Head of IT Procurement and Commercial

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Penguin Random House UK is the world's leading trade publisher, championing brilliant voices from across the globe, bringing their stories, ideas and writing to audiences everywhere.

We have a great opportunity for a Head of IT Procurement and Commercial to join our Technology Leadership Team.

After finalising our technology, data and process merger recently, we in PRH UK Technology are now moving forward with our technology strategy to further enable the organisation to bring amazing voices to all. This involves harnessing the power of Cloud solutions, a constantly evolving security stance, the rejuvenation of legacy applications and, critically, further improving the way we engage with and manage our strategic partners and suppliers.  The Head of IT Procurement and Commercial will therefore be a critical part in enabling all our colleagues in Technology and the whole organisation to fulfil our purpose and mission of creating books for everyone, because a book can change anyone.    

We as a Technology team appreciate and thrive best with an open, collaborative and supportive way of working, creating trusted relationships at all levels, and believe that a diverse team is what will make us all successful.

The Head of IT Procurement and Commercial will report directly into the PRH UK CIO Technology Director and lead a small team.

The Opportunity

The Head of IT Procurement and Commercial leads the management of technology suppliers for quality, pricing and delivery timeliness. This is an exciting opportunity for a purpose-led individual who is ready to champion supplier/vendor management and build trusted and well-managed commercial partnerships.

If you are someone who would love to be part of our technology transformation to further enable our well-loved brand and our incredible authors to increase their reach, we'd love you to get in touch with us.

Key Responsibilities:

Develop, implement and manage an ongoing framework for the consistent delivery of technology services.

Ensure relationships with suppliers are clear and facilitated in a professional and constructive manner.

Oversee effective measurement of service provision and that an ongoing management scorecard is created and maintained.

Take overall responsibility for ensuring PRH technology and technical services are procured in an effective manner, ensuring sound process and value for money.

Lead on specific contract negotiations from a commercial perspective and ensure that all contract negotiations are managed and administered in a consistent manner through all required local and global approval levels.

Establishing and delivering an appropriate internal reporting pack to include SLAs, OLAs and KPIs for the technology leadership team in order to establish and make visible progress on operational efficiency as well as areas of improvement and opportunity.

Build key relationships in the PRH Group in the UK and internationally as well as with our parent company Bertelsmann to enhance cooperation and explore and pursue commercial opportunities through increased collaboration.

Create an appropriate framework for an increasingly diverse vendor mix enhancing the capabilities of cloud vendor management as our partnerships will increase in this field.

Guide and support the technology teams at all levels to ensure an ever-increasing understanding and up to date view of appropriate vendor engagement with key commercial principles at the heart of what we do.

Development and ongoing management of the Technology Vendor Management and Commercials team members and all key stakeholder relationships across the organisation.

Re-imagine and enhance processes, approaches and tools to define a well run and supportive team effort with all partners involved. 

Candidate Profile:

A solid understanding of information technology and cloud procurement as well as vendor management and experience with software licensing, hardware and services procurement.

Deep and well-established negotiation and influencing skills in all areas of vendor/supplier management, traditional and cloud. 

Sound financial acumen and planning - understanding of balance sheets and the ability to write business cases and supporting commercial documentation for local and global consumption and approvals.

Deep understanding and proven experience of technology supply chain management, vendor selection and of negotiating and agreeing appropriate commercial rates with suppliers.

Able to build effective supplier relationships on a tiered basis.

High level of personal and interpersonal skills, including strong clear audience aware communication as well as planning and organisation skills.

Good presentation skills (formally and informally) including to senior level stakeholders.

Ability to effectively chair and facilitate meetings with clarity, purpose and expertise.

Able to demonstrate IT expertise and knowledge of data presentation e.g. use of databases, reports, Excel spreadsheets etc.

Broad understanding of the communication needs of a diverse and fast-moving stakeholder base.

Well-established line management and mentoring experience is preferred.

Creating and fostering a supportive partnership approach across all relationships that ensure all stakeholders are clear on objectives and reasoning   

Using a logical, analytical approach with good attention to detail and the ability to interpret data and other information accurately

Displaying an ability to challenge with care and to manage any conflicts arising with skilful management.

Experience and ability to be part of the strategic assessments and planning of the overall technology roadmaps and required vendor alignments

Having an authentic leadership approach with positive energy, ability to energise others, the courage to make challenging decisions, and ability to execute as per agreed parameters.

Ability to work in an agile workplace with disciplined prioritisation, cross-functional collaboration and with agile delivery methodologies as needed.

A commitment to diversity at all levels fostering a clear sense of belonging by example.

Please apply with your CV and cover letter by midnight on Wednesday 26th January.

What you can expect from us:

Salary: c. £90,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits. We will be happy to discuss compensation level in more detail over the course of the interview process.

Our employees are the heart of our business. We have a range of benefits to reflect our commitment to our employees, some of which are:

25 days paid holiday entitlement in year one (plus bank holidays), increasing a day each year up to 30 days

Medical cover

Life assurance

Cycle to Work scheme

Discounted gym membership

Generous pension scheme

Summer working hours (role dependent) 

Volunteering policy and charity matching

Employee Assistance programme

Mentoring programme

Extended gender neutral parental leave

60% Discount on Company books

Each site has trained mental health first aiders 

We plant a tree for every new employee to our business

Our creativity is inspired by different perspectives, so we want our culture to be one of belonging, where everyone feels welcome and where differences are celebrated.

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we're part of the offer an interview scheme. This is where disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role can opt in to get to the next recruitment stage. There may be some situations where volume of applicants means we can't take all eligible candidates to interview.