Interim Procurement Manager

Portfolio Procurement has been engaged by our leading Hertfordshire based client to recruit an interim Procurement Manager on an initial 3-month contract.

The role:

The primary purpose of this role is to lead the effective delivery of operational procurement activity across the Water division, ensuring robust process control, supplier performance, and compliance with procurement policies and preferred supplier frameworks. The role focuses on driving cost avoidance, improving purchasing behaviours, reducing invoices on hold, and delivering supply chain rationalisation, while maintaining strong governance over P-card spend and master data integrity. It is responsible for producing and leveraging data insights to improve operational performance, supporting bid and mobilisation activity, and embedding new suppliers into business processes.

Day to Day duties:

• Manage the performance of the Buying Desk team as part of wider operational procurement delivery, ensuring adherence to lead time SLAs and quality management KPIs
• Act as an escalation point for procurement-related queries, including those arising from the Buying Desk
• Resolve non-standard procurement queries across operational activities, including those received via the Buying Desk
• Develop, implement, and maintain standard operating procedures for operational procurement activities
• Monitor and enforce compliance with preferred supplier pathways across all purchasing activity
• Deliver against an agreed cost avoidance savings target
• Drive improvements in catalogue utilisation and reduce non-catalogue purchasing activity across the business
• Lead the delivery of supply chain rationalisation activities across the supply base
• Produce and analyse procurement data to support performance management and decision-making
• Support the reduction of invoices on hold by acting as a key Procurement contact and driving issue resolution
• Work closely with preferred suppliers to support operational performance and strengthen day-to-day business engagement
• Support the onboarding and implementation of newly approved preferred suppliers into business operations
• Liaise with Group Procurement to maintain accurate master data and support supplier onboarding processes
• Oversee and control P-card spend in line with company policy and governance requirements
• Provide bid support to work-winning and estimating teams as required

Skills and Experience:

• Proven experience in an operational procurement role with a strong understanding of procurement processes, policies, and controls, particularly within a multi-site or operational environment
• Demonstrable experience delivering cost avoidance and driving value through day-to-day procurement activity
• Experience managing and enforcing compliance with preferred supplier frameworks and purchasing policies
• Strong supplier management experience, including performance monitoring and issue resolution
• Experience improving purchasing behaviours (e.g. catalogue adoption, reducing non-compliant spend)
• Proven ability to develop, implement, and maintain standard operating procedures and processes
• Experience managing or overseeing transactional procurement activity
• Strong MS Excel data analysis and reporting skills, with the ability to translate data into actionable insight
• Experience managing escalations and resolving complex or non-standard procurement queries
• Working knowledge of procurement systems (e.g. ERP, P2P systems) and master data management
• Experience overseeing financial governance controls such as P-card spend or similar
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work cross-functionally with operational teams

52215DH

INDPRO

The Portfolio Group are acting on behalf of our client in recruiting for this position.