Senior Buyer / Category Manager
Salary: Up to £60,000 per annum
Location: Hybrid – Aylesbury (2 days per week onsite)
Hours: Full-time, 37.5 hours per week

Our client, a large and well-established organisation within the care and not-for-profit sector, is seeking an experienced Senior Buyer / Category Manager to join their procurement team. This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in delivering procurement strategy across the IT, Marketing and HR categories, partnering with stakeholders to deliver commercial value, innovation and operational excellence.

The organisation is currently undergoing significant investment and transformation across its estate and technology landscape, making this an ideal time to join and help shape procurement strategy during a period of change and growth.

The Role

As Senior Buyer / Category Manager, you will be responsible for developing and implementing category strategies that align with business objectives while ensuring best value and sustainable supplier relationships.

Key responsibilities include:

• Partnering with key stakeholders to understand medium and long-term business requirements.
• Leading end-to-end procurement activities, including RFIs, RFQs and tender processes.
• Developing and managing strategic supplier relationships to drive innovation, continuous improvement and best practice.
• Maximising return on investment across third-party spend.
• Collaborating with internal teams to ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget.
• Managing commercial risk through effective negotiations and robust contractual agreements.
• Identifying opportunities to improve efficiencies and reduce waste through strategic sourcing initiatives.

About You

We are looking for an experienced procurement professional with strong category expertise across IT, Marketing and HR. You will be commercially astute, highly analytical and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, evolving environment.

The ideal candidate will have:

• Proven experience in a Senior Buyer or Category Manager role.
• Strong knowledge of IT, Marketing and HR procurement categories.
• Experience managing end-to-end tender processes and supplier negotiations.
• Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to evaluate proposals from both cost and risk perspectives.
• Experience drafting, negotiating and managing supplier contracts.
• The ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver results in a changing environment.
• A proactive, solutions-focused approach and a "can-do" attitude.

Desirable:

• Degree educated.
• CIPS qualification (or working towards).

What's on Offer

In return, our client offers a competitive salary and an attractive benefits package, including:

• Competitive pension scheme.
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing to 30 days with length of service.
• Life assurance.
• Employee discounts across shopping, dining, leisure and more.
• The opportunity to join an organisation making a genuine difference while investing heavily in its future.