Head of Sourcing

The Head of Sourcing will report to the Director of Procurement and is responsible for the strategic management of product categories to maximise value and achieve sustainable savings. This includes developing category strategies, managing supplier relationships, conducting market analysis, and ensuring compliance with procurement policies. Continuous improvement and innovation will be key to driving category performance and delivering value to the business. The Head of Sourcing will play a crucial role in shaping the procurement function's strategic direction, including the development and execution of the Category Management Plan. Reporting directly to the Procurement Director, this role will have line management responsibility for the Fulfilment and Category management teams and will work closely with the Supply Chain Manager to ensure day to day delivery of the pipeline of work. The successful candidate will have a clear understanding of their impact on the organisation and their ability to manage across the whole procurement team. The Head of Sourcing also plays a pivotal role in managing nurturing stakeholder and business relationships across the organisation, collaborating closely with teams from across the business to understand their needs and ensure that they are translated into effective sourcing strategies.What you'll be responsible for As a member of the Procurement Leadership team the role holder will be responsible for: Optimising our category management strategy

• Ensure the creation and execution of category strategies that are fully aligned with DCC's overarching business objectives, driving both short term results and long term sustainability
• Lead the team in conducting comprehensive market analysis to identify emerging trends, potential risks, and new opportunities, enabling data driven decision making across each category
• Oversee the continuous improvement category performance, ensuring the highest standards of quality, cost effectiveness, and on time delivery are consistently achieved
• Direct the delivery of robust pipeline of initiatives focused on maximising value, minimising risk, and ensuring full compliance with regulatory and organisational standards.
Leading the category and Fulfilment team
• Provide leadership to the category and fulfilment team, setting clear goals and objectives aligned to DCC objectives
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and high performance, ensuring the team is motivated, well supported and quipped with necessary skills and resources to succeed
• Develop and implement a comprehensive talent development plan, including mentorship, training, and succession planning, to build a pipeline of future leaders within the team.
Delivering Operational Excellence in Fulfilment
• Oversee the end to end fulfilment process, ensuring that operations are efficient, scalable, and capable of meeting current and future demands
• Drive initiatives that improve the speed, accuracy, and cost effectiveness of the fulfilment function, while maintaining the highest standards of customer service and compliance
• Implement best practices in supply chain management, leveraging technology and innovation to optimise inventory levels, reduce lead times and enhance overall fulfilment performance
Stakeholder and Supplier relationship Management
• Build and maintain strong relationships with key internal stakeholders, ensuring that category and fulfilment strategies are aligned with their needs and expectations
• Lead supplier relationship management efforts, fostering strategic partnerships that drive mutual value and support DCC long term goals
• Act as the primary point of contract for senior leadership on matters related to category management and fulfilment, providing regular updates on performance, risks, and opportunities
Performance and Risk Management
• Take ownership of the performance of the category and fulfilment team, ensuring that activities contribute towards bottom line improvements
• Identify, assess, and mitigate risks related to category and fulfilment operations, ensuring that the team operates within an acceptable risk framework
• Stay abreast of emerging trends and technologies in supply chain management, procurement, and fulfilment, ensuring that the team remains at the forefront of industry developments.
Budget and People Accountability
• Procurement Legal Financial and Commercial Resources as required by the project.
• Number of direct reports tbc
  
  Extensive procurement experience in procurement or supplier chain management, with significant experience of working in leadership roles
• Extensive experience of developing and executing strategic category and fulfilment plans that have resulted in value creation and enhanced operational efficiencies
• Strong understanding of procurement regulations and compliance requirements, with experience in ensuring adherence to polices and standards
• Experience in leading change initiatives, including the implementation of new systems, processes and technologies
• Analytical and data driven with a proven track record of using data to inform strategic decisions, optimise process and identify opportunities for innovation
• Proven ability to work collaboratively with cross functional teams, including finance, operations and retail teams
  
  Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water keep 3 million people healthy each day with safe, reliable water, and take away wastewater to clean, before returning it safely to our beautiful rivers and seas.
To be able to deliver high quality, essential services which help to protect the health of our customers, colleagues and our environment, we need the right people to deliver on our vision. This is achieved by living our core values and demonstrating the core behaviours that underpin them. The security of our people, assets and information is key to us, so we are looking for people who understand and comply with the company's required security objectives. We know that the most successful teams are the most diverse teams. Equality, diversity and inclusion provide the very foundation to our culture at Welsh Water. We want every individual to feel confident, proud and able to bring their whole selves to work. To ensure an improved representation in our workforce, applications are particularly welcome from minority groups including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people, Females, LGBT+, Non-binary and people with disabilities. Together we continue to build a workplace that not only celebrates the diverse voices of our colleagues but also represents each customer we serve. In essence, ours is a company based on trust, openness, respect, commitment and honesty. A company that our colleagues are proud to work for.

As well as a market competitive salary, 36 days annual leave (pro rata, including public holidays), we offer a range of employee benefits and rewards including:
• Variable pay schemes (your salary band will remain the same, but performance depending, you could receive an incremental within-band increase and a yearly incentive)
• Option to buy additional annual leave up to 5 days per year
• Health Insurance plus annual health checks
• Enhanced employer pension contributions - Up to 11% employer contributions
• Free Mortgage Brokering Services
• Enhanced family friendly policies
• Progression opportunities, including the ability to apply for funded training and coaching and mentoring programmes
• Gym and fitness discounts as well as high street shopping
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discount off all Welsh Water visitor attraction centres and gift shops
• Car-leasing scheme and free on-site parking at all sites
• Health CashBack scheme and access to an online GP service
• An employee assistance programme for employees and their immediate family
• Many more can be found here!
Whilst also working for a not-for profit company that truly cares about earning the trust of customers everyday, and about looking after our beautiful environment. Please note, we may close this role sooner if required. We may also extend the original closing date depending on interest. Due to the nature of the industry, we require satisfactory references, post offer medical clearance, and a criminal records Basic Disclosure check on all new employees joining the business. For some roles there may be additional checks and security clearance required, and this offer is subject all checks being satisfied. You will receive further information on how to complete these checks via email once you have accepted this offer.