Category & Sourcing Manager - HR

Southern Water•Worthington, MN

7d•$55,000•Hybrid

About The Position

You will join our Procurement team, focusing on HR and People-related spend categories. This is a fantastic opportunity to take ownership of a broad and strategically important portfolio, covering recruitment services, benefits, occupational health, salary sacrifice schemes, subscriptions, and other HR-aligned third-party spend. This role has opened up due to an increase in workload. You will play a key role in shaping category strategies, advising senior stakeholders, and ensuring our HR procurement activity aligns with regulatory requirements, business needs, and market best practice. Typically, you will manage a varied pipeline of 4–5 concurrent projects, ranging from one-off tenders to longer-term strategic sourcing initiatives.

Requirements

Strong HR category management experience
Experience running end-to-end tenders and managing multiple concurrent projects.
Understanding of public procurement regulations and confidence in applying them.
Strategic thinking, with the ability to analyse markets, challenge assumptions, and propose well-reasoned solutions.
Ability to build strong relationships and influence senior stakeholders.
Comfortable working in a fast-paced, reactive environment while keeping long-term goals in sight.
Ability to work autonomously and bring expertise to the team.

Nice To Haves

CIPS qualification (or working towards it).
Experience in utilities or engineering.
Experience working in a regulated industry

Responsibilities

Developing and delivering HR category strategies, including market analysis, sourcing options, and long-term planning.
Leading tenders and sourcing activity across HR spend areas such as recruitment, benefits, occupational health, and salary sacrifice schemes.
Managing procurement for corporate services including legal support, consultancy, and other enabling activities.
Ensuring compliance with public procurement regulations (including PA23) and internal governance.
Driving value creation, cost optimisation, and commercial insight across the full sourcing lifecycle.
Providing strategic advice to HR and senior leadership teams, helping them make informed commercial decisions.
Collaborating with multidisciplinary teams including HR, Finance, Legal, Digital, and external partners.
Supporting the development of category strategies across the wider procurement function.
Managing stakeholder expectations at all levels, including director-level engagement.

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