Global Category Manager, Professional Services (UK) (London, GB)
Sales & Business Development
London, UK
Job Summary
We are looking for an accomplished and commercially minded Global Category Manager, Professional Services to join our Supply Chain Management team in London.
This is a senior, high-impact procurement role offering the opportunity to take end-to-end ownership of an assigned Professional Services sub-category, while also leading strategic, high-value and complex sourcing initiatives across the wider Professional Services portfolio. The portfolio for this position will have a particular focus on Legal Services and Management Consultancy.
You will partner closely with senior stakeholders, translating business priorities into effective category and sourcing strategies, shaping demand, developing supplier and channel approaches, and building a strong pipeline of opportunities. You will be accountable for delivering commercial value while ensuring that risk, sustainability and governance considerations are embedded throughout the procurement lifecycle.
This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced procurement professional who combines strategic thinking with strong commercial judgement, sophisticated stakeholder management and the ability to lead through influence.
Key Responsibilities
- Take end-to-end ownership of the assigned Professional Services sub-category, developing, implementing and continuously evolving its category strategy, objectives, roadmap and supply chain priorities.
- Act as a trusted strategic procurement partner to senior stakeholders, understanding their priorities, anticipating future demand and translating business requirements into an actionable category pipeline.
- Lead strategic, high-value and complex sourcing initiatives across the broader Professional Services portfolio, from sourcing strategy and market engagement through negotiation, supplier selection, governance and implementation.
- Build a forward-looking pipeline with a focus on longer-term value creation and commercially sound, scalable solutions.
- Develop effective supplier, panel and channel strategies, drawing on stakeholder priorities, spend analysis, market intelligence, risk considerations and sustainability objectives.
- Shape and challenge demand constructively, identifying opportunities to enhance commercial value, improve efficiency and optimise supply-chain outcomes.Lead commercial negotiations and sourcing strategies that balance commercial value, risk, sustainability, governance and business requirements.
- Take accountability for end-to-end vendor onboarding, coordinating effectively with relevant stakeholders and risk functions.
- Partner across Supply Chain Management to deliver an integrated and effective service to supported business functions.Embed the Bank's sustainability priorities into category strategies, sourcing decisions, supplier relationships and contracts, as appropriate.
- Leverage digital tools, data analytics and AI capabilities, including market intelligence, spend analytics, contract analysis and vendor insights, to strengthen sourcing strategies and support data-driven decision-making.
- Support supplier risk management, regulatory requirements and governance, identifying and appropriately escalating risks, issues and instances of non-compliance.
- Provide procurement and commercial guidance to stakeholders on sourcing, vendor management, outsourcing, contract management and wider SCM matters.
- Lead through influence and subject-matter expertise, helping coordinate sourcing activity and providing guidance to colleagues where appropriate, without formal people-management responsibility.
Skills and Experience
We are looking for a seasoned procurement professional who can operate confidently in a complex, global and highly stakeholder-driven environment.
You will ideally bring:
- Significant experience in strategic sourcing, category management and/or procurement, with the seniority to independently own a complex category and engage credibly with senior stakeholders.
- Strong experience in Professional Services procurement, particularly within Legal Services and/or Management Consultancy, or relevant procurement/category experience within the financial-services sector.
- Strong end-to-end sourcing capability, including category strategy development, demand management, supplier-market engagement, competitive sourcing, negotiation and implementation.
- Excellent commercial acumen and negotiation skills, with the ability to identify value opportunities while balancing business, risk and governance considerations.
- Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with senior and complex stakeholder groups, challenge constructively and influence decisions without relying on formal authority.
- A strategic mindset combined with a hands-on delivery approach, with the ability to move from category strategy to successful execution.
- Strong analytical capability and confidence using market intelligence, spend information, supplier insights and other data to inform procurement strategies and decisions.
- Sound understanding of third-party risk management, governance, internal controls and supplier management within a complex organisation.
- Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity, manage multiple priorities and make sound, timely decisions.
- Strong collaboration skills and the ability to work across business functions, geographies and wider SCM teams.
Qualifications
- A degree or equivalent qualification in Procurement, Supply Chain Management or Law
- CIPS or a similar professional procurement qualification is desirable, but not essential.
- Fluent English is required.
About Standard Chartered
We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before. If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.
Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.
Together we:
- Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do
- Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well
- Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term
What we offer
In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.
- Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
- Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
- Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
- Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
- A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
- Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.
