Who are we?
Thames Water is the UK’s largest water and wastewater company. We make a daily difference to our 15 million customers by supplying 2.6 billion litres of water through 32,000 km’s of pipes, to keep taps flowing and toilets flushing. We are an essential service and have operated throughout the Covid19 pandemic.
At Thames Water, every one of our actions, big and small, matters every day. Water is essential to daily life, and that means our business is always open.
What you will be doing?
We are in growth mode, and we are recruiting for several Sourcing Managers within different areas of our business, we are ideally looking for you to have expertise in one or more of these categories:
- Digital - This role requires a service management professional with responsibility for supporting the supplier management function, framework, and sourcing initiatives that deliver the best value to Thames Water. Accountable for establishing effective working relationships with both key stakeholders and the supply market whilst demonstrating Thames Water values and behaviours, you will be part of a small team working to build and develop relationships, drive strategy, negotiate contracts and agreements, and manage supplier IT services and solutions
- Capital Delivery – Lead the supply chain sourcing process to help ensure on-target delivery of our engineering and construction projects. The £multi-billion capital programme Thames Water needs to develop and deliver in the next 15 years, will secure water supplies and treat wastewater for our customers for many decades across our operating area and beyond. A good understanding of capital and/or construction projects sourcing, preferably in a utility/infrastructure environment, would be desirable
- Waste Operations – Lead the procurements on key operational areas ranging from chemical product supply to mechanical/electrical assets and commodities that are critical to TWUL ability to supply safe and serviceable water/waste to/from our customers. Do not necessarily need a utility background but have a curious and inquisitive mind to push the boundaries and challenge the norm. Must have an ability to build relationships at an operational level to deliver real business solutions in the procurements we complete. Need commercial agility to look at business problems and provide ideas that harness innovation that could unlock additional value in both price and service
- Water - Water operations contain a diverse range of spend categories including covers, laboratory supplies, PPE, pipes, security, valves, to name a few. TWUL has adopted a standardised approach to sourcing; how we prepare for going to market, engaging with the marketplace, and selecting our suppliers. We expect our sourcing managers to get close to the key drivers of spending, to be able to translate needs into our RFx documentation, drive participation from a variety of stakeholders and deliver timely sourcing solutions, clearly articulating their value. Developing and communicating market intelligence, knowledge and insight will be critical to success. Running multiple sourcing events in parallel will be the norm. Preference is for candidates who can demonstrate their ability to listen, illustrate a curiosity to learn and evidence their tenacity to succeed
- Corporate Services – our team of 6 indirect Sourcing Managers delivers a host of complex end to end projects for our HR, Finance, Regulation, Marketing and Facilities/Ops teams. We are respected and valued by our stakeholder group as experts in good practice procurement and are on a journey to also become experts in our respective category fields. We are looking for tenacious and curious natured people, with a willingness to constructively challenge stakeholders and suppliers to ensure great outcomes
As a Sourcing Manager at Thames Water, you will engage with senior leaders across the business to deliver multi-million-pound procurement projects across a range of categories.
Our Sourcing Managers are true experts in best practice procurement, well respected by their stakeholders, and relied upon to bring supply market expertise into #TeamThames to help us achieve our goals, delivering life's essential service to 4 million households and 10 million businesses.
We’re looking for you to:
- To be an expert in your field in the Management and identification of multiple strategic projects
- Have a good market knowledge and expertise to utilise and inform in strategic decisions, as well as deliver successful negotiation and implementation of new contracts
- To be able to make an impact and work in partnership with the contract management team to ensure consistent and compliant behaviour regarding contract management
- Demonstrate leadership within the Commercial Team by always striving for the highest standards of professionalism, high energy, dedication and best practice
- Own your market and everything that comes with it, by introducing and implementing creative solutions and ideas and sharing these with the wider business and stakeholders
What’s in it for you?
We love working with like-minded people who are passionate about what they do and want you to feel that way too. We will motivate you to drive your innovative and creative solutions, and actively encourage your career development. So bring us your enthusiasm and commitment and we'll support you every step of the way.
If you are interested, we would love to hear from you. Please apply directly, not forgetting to attach a covering letter, including the areas of the business you have experience and/or are interested in and your reasons for applying.
Our competitive salary package includes an excellent contributory pension, 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service and a wider benefits scheme. We are proud of the positive ways of working we have adopted during the pandemic. We want to create a more flexible and dynamic environment so all our colleagues can thrive. For our office-based roles, we are moving to a hybrid approach where we will provide options around working from our offices, our operational sites and home dependent on role/team/individual. This will be discussed during the assessment process.
Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work. If you join our team, you will enjoy fast-tracked career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and unparalleled benefits. We are also proud to be an equal opportunity employer, Stonewall Diversity Champion and Disability Confident Leader and we are a Times Top 50 Employer for Women.
You can find out more in our working for us section of our website.