Ref Number
B28-00301
Professional Expertise
Commercial and Procurement
Department
Finance, Commercial and Estates (B28)
Location
London
Working Pattern
Full time
Salary
£54,931-£64,644
Contract Type
Permanent
Working Type
Hybrid
Available for Secondment
No
Closing Date
02-Sept-2026
UCL is London’s leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 13,000 staff and 42,000 students from 150 countries. As a global leader in teaching and research, our Commercial and Procurement function plays an important role in ensuring UCL receives excellent value from its suppliers while supporting the university’s wider strategic ambitions.
Our procurement teams work across a large, complex and diverse organisation, supporting academic and Professional Services colleagues and helping UCL deliver its Sustainable Procurement Strategy. We are focused not simply on cost, but on achieving long-term value, improving supplier performance, strengthening sustainability and enabling investment in UCL’s 2034 strategic plan.
We are looking for an experienced Senior Category Manager to join UCL’s STEM Opex and Marketplace team. This is a varied commercial role with responsibility for a portfolio of key operational expenditure and eMarketplace suppliers, helping ensure that UCL staff and researchers can access the goods and services they need efficiently and effectively.
You will lead commercial negotiations, manage supplier relationships and performance, oversee contract compliance and work closely with stakeholders to resolve service and commercial issues. You will use spend and supplier data to identify opportunities for savings and service improvement, while taking a broader total cost of ownership approach to delivering value.
Alongside managing your portfolio, you will contribute to the continued development of UCL’s Marketplace and wider procurement transformation. This includes supporting eMarketplace optimisation, supplier onboarding, sustainability initiatives and process improvements, as well as providing guidance and mentoring to junior colleagues. Working across Procurement, Finance, academic departments and external suppliers, you will have the opportunity to make a visible impact across a complex and high-profile organisation.
You will be a commercially astute procurement, category or supplier management professional who is comfortable working in a large and complex organisation. You will have strong experience of managing commercial contracts and supplier relationships, including performance reviews and negotiations that have delivered measurable value and service improvements.
You will be confident using spend, service and supplier data to inform decisions and identify opportunities, and able to balance day-to-day operational priorities with longer-term commercial and continuous improvement activity. Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills will be important, as you will build relationships across academic and Professional Services teams as well as with external suppliers.
You will also bring experience of negotiating complex, large-scale commercial solutions, the ability to identify opportunities and build compelling cases for change, and the confidence to communicate effectively with senior stakeholders. CIPS accreditation is desirable rather than essential.
This is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys combining category management, commercial negotiation, supplier performance and operational improvement and wants to deliver tangible impact within one of the world’s leading universities.
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below: • 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days) • Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme • Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE) • Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan • Immigration loan • Relocation scheme for certain posts • On-Site nursery • On-site gym • Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay • Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service • Discounted medical insurance Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/reward-and-benefits to find out more.
As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent.We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.
