At National Grid, our commitment to a cleaner, greener energy future is powered by the dedication and ingenuity of our people. Join our team as a Category Buyer and be a part of something bigger—where your unique skills and passions can make a real difference. Together, we are superpowered.
As a Category Buyer, working alongside a Procurement Programme Manager (Band D) or Senior Category Buyer, you'll be at the forefront of shaping and delivering complex procurement strategies that support our major capital programmes.
You'll build strong, collaborative relationships with stakeholders across the business, work closely with colleagues within Procurement, and engage confidently with our supply chain and joint venture partners to ensure seamless delivery.
You'll take the lead in understanding the needs, priorities, and long term goals of the business—translating them into a clear, aligned procurement strategy. This includes developing go to market plans for a variety of work packages and designing commercial and contract models that drive value and achieve defined business outcomes.
This is a fantastic opportunity to make a meaningful impact, shape strategic decisions, and contribute to the successful delivery of high value initiatives across the organisation.
This role is based out of our Warwick office, with hybrid working. We're happy to discuss any additional flexibility in working patterns or requirements that you feel could help to make this job work for you
What You'll Do:
1. Translate business requirements into clear and actionable supply chain requirements, by collaborating with stakeholders to develop and maintain the pipeline of future procurements.
2. Collaborate with relevant Senior Category Buyer or directly with stakeholder counterparts to define the procurement strategy including delivery model, commercial construct, and go-to-market approach in order to frontload preparations with the supply chain and internal teams.
3. Ensure co-ordination of the relevant Procurement teams including category managers, supply chain risk teams, strategic supplier leads, market supplier development to stitch together expertise from across the function in building the
4. Procurement strategy across the capital programmes.
5. Drive successful procurement programme management including ownership of programme plans, operating in a matrix team, critical path management & risk to ensure on-time contract award.
6. Integrate yourself into wider cross functional teams in order to gain understanding of market capacity and other insights to enable more robust supply chain planning in your capital programmes.
7. Supporting in the assessment of and mitigating key risks that could impact on the delivery of the supply chain plan, typically, L2/L3 procurement-related risks for the BU. Creates environment to manage programme related risks through relevant stakeholders & DV heads.
8. Roll up Procurement performance from across Procurement teams to support Business Unit (BU) meetings/reporting.
What You'll Have:
9. Procurement and commercial strategy experience in construction capital procurement on large-scale infrastructure or construction programmes.
10. Ability to operate within cross-functional teams and experience of programme management.
11. Experience of managing capital procurement programmes within a supply chain / commercial context
12. Demonstrable ability to forge strong relationships with key stakeholders and supply chain.
13. Experience of commercial / contract development, particularly construction contracts and building commercial strategies (FIDIC / NEC4 desirable).
14. An understanding of regulatory environment and regulated procurement is desirable.
15. Experience with sourcing software & systems (e.g., SAP Ariba, Coupa) is desirable.
16. CIPS qualification (or progression towards CIPS) is preferred, though not essential.
Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At National Grid, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace for everyone. So, if you're excited about this role but your experience or qualifications don't match the job description exactly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might just be the right person for our growing business in this role or another one.
What You'll Get:
A competitive salary of £43,000–£52,000 dependent on capability.
As well as your base salary you will receive a bonus based on personal and company performance and a competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%.
You will also have access to several flexible benefits such as a share incentive plan, salary sacrifice car and technology schemes, support via employee assistance lines and matched charity giving to name a few.
About Us:
National Grid is pioneering ways to decarbonise the energy system; from building interconnectors to allow the UK to share clean energy with our neighbours in Europe, to investing in renewable energy generation in the United States.
As one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world, National Grid is at the centre of a clean, fair and affordable energy future, where tackling climate change and reaching net zero is a key priority. National Grid is pioneering ways to decarbonise the energy system; from building interconnectors to allow the UK to share clean energy with our neighbours in Europe, to investing in renewable energy generation in the United States.
More Information:
This role closes on 4 March at 23:59, at 23:59, however we encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible and not wait until the published closing date as this can vary.
Please note that in most cases, National Grid is unable to offer sponsorship for employment under the UK points-based immigration system. As such, applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK without requiring sponsorship now or in the future under the UK points-based immigration system. However, in exceptional circumstances where there is a clear and demonstrable need for specialist skills that cannot be sourced from the local labour market, National Grid may consider offering sponsorship. All applications are welcome from candidates who meet these requirements, regardless of race, nationality, or ethnic origin.
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