Director Global Indirect Procurement

Global Procurement Director - Indirect Procurement

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Industrial Manufacturing / Chemicals

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There are plenty of procurement leadership roles that involve maintaining established processes, managing a mature category structure and optimising around the edges.

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This is not one of them.

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We're supporting a global chemicals and manufacturing business that has spent the last few years reshaping its portfolio, simplifying its operating model and strengthening its financial position following a period of significant acquisition led growth. The business is now on a much stronger footing, but there remains a substantial opportunity to modernise, simplify and professionalise how indirect procurement is managed globally.

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This role sits at the centre of that journey.

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The Challenge

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You'll inherit responsibility for a global indirect procurement organisation covering approximately 30 manufacturing sites, a supplier base measured in the thousands, and a spend profile spanning MRO, contractor services, CapEx, facilities management, energy and broader site operations. The team is sizeable, the stakeholder landscape is complex and the opportunity to create value is significant.

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The organisation has historically been structured geographically. The next phase is to move towards a more category led, strategically aligned model with greater consistency, stronger governance and better leverage across the business.

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That sounds straightforward on paper.

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It isn't.

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The reality is that you'll be working across manufacturing sites with different cultures, different levels of maturity, different systems and different operating requirements. You'll need to simplify complexity without creating bureaucracy and improve performance without slowing the business down.

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What You'll Actually Spend Your Time Doing

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A large part of your focus will be on Maintenance, Reliability and Operations (MRO), contractor management and industrial services.

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This is not a role centred on HR services, travel, marketing or professional services procurement.

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The successful individual will understand the realities of running procurement in highly engineered, asset-intensive environments where equipment availability, maintenance planning, regulatory compliance and plant reliability have a direct impact on operational performance.

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You'll be working with engineering leaders, maintenance managers, plant directors and operational stakeholders. You'll need enough credibility to challenge them when required, but also enough commercial judgement to know when collaboration is more effective than confrontation.

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You'll also be expected to:

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• Drive category management across indirect spend areas
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• Improve supplier segmentation and supplier performance
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• Simplify fragmented buying practices
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• Strengthen contractor and service partner governance
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• Support CapEx execution and planning
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• Drive value creation while maintaining service, reliability and operational continuity
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• Help shape the future structure of the global indirect procurement organisation
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Most importantly, you'll need to make decisions and deliver progress.

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This is not an environment where someone can spend six months learning the organisation before making an impact.

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What Makes Someone Successful Here

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The environment will suit someone who enjoys solving problems rather than admiring them.

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You'll likely come from sectors such as:

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• Chemicals
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• Petrochemicals
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• Oil & Gas
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• Energy
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• Industrial Manufacturing
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• Automotive Manufacturing
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• Cement, Minerals or Building Materials
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• Heavy Engineering
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• Other asset intensive industrial environments
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You will probably have experience leading procurement across multiple production sites, large MRO spend portfolios, contractor management and industrial services.

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You should be comfortable operating at executive level but equally willing to spend time on site understanding operational realities.

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The strongest candidates are likely to be people who:

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• Can simplify complexity quickly
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• Prioritise effectively rather than becoming overwhelmed by detail
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• Balance commercial value with operational risk
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• Are resilient and delivery focused
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• Are comfortable driving change in imperfect environments
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• Can achieve more with constrained budgets rather than relying on large investments to fix problems
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Why Consider It?

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The appeal of this opportunity isn't that everything is already perfect.

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Quite the opposite.

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This is a role for someone who wants visible impact.

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The business is large enough to offer genuine scale and complexity, but still small enough that outstanding performers are visible to executive leadership and can materially influence the future direction of the organisation. Previous procurement leaders have moved into broader business leadership positions and there is a strong belief that procurement should be a strategic business partner rather than a transactional support function.

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If you're looking for a highly structured global corporate where every process already exists and every answer has been automated, this probably won't be the right fit.

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If you're motivated by transformation, complexity, accountability and the opportunity to build something better, we'd be very interested in speaking with you.

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Location: UK preferred (London / South East), although candidates based in the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany, the Rhine-Neckar industrial corridor, the Rotterdam-Antwerp chemicals cluster or the Netherlands will also be considered. Extensive international travel to manufacturing sites is expected.