Category Specialist

Role Summary:

The Sourcing Specialist is responsible for developing and executing sourcing strategies for the fleet category, which encompasses Commercial Vehicles (Truck and bus), Yellow Equipment, Agricultural Equipment, LDVs, Trailers, and other Fleet equipment. The role focuses on minimising Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) while ensuring operational availability, standardisation, and supplier performance. This includes managing supplier relationships, and achieving value targets. This role involves market research, supplier negotiations, contract management, and ensuring compliance with procurement policies and regulatory requirements to ensure the availability of fleet-related resources.

The sourcing specialist needs to partner with Fleet Managers and Operations to understand technical requirements (payload, terrain, safety specs), be commercially minded, strategic, analytical with strong negotiation skills and deliver value through strategic sourcing, supply consolidation and cost management, while mitigating supplier risk and ensuring ethical sourcing.

Duties:

Strategic Sourcing & Supplier Management
• Develop and implement sourcing strategies to achieve value and benefits
• Identify, evaluate, and onboard suppliers based on agreed criteria
• Build and maintain strong supplier relationships to drive SRM, value and innovation

Category Intelligence & Market Analysis
• Conduct market research and benchmarking to identify industry trends, supplier capabilities, competitor activity and expected international  trend impact
• Monitor supplier markets and assess risks

Negotiation & Contract Management
• Lead supplier negotiations to secure competitive pricing, favourable contract terms, and service level agreements
• Collaborate with legal and procurement teams to ensure contracts comply with company policies and relevant regulatory and legal requirements

Value Creation
• Identify cost-saving opportunities through supplier consolidation, process improvement, and demand management
• Develop business cases for strategic sourcing initiatives and track value creation in line with the benefits methodology

Procurement Compliance & Risk Management
• Ensure procurement activities comply with company policies, industry regulations, and ethical sourcing standards
• Mitigate procurement risks through supplier due diligence and effective contract management

Stakeholder Collaboration & Process Improvement
• Work closely with internal stakeholders to align sourcing strategies with business needs and any relevant category strategies
• Identify opportunities for efficiency improvements in procurement workflows
• Stay updated with industry trends, regulations, and best practices in procurement to recommend and implement innovative sourcing strategies

Skills and Competencies

• Analytical: Ability to analyse data and market trends to make informed decisions.
• E-sourcing platforms: Manage procurement process through use of digital platforms to identify, evaluate and select suppliers.
• Financial skills: Intermediate and above numerical skills including a good understanding of Finance and budget management.
• Negotiation Skills: Strong negotiation abilities to secure favourable terms, conditions and prices from suppliers.
• Communication: Effective communication skills to interact with a variety of stakeholders and suppliers. Good command of the agreed business language.
• Project & Change Management: Capability to manage sourcing initiatives and change in dynamic environments.
• Problem-Solving: Skill in resolving issues related to Procurement, logistics, and supplier relationships.
• Strategic Business Partner: Service oriented mindset aligning business objectives with Procurement and Category strategies.
• Business acumen: The ability to understand the organisations' purpose, strategy and the external landscape, and how the processes and systems help to generate value across the organisation value chain

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