Procurement Lead Buyer Maternity Cover

🌟 Join Superdrug Head Office - Make a Real Difference Every Day! 🌟
📍 Location: East Croydon
🕒Hours: 37.5 | 9.00am - 5.30pm - Hybrid working available depending on role responsibilities with 2 days working from home and 3 days in our stylish, modern and collaborative office close to East Croydon Station.
💷Salary: Competitive

🎉 Why Superdrug?
Passionate about Beauty and Health? Want to be part of an innovative, trend-setting retailer? Our vibrant Head Office, based by East Croydon station, is a fantastic environment filled with hundreds of brilliant personalities.
We're a team that puts our customers and our teams at the heart of everything we do. At Superdrug, we aim to be the best in accessible health & beauty, loved by our customers for value, choice, friendly advice, service and fun.
Our success comes from our people – they make the difference. We're all about personality, we have fun, and we work hard to deliver That Superdrug Feeling.

📅 Here's the exciting bit… A day includes:
An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our Procurement team as a Procurement Lead Buyer - Non Trade. As a senior procurement business partner, you'll be responsible for delivering strategic sourcing, tendering and contract management activities across a range of non-trade spend categories.
Working closely with stakeholders across Finance, Legal and Operational teams, you'll provide commercial expertise, lead procurement projects and drive value through effective supplier management and commercial decision-making. As a senior member of the team, you'll champion best practice, continuous improvement, innovation and governance while supporting the achievement of wider business objectives.

📝 Key Responsibilities:
Lead strategic sourcing, tendering and contract management activity across non-trade spend categories.
Partner with Directors, Heads of Department and contract owners to provide commercial guidance and challenge where appropriate.
Work closely with Finance, Legal and Operational teams to deliver successful procurement projects and contracts.
Build and maintain productive relationships with suppliers, external partners and internal stakeholders.
Collaborate with Group Procurement colleagues across the wider AS Watson organisation.
Deliver commercial value through effective sourcing, supplier negotiations and contract management.
Ensure procurement activities are compliant, efficient and simple for stakeholders to navigate.
Drive continuous improvement across procurement tools, processes and ways of working.
Support delivery of annual procurement objectives and wider strategic initiatives.
Manage tender and sourcing projects to secure the right suppliers and commercial arrangements.
Prepare investment and approval submissions to support governance and decision-making processes.
Maintain accurate contract information, savings tracking and procurement reporting.
Develop and enhance procurement guidance, templates and tools for business stakeholders.
Lead initiatives to improve procurement efficiency, effectiveness and stakeholder experience.
Act as a trusted commercial advisor and role model within the procurement team.
Support the delivery of strategic team objectives, including automation, AI adoption and process improvements.
Coach and support colleagues by sharing knowledge, expertise and best practice.
Influence stakeholders to drive positive commercial and operational outcomes.
Promote a culture of collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement.
Champion high standards of governance, compliance and customer service.
Tech & AI : Helping your team understand when to use AI, when to rely on human judgment, and how to combine both.
Tech & AI Rethinking how work gets done - Actively shifting work from repetitive tasks to higher-value activities as AI takes on routine work.
Tech & AI Role modelling behaviours to encourage confidence with AI. Actively developing your ability to use AI effectively and think critically about outputs.
Tech & AI Strengthen Human Touch - Keeping the human element strong: Balancing AI efficiency with human coaching, empathy, and team cohesion

💡 Personal Attributes:
Strong relationship-building skills with the ability to work effectively across diverse stakeholder groups.
Commercially minded with a passion for finding practical solutions that create value.
Highly organised with excellent planning and attention to detail.
Comfortable balancing commercial opportunities with risk management considerations.
Strong influencing and negotiation skills.
Ability to switch confidently between strategic thinking and hands-on delivery.
Skilled at managing multiple priorities and projects simultaneously.
Passionate about continuous improvement and process optimisation.
Curious and innovative, with an interest in emerging technologies and AI-driven solutions.
Results-focused and motivated by delivering measurable outcomes.
Collaborative and supportive, with a team-oriented mindset.
Generates detailed customer focused initiatives, in line with the Finance strategy and supports with execution.
Listens to the customer and implements new ideas and ways of working which are designed to improve service considering both Online and Offline.
Ensures the team priorities actions which delight the customer/team member.
Customer Focus: Be the voice of customers and orchestrate the organisation to live the brand purpose and inspire a customer-first culture to build customer love in every touchpoint of our online and offline platform.
Establishes strong relationships at all levels.
Can manage tough/complex messages with all stakeholders.
Role model collaboration to the team to exceed goals.
Positive attitude towards feedback, uses this to generate initiatives to meet/exceed expectations, and shares feedback in a meaningful way.
Effectively manages their team by playing to strengths and proactively addressing its opportunities. Ensuring everyone wellbeing & diversity is considered and celebrated.
Feels empowered to challenge across different career bands and roles. Supporting other team members in shaping their work to do so
Proactively keeps up to date with market and consumer trends in their specialism and feeds this into department strategy.
Uses data and insights to challenges the status quo to keep us ahead of the competition.
Uses data to inform and generate new ideas and make decisions to improve on future plans.

✅ Desired but not Essential:
Degree qualified in Business, Finance, Social Sciences or a related discipline.
Professional procurement qualification such as CIPS.
Experience within a retail or large multi-site organisation.
Experience using technology, automation or AI-enabled tools to improve business processes.
📋 What You'll Need:
Significant experience within procurement, strategic sourcing, supplier management or commercial contract management.
Experience building strong relationships with a variety of business stakeholders.
Proven experience delivering procurement projects, tenders or commercial initiatives from planning through to implementation.
Understanding of commercial negotiation, supplier selection and contract management principles.
Working knowledge of governance, compliance and business approval processes.
Strong analytical skills with experience using data and reporting to support decision-making.
Ability to balance commercial priorities with operational requirements and risk management.
Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Leadership experience that demonstrates the ability to influence others, drive change and support continuous improvement.

💡 Here's what's in it for you:
33 days holiday rising to 38 days with length of service (inclusive of bank holidays)
2 staff discount codes for yourself and a family member or friend
30% discount on Superdrug Own Brand Products both in store and online
Hybrid working patterns available depending on role responsibilities with 2 days working from home and 3 days in our stylish, modern and collaborative office close to East Croydon Station
Company pension matching and bonus
We offer Wagestream – a money management app that gives you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it
Being part of more! We are part of a group who work closely with Savers, The Perfume Shop and Three UK
We are part of A.S. Watson Group, the world's largest international health and beauty retailer with over 15,700 stores in 25 markets!
Unrivalled Learning and Development programmes
Enhanced maternity/shared parental/adoption leave, company sick pay and pregnancy loss support
Come and be part of something special!