Job Type : Permanent
Hours of Work : Full-time
Location : Hybrid, with access to the Conscia office in Portchester
Department : Finance
Reporting to : CFO
About Conscia
Conscia is a leading provider of cybersecurity, networking, hybrid cloud, and observability solutions for mission-critical IT infrastructure in large European organisations. Conscia’s experts design, implement, and run innovative, customised IT solutions across cybersecurity, networking, hybrid cloud, and observability, supporting our customers throughout their technology lifecycles. Founded in 2003, Conscia is owned by private equity investor Nordic Capital. With around 1,500 employees, Conscia serves large organisations in finance, healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, retail, and the public sector from offices in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK.
People and Culture
We believe our company culture is part of what makes us special: it’s part of what people love about working here. We’re dedicated to nurturing this positive and inclusive culture, so that people are empowered to bring their whole selves to work each day. Our goal is to foster an environment where people feel valued, heard, and supported, and where they can thrive and succeed. This is reflected in our company values: Inspire Trust, Commit to Collaborate, Deliver on Promise, Learn for Life and Embrace Sustainable Change.
The Role – What YOU will be doing at Conscia
The Supplier Contracts Manager is a newly established role reporting to the CFO responsible for creating and operating a central supplier governance capability across Conscia UK. The postholder will ensure supplier selection, contracting, onboarding, performance management and lifecycle governance for technology vendors (hardware and software such as Microsoft and Cisco), professional services and support partners, telecommunications providers (Claranet, Vodafone, PXE), facilities and general suppliers. The role will create and maintain the contract repository, define preferred supplier coverage, run performance reviews, manage supplier issues and embed industry best practice — operating independently without direct reports and partnering closely with the CTO team to ensure suppliers are technically acceptable and fully integrated into Conscia’s Technical Supplier Onboarding Process.
Required skills, experience and effective behaviours
Essential
- Proven experience owning supplier contract management and governance in an IT services or technology environment.
- Hands on experience with technology vendors, telecom providers and third party professional services contracting.
- Strong commercial acumen with demonstrable experience protecting margin and negotiating supplier terms.
- Experience building and operating supplier performance frameworks and running remediation plans.
- Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills across Sales, Finance, Legal, Service Delivery, IT and the CTO team.
- Highly organised, detail oriented and able to translate contract terms into operational and technical controls.
Nice to have
- Familiarity with ITIL, third party risk frameworks and supplier security assessments.
- Experience in private equity backed or high growth service businesses.
Success Measures :
- Central contract database established and maintained with 100 percent of critical supplier contracts recorded and renewal alerts active.
- Preferred supplier coverage in place for all key categories and demonstrable reduction in ad hoc supplier usage.
- Supplier performance improvement measured by uplift in SLA compliance, reduced incidents and fewer service credits.
- Margin protection evidenced by reduction in unmanaged scope and margin leakage attributable to supplier contracts.
- Onboarding control with gating controls preventing premature supplier use and consistent, auditable onboarding evidence.
- Governance cadence with scheduled supplier reviews and QBRs completed on time and documented remediation where required.
- Executive confidence with CFO, CTO and Exec Team reporting clear visibility and confidence in supplier risk posture and commercial viability.
Supplier Strategy and Preferred Supplier Framework
- Develop and maintain a preferred supplier strategy and category playbooks for technology, professional services, telecoms, facilities and general suppliers.
- Define selection criteria, commercial models, risk appetite and preferred contracting approaches.
- Work with Procurement, Sales, Service Delivery, Project Management and Finance to ensure supplier choices support margin, delivery capability and strategic objectives.
- Drive consolidation to preferred suppliers where it improves commercial leverage, operational simplicity and service quality.
Contract Lifecycle Ownership and Database
- Own the end to end supplier contract lifecycle: selection, negotiation, execution, onboarding, renewal and exit.
- Create and maintain a central contract database capturing contract terms, SLAs, KPIs, renewal dates, financial commitments and escalation contacts.
- Standardise contract templates and mandatory clauses for SLAs, change control, warranties, indemnities and exit terms in collaboration with Legal.
- Ensure contract metadata is complete and searchable so commercial, service delivery and finance teams can access authoritative supplier information.
Onboarding and Readiness Governance
- Design and operate a supplier onboarding framework with mandatory gating controls that prevent supplier use until operational, technical and commercial readiness are confirmed.
- Coordinate cross functional readiness checks with Service Delivery, IT, the CTO team, Sales Operations and Finance to validate tooling, integration, support and commercial mapping.
- Maintain onboarding checklists and evidence packs for auditability and ensure the Technical Supplier Onboarding Process is followed for all technology suppliers.
- Ensure the CTO team is engaged early in supplier evaluation and that technical acceptance is captured as a required onboarding gate.
Performance Management and Remediation
- Define supplier KPIs and scorecards covering delivery, quality, cost to serve, incident rates, SLA compliance and responsiveness.
- Run regular supplier performance reviews and Quarterly Business Reviews with internal stakeholders and supplier account teams.
- Lead supplier escalation and remediation for contract breaches, service credits or margin erosion and recommend contractual or commercial remedies.
- Work with the CTO team to ensure technical performance metrics and integration health are included in supplier scorecards.
Commercial Oversight and Systems Mapping
- Validate supplier commercial models and ensure accurate mapping into Netsuite and financial systems including part codes, pricing rules and revenue recognition.
- Monitor cost to serve and margin impact of supplier relationships and recommend commercial or operational changes to protect profitability.
- Provide supplier inputs to deal qualification and pricing decisions and challenge assumptions that create unmanaged risk or margin leakage.
Risk Compliance and Controls
- Ensure suppliers meet regulatory, security and data protection requirements and maintain evidence such as certifications and audit reports.
- Conduct third party risk assessments and embed mitigation actions and contractual protections.
- Coordinate technical risk assessments with the CTO team and ensure any required technical controls, access restrictions or network segmentation are captured in the contract and onboarding evidence.
Stakeholder Engagement and Influence
- Act as the single point of accountability for supplier governance across the business and a trusted adviser to the CFO and the LT
- Drive adoption of supplier governance processes through stakeholder engagement, playbooks and clear operating rhythms.
- Provide timely, evidence backed recommendations on renewals, escalations and supplier strategy.
- Partner with the CTO team to ensure technical acceptance authority is respected and that technical actions are tracked and closed before go live.
We constantly review our benefits package to ensure our people are enabled to effectively fulfil their roles. Our current benefits package includes:
- 25 days of annual leave, plus bank holidays and a buy/sell holiday scheme where you can buy/sell up to 5 days each year
- A day off for your birthday
- Flexible working
- Up to 40 days of occupational sick pay
- Life assurance
- Private healthcare
- Electric vehicle lease scheme
- Bicycle purchase scheme
- Enhanced maternity and paternity pay
- Voucher rewards through YuLife
- A positive and supportive culture to help you bring your best self to work
- Ongoing support for your professional development
