Category & Sourcing Manager - HR

Southern Water • Worthington, MN

3d • $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.

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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees