Job Description

The Procurement Director is responsible for developing a strategic approach to the corporate process for the purchase of goods and services. In this leadership role, the successful candidate will direct the procurement of goods and services; lead negotiations with key suppliers on pricing and terms to achieve Supply Chain and Commercial goals; assist team members and colleagues with procurement processes, change and update other procurement-related activities; develop and/or update procurement policies and procedures; and develop a centralized procurement program that will add value and efficiency to the organization. The procurement director will work closely with Finance and the Supply Chain function in developing and implementing procurement processes. He or she will have tactical responsibility for the development and implementation of policies, procedures and systems that support the company’s acquisition and materials management of goods and services – for both resale, customer integration and internal use.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Negotiation of contracts for goods and services. The principal focus for contract negotiation will be to establish a supply chain to support the company’s move to automate the T-SPOT.TB test. That is, to establish contracts for supply of laboratory instrumentation for placement at customer sites and associated equipment service and consumables.
• Defining and supporting best practices for the creation of, build out, and ongoing management of global vendor portfolio which include; contracts, contacts, renewals, inventory, spend and vendor performance.
• Researching vendors to find the best products and prices available within a given market.
• Leading vendor negotiations, conflict resolution and driving continuous improvement from the supplier base.
• Ensuring enterprise-wide needs for due diligence, risk assessment and continuing vendor monitoring are being accomplished.
• Developing, implementing and coordinating vendor processes and methods to approve vendors.
• Managing multiple 3rd party vendors who provide critical services for internal/external customers.
• Building rapport and strong relationships with 3rd party suppliers and acting as an escalation point for vendor management issues.
• Leading contract renewals and selection of new vendors.
• Implementing a strategic Vendor Management roadmap to deliver cost savings and value-added.
• Reporting on vendor SLA performance and service quality metrics, identifying areas for potential improvement.
• Establish a procurement practices to support the local-office functions in UK, US, China, Japan, Singapore

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• In-depth Vendor & Supplier Management experience, ideally gained within the in vitro diagnostics or pharmaceutical industry.
• Experience of procurement of laboratory instrumentation/automation, consumables and service strongly desired.
• Experience of risk management processes for 3rd party suppliers.
• Ideally a minimum of 7 years’ experience of negotiating and managing contract life cycles at a senior level.
• Strong specialist knowledge of procurement and vendor management practices, certifications, contracting trends, licensing models and traditional and emerging contract and vendor performance models.
• Educated to degree standard or similar qualification
• Training in Procurement and Vendor Management essential
• Qualified to degree level
• Expertise in negotiation of supply agreements
• Knowledge of manufacturing techniques and processes
• Familiarity with Quality System Requirements including ISO and cGMP
• Strong technical skills and IT skills
• Strong analytical and computer skills, preferably with experience of implementation of procurement functions with a major ERP system
• Confident, career-orientated individual
• Pro-active and able to make decisions
• Problem solving and trouble shooting skills
• Ability to manage time and multiple tasks effectively
• Ability to supervise, train and organize non-skilled staff
• Capable of working in a multi-disciplinary project team to facilitate process transfers