Senior Supplier Relationship Manager

Job Introduction

As a Senior Supplier Relationship Manager, you'll be the designer, implementer and evolver of the organisations strategy for strategic supplier relationship management (SRM), tactical operational support management and the effective deployment of the Supply Management strategies.

You'll also manage the SRM team, to drive the effective implementation of improved supply chain competitiveness across the UK &I across the regions spend covering Foodservice, soft FM, hard FM & Indirect. Circa £600m spend. This will include clear stakeholder engagement, customer experience, employee engagement, high potential development and staff retention and ensuring that the strategy not only comes to life, but also becomes a fundamental part of how the whole of the Supply Management function operates in an increasingly competitive marketplace.  

Role Responsibility

Leadership & Management 

• Provide strong professional leadership of the SRM team, ensuring clarity of company and department direction, taking responsibility for professional development of all team members and highlight and develop high potential leaders. 

• Ability to deputise regularly on behalf of the Head of Supplier Relationship Management  

• Establish departmental strategies, goals, objectives and operating procedures. Drive Supply Management budget process in line with segment strategic direction 

Alignment & Strategy 

• Design and oversee the implementation of the strategic relationship management strategy, ensuring it meets the business and commercial needs of the organisation. 

• Develop and implement joint business plans with strategic and collaborative suppliers which ensure that ‘customer focus’ is paramount 

• Oversee the completion of relationship assessments and work with key stakeholders to create relationship actions plans to increase Sodexo leverage and reduce the risk profile of the relationship. 

• Supervise the completion of supplier 360° surveys to identify opportunities to improve the relationship 

• Proactively seek and build continuous and meaningful engagement with the business and suppliers to shape services, improve value from the supply chain, and link to segment strategies 

Governance 

• Support the preparation of meetings with the supplier at various management levels including Top to Top meetings involving platform directors / other key contacts. 

• Maintain the supplier relationship map including contact details for the key stakeholders from levels 1 – 6. 

• Continually seek communication of organizational updates from the supply chain and share relevant Sodexo updates with them in the spirit of two-way communication. 

• Supervise the creation of a monthly supplier newsletter and encourage feedback on the value of the newsletter and answer queries they may raise. 

• Support the delivery of supplier briefings/forums required from time to time to update the supply chain on key Sodexo priorities. 

• Working in collaboration with heads of platforms and segment teams to make sure the relationship management strategies are joined up.  

Contract Management 

• Develop robust category plans for the food and non-food Distribution  

• Mitigate inflationary impacts and ensure purchasing income is paid by suppliers to protect Sodexo. 

• Collaborate with Category Management teams during Category Reviews through provision of accurate and meaningful data & feedback regarding the supplier’s performance to enable the creation of a Category Plan 

• Support the creation of service/goods specifications / SLA / KPI's which are tailored to individual category requirements for inclusion within supplier agreement. 

• Monitor supplier compliance to the terms of our contract on an ongoing basis including reporting, all required governance activities (e.g. agreeing to company standards/policies).   

Performance Management 

• Support the design of a global supplier performance management strategy, which will include balanced score cards to capture KPI performance and improvement. 

• Develop supplier/category dashboards to analyze key trends and summarise in clear communication to stakeholder’s dependent on category. 

• Ensure the SRM team conducts customer satisfaction surveys with operations and addresses the root causes of challenges experienced by operations. 

• Review Supply solutions complaints pro-actively & resolve critical / senior escalations on an urgent, reactive basis 

• Supervise the completion of robust corrective action plans for poor performing suppliers to ensure immediate improvement to meet Sodexo SLA’s. 

Continuous Improvement & Innovation 

• Design and implement supply chain initiatives which optimise the products/services provided by the supplier to improve quality and reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) 

• Ensure SRM achieve budget targets and savings are reported to and validated by commercial accounts. 

• Develop logistics initiative which reduce average delivery frequency, increasing Average Order Value’s and drive both commercial and environmental benefits. 

• Work with internal and external stakeholders regarding innovation including Generation, cleansing, selecting, trialing, and deploying ideas of innovation (new product, equipment, service) 

• Liaise with Segment business partners to support the drive to improve segment profitability and efficiency. 

• Working collaboratively with the Responsible Sourcing, CSR, Social Value teams to drive the implementation of our responsible sourcing strategy through our key suppliers to ensure objectives are met. 

Supply Chain Management 

• Effectively plan for potential impacts on the supply chain including site openings, major events, major policy / legislation changes 

• Oversee the stock position with suppliers including forecasting, underwriting, monitoring, risk mitigating to ensure the business maintains access to the goods they require as much as practicably possible. 

• Maintain effective business continuity plans for category/supplier including new legislation, major political/economic events, Pandemic,  

• Management of upstream sourcing issues within category including raw material shortages, service capacity issues as appropriate. 

• Support Business Partners to effectively bid and mobilise new business across all segments within the region. 

The Ideal Candidate

• Strong experience in Supply Management (>3 years) 

• Strong leadership experience with the ability to communicate at all levels across the organisation and motivate and engage a team. 

• Results driven 

• Resilient mindset with a capacity to recover quickly from supply chain challenges. 

• Proven track record in complex relationship management 

• Be able to build and maintain strong relationships at all levels of the business. 

• Demonstrates achievement in driving business performance through developing innovative supply chain strategies and partnerships.  

• To be aware and be able to articulate the understanding of the commercial impact of the varying business models in the organisation. 

• A strong ability to influence effectively at all levels, especially in regard to company policies and processes. 

• Be organised, methodical and self-motivated with an ability to work independently or as part of a team.  

• To be able to demonstrate a flexible ability to pre determine workload demand and prioritisation skills, to be able to identify the urgent business need for support. 

Package Description

Competitive salary plus Benefits including pension, bonus, flexible benefits scheme

As part of our commitment to improving the quality of life for our employees, Sodexo offers a flexible benefits scheme, allowing you to tailor a reward package to suit your needs which includes a technology scheme, private dental insurance, travel insurance, gym membership, Gourmet card, private medical insurance and the ability to purchase or sell annual leave.

We also offer Sodexo Discounts site promoting discounted mobile phone tariffs, savings across restaurant chains and days out, where you and your family can save money on everything from your weekly food shop to the latest cinema blockbuster.

About the Company

In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs around 30,000 people, and partners with clients in many sectors across business and industry; schools and universities; sports and leisure; energy and resources; government and agencies; healthcare; justice and defence.

Sodexo’s connected; people-centric approach brings together a diverse range of expertise. The breadth of services it offers ranges from food and hospitality; cleaning; reception; concierge (Circles); security; property management and technical services through to data driven workplace strategy and design (Wx); employee engagement and recognition services (Sodexo Engage) and personal home services through Prestige Nursing + Care and the Good Care Group.

Vital Spaces is Sodexo’s value proposition that puts people at the heart of everything we do, bringing together services and solutions and focusing on the productivity and wellbeing of people wherever they are.

Sodexo is committed to being an inclusive employer; we welcome and encourage applications from people with a diverse variety of experiences, backgrounds and identities.

We’re a Disability Confident Leader employer. We’re committed to changing attitudes towards disability, and making sure disabled people have the chance to fulfil their aspirations.

We are building on our support to the Armed Forces community through the development of specific pathways within our recruitment process to  support ex-forces personnel and reservists, those applying for jobs with us who meet the ideal candidate criteria for the role advertised are guaranteed to progress to the selection process