Category Lead

Category Lead
Location: Hybrid - Warwick (3 days onsite)
Pay rate: £550 per day inside IR35 via Umbrell
Contract Length: 8 Month Contract

Are you a hands-on procurement professional who thrives in complex, multi-stakeholder environments?
Do you enjoy shaping frameworks, developing scopes, and bringing clarity to early-stage procurement activity?

This is an excellent opportunity to join a major global organisation as it builds a new procurement framework within its Corporate Affairs/External Affairs function. You'll work closely with a supportive team, playing a key role in defining the pre-procurement strategy and establishing the foundations of a multi-lot framework.

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead stakeholder mapping and ongoing stakeholder engagement across business functions.
• Develop detailed scopes of work for multiple lots within Corporate Affairs.
• Support early procurement strategy, including options analysis, timelines, and documentation.
• Ensure all pre-procurement activity aligns with PA23 compliance requirements.
• Work closely with Procurement and Corporate Affairs teams to shape go-to-market approaches.
• Provide structured, hands-on input to enable the framework build and support future sourcing activity.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Procurement experience, ideally within public sector, utilities, regulated sectors, or large complex environments.
• Strong foundation in contract management, supplier relationship management, and end-to-end procurement delivery.
• Experience producing scopes, requirements documents, and other pre-procurement assets.
• Confident communicator with strong stakeholder engagement abilities.
• Exposure to PA23 or similar compliance-driven procurement frameworks.
• Comfortable working independently while taking direction from stakeholders at varying levels of seniority.

Desirable

• Previous involvement in building or contributing to a procurement framework, ideally across multiple lots.
• Experience within Corporate Affairs/External Affairs categories.
• Knowledge of SAP, Ariba or similar procurement tools.
• Experience working in global or multi-site organisations.

Please note: Due to the high volume of applications, only successful candidates will be contacted. If you do not hear from us within 48 hours, unfortunately, your application has not been successful on this occasion. However, we may retain your details for any future suitable vacancies and contact you accordingly.

Pontoon is an employment consultancy. We put expertise, energy, and enthusiasm into improving everyone's chance of being part of the workplace. We respect and appreciate people of all ethnicities, generations, religious beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, and more. We do this by showcasing their talents, skills, and unique experience in an inclusive environment that helps them thrive. If you require reasonable adjustments at any stage, please let us know and we will be happy to support you.
We use generative AI tools to support our candidate screening process. This helps us ensure a fair, consistent, and efficient experience for all applicants. Rest assured, all final decisions are made by our hiring team, and your application will be reviewed with care and attention.