Director of Commercial and Procurement

As Director of Commercial and Procurement, you will be responsible for setting the strategic direction and implementation of our 3rd Party and Property activity across the organisation, driving the ongoing development of the function and delivery against the business needs. You will work closely with our key suppliers through formal bid processes and ongoing in-life management to ensure that Thames has the goods and services that it needs to run the organisation and implement new thinking and innovation. You will ensure that these goods and services are delivered at the right quality and right cost throughout the contract lifecycle and that trade-offs between the two are clearly understood by the organisation.

You will require an understanding of the organisational needs both today and in the future and deliver market-based solutions to allow the business to achieve those needs.  The role requires close working with internal business stakeholders to flex the service proposition over time but also to challenge the status quo to bring new thinking, products and service offerings into the organisation.  You will require strong commercial management to ensure that value is delivered for every £ spent by the organisation.

The role requires your leadership to deal with significant commercial disputes that emerge with high-level financial risks. This requires strong levels of strategy, diplomacy and negotiation ability to settle.

You will ensure delivery across several service lines, including Procurement, Supplier Management, Accounts Payable, Quantity Surveying, Estimating and Property.  This covers approximately £4 billion of spend annually with a budget of £9m per annum.
You will work with a leadership team which covers each of these individual elements and ensures that the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

What you’ll be doing as Director of Commercial and Procurement
Functional Leadership:

• Demonstrate leadership across the team through several interactions.
• Engage with key stakeholders internally and externally to ensure functional delivery is supporting the broader mission.
• Align lead team and provide oversight to deliver, course-correcting where appropriate.
• Identify appropriate functional KPIs and measure performance against these.

Develop and deliver a Procurement and Supplier Management strategy that meets the needs of the organisation:

• Detailed understanding of the business needs today and over the next 5-10 years.
• Align the teams and commercial strategy to deliver these needs.
• Leverage the team to bring new thinking into the organisation to drive positive change.

Delivers a group-wide Supplier Management strategy:

• Set the strategy for Supplier Management across the organisation utilising market best practices to ensure that suppliers are continually delivering against contractual commitment and that new value can be delivered through productive supply chain relationships.

Chair of Contracts Committee:

• Chair the key governance sign-off for major agreements across Thames Water.
• Ensure high levels of rigour are applied to suggested strategies and approvals.
• Share best practices across the organisation.

Property & Estates strategy:

• Ensure the development of property strategy including the Head Office strategy, planning at a site level, property sales and development to support operational requirements and drive cash receipts for the organisation.

Accounts Payable:

• Drive continual performance and efficiency in Accounts Payable ensuring that compliance is delivered and payment performance to our supply chain is delivered.
• Ensure accurate govt reporting on payment performance is delivered.

Estimating:

• Estimating service is delivered across the organisation to appropriately cost projects and understand cost trade-offs of differing solutions across our capital delivery projects.

Base location – Clearwater Court, Reading - Hybrid

What you should bring to the role

• Significant senior Procurement experience in a large, complex organisation.
• Deep understanding of Supplier Management and experience of having delivered a supplier management programme.
• Understanding of market best practices in Procurement and having deployed that into a business.
• Experience in delivering across a multi-service line function.
• Proven visible leadership with the ability to flex style to deliver outcomes.
• Clear, logical thinker, able to present a compelling business case supported by data and analysis.
• Experience in procuring and managing complex multi-million £ commercial arrangements
• Understanding of the requirements of The Procurement Act 2024 and how this impacts procurement activity at Thames.
• Diplomacy with excellent negotiating skills.

Desirable experience:

• Understanding of Property & estate activity across both an operational and head office estate
• Dealing with supplier disputes to a satisfactory commercial outcome
• Evidence of negotiation strategy creation and deployment
• MCIPS or equivalent based on commercial experience

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary.
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service. (plus bank holidays)
• Car Allowance.
• Annual Bonus.
• Private Medical Health Care.
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of your and your family’s health and well-being, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Find out more about our benefits and perks

Who are we?

We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Learn more about our purpose and values

Working at Thames Water

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy fast-tracked career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.
Whether you’re interested in a role in one of our call centres or science labs, we’re looking for people like you with real passion and a burning desire to make things better.

So, if you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region and our planet.

The real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

Our overarching aim is to ensure that Thames Water is a great, diverse and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process. Our aim is to remove any real or perceived barriers to success, so if you need assistance, we’re here to help and support.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business, meet colleagues and earn some extra money along the way.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.