Category Manager

Job Posted: 6 February 2025
Job Updated: 6 February 2025

Location: Leeds/Sheffield– Hybrid working

Contract type: Permanent

Salary: £45,478 per annum with the opportunity to rise to £53,504 per annum by year 3.

Closing Date: Wednesday 19th February 2025

We have a great opportunity for a Category Manager within the Rehabilitation & Community team. The role focuses on the Wound Care market.

Our Category Manager roles are key leadership positions responsible for transforming and leading nationally critical categories. You will collaborate with Category Lead colleagues to set the vision, direction, and culture for the teams, supporting provision and growth while introducing best practice tools and processes for world-class category management.

This role will be pivotal in our future strategic delivery and will require agile thinking, creativity, and the ability to work under pressure to deliver our priorities within a changing demographic and enable excellent patient care.

The Category Manager will develop and implement strategies to improve the supply chain, reduce risk, create competitive advantage, and deliver savings. By focusing on product range and market approaches, and in close collaboration with key stakeholders, you will create product groups that maximize value for NHS customers and NHS Supply Chain.

The Category Manager will build cross-functional relationships with the wider organization and external stakeholders, aiming to identify and implement improvements that create efficiencies for the organization as well as enhanced value and service for our NHS customers.

Every day you will …

• Manage a category plan/program in line with the organization’s commercial strategy, ensuring realization of synergies, cost savings, risk reduction, and optimization of category delivery, while reporting to senior colleagues.
• Explore and develop a strong understanding of external developments or emerging issues and evaluate their potential impact on the organization.
• Resolve queries from internal or external customers or suppliers by providing information on complex processes and related policies, referring to others for policy interpretation as necessary.
• Set clear objectives for each category; use standard materials to present to customers; and ask relevant questions to evaluate customer interest and identify areas requiring further information.
• Conduct research using primary data sources and select information needed for analysis of key themes and trends.
• Support senior leaders in building and optimizing important relationships with external and internal stakeholders, including key decision makers, regulators, public organizations, governmental institutions, suppliers, NHS providers, professional communities, and customer and patient groups.
• Develop your capabilities through assessment and development planning activities as well as formal and informal training; maintain understanding of relevant technology, external regulation, and industry best practices through ongoing education and attending conferences.

What can we offer you?

We want to reward you for your passion, enthusiasm, and hard work, so we offer much more than a competitive salary:

• Hybrid working opportunities for flexibility in the office and remote work.
• Annual bonus schemes, long service, and VIP colleagues awards.
• 27 days holiday plus bank holidays, with the option to purchase an additional 5 days.
• Dedicated development support through in-house training and access to external qualifications.
• Well-being focus offering 1 day of paid well-being leave and free access to the 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme.
• Generous pension scheme with us contributing 12% when you contribute 6%.
• Access to our Flexible Benefits Scheme, allowing you to choose from various benefits that suit you.
• 2 days of paid volunteering leave to give back to your community.
• Access to discounts from the Blue Light Card to NHS Discounts.

NHS Supply Chain: Who are we?

Our role is to support the NHS to save lives and improve health. We are part of the NHS family, sourcing, delivering, and supplying healthcare products, services, and food for NHS trusts and healthcare organizations across England and Wales.

We serve every NHS Trust and operate a national network of distribution centers, managing relationships with over a thousand suppliers and delivering more than 8,000,000 orders each year to over 17,000 locations. This allows NHS staff to focus on providing excellent patient care.

What skills will help you thrive in this role?

You will need to be educated to a high standard, have experience in Category Management, and be able to evidence successful coordination of others' work. Candidates without CIPs (Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply) qualification must be committed to obtaining it while in the role.

Additionally, we expect you to demonstrate:

• Ability to work independently and provide technical guidance on analyzing data trends for reports to guide decision-making.
• Capability to analyze data from multiple sources and draw appropriate conclusions and recommendations.
• Clear and effective verbal communication skills, expressing ideas and formulating plans or policies independently.
• Comprehensive knowledge and skills to negotiate independently while guiding others in obtaining consensus among parties with differing interests.
• Independence and technical guidance in developing plans or performing necessary actions based on recommendations.
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely without supervision.

Want to develop your career with the NHS Supply Chain? Then apply below or reach out for an informal discussion about the role in confidence by emailing us at Careers@supplychain.nhs.uk

Our Inclusive Commitment

At NHS Supply Chain, we are committed to building an inclusive environment where differences are celebrated, giving everyone the opportunity to thrive in their career. We encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn’t match perfectly with the job advert.

Need help with our application form? Contact our Talent Acquisition team at careers@supplychain.nhs.uk for alternative application methods.

We reserve the right to close any vacancy from further submissions when we have received sufficient applications to make a shortlist. Please apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

SCCL is a company registered in England and Wales, with company number 10881715, to act as the management function of the NHS Supply Chain.