, we are committed to building an inclusive environment where difference is not only valued, but celebrated, giving everyone the opportunity to thrive in their career.
Developing our people is key to our success, so if this role sounds like the right next step in your career but your experience doesn’t match perfectly with the job advert, we encourage you to still apply.
Struggling to complete our application form, and require additional support? Reach out to our Talent Acquisition team at careers@supplychain.nhs.uk who will be happy to help you with alternative ways to apply.
To keep our recruitment process efficient, we may close the advert early if application numbers are high. If you’re interested, we recommend applying promptly.
We reserve the right to close any vacancy from further submissions when we have received sufficient applications from which to make a shortlist. Please apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.