Global Commodity Senior Buyer

Fantastic challenges. Amazing opportunities.

GKN Aerospace is reimagining air travel: going further, faster and greener! Fuelled by great people whose expertise and creativity sets the standards in our industry, we’re inspired by the opportunities to innovate and break boundaries. We’re proud to play a part in protecting the world’s democracies. And we’re committed to putting sustainability at the centre of everything we do, opening up and protecting our planet.

With over 16,000 employees across 32 manufacturing sites in 12 countries we serve over 90% of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers and achieved sales of 3.6bn in 2025. There are no limits to where you can take your career.

Job Summary It’s great to know you’re making a difference to the future of aviation! Whatever part you play you’ll be helping us deliver operational excellence to our customers.

GKN Aerospace spends 2bn p.a. with more than 11,000 suppliers. We will build and deploy structured, collaborative relationships with our key suppliers. Suppliers to GKN should actively compete for our business and work hard to retain it by achieving continually high levels of delivery & quality performance whilst incrementally delivering value (reducing total cost or supporting revenue growth).Our procurement function operates in a matrix between Site based procurement operations and Global Commodity Management functions.

Reporting to the Global Commodity Manager the Commodity Buyer will have accountability for category strategy execution across 5 sub-categories. Objectives for this role will include:

Establishing Programme and Site requirements, including those driven by current and planned future business.

Supporting business growth to design and engage supply chains that meet the business requirements.

Delivering tangible, bottom-line benefits resulting from pan-Business Line category management of Spend.

Supporting the delivery of Business Line and Site strategies through the rigorous management of contract and supplier performance.

What You'll Be Doing The Commodity Buyer will have responsibility for 100m expenditure within the Machining, Fabrications and Special Processes category.

Category Management Manages category strategies that maximise value for the business based on understanding of business needs and supply market.

Builds deep knowledge of the supply market within the business.

Execution of the strategy, including negotiating and contracting with suppliers, evaluating on-going contract and supplier performance and measuring contract compliance.

Analysis of expenditure (cost and price) and the supply market to inform the development of the category strategy.

Sourcing Captures specific business requirements and builds into RFx documents.

Executes pan site sourcing activity using strategic sourcing methodologies in order to put fit-for-purpose supply contracts in place.

Accountable for the implementation of pan-Business Line contracts so that they can be used in practice by the sites.

Where appropriate supports bid activity where there is a significant category requirement.

Supply Management Segmenting and managing suppliers within the category.

Developing the appropriate strategies to incentivise and engage suppliers and to measure and incentivise their performance.

Establishing appropriate supplier governance, fed by relevant data and attended by empowered representatives of both organisations.

What You'll Bring Essential:

Experienced procurement practitioner with deep knowledge of current strategic procurement techniques and (c. 5 Years in Sourcing & Procurement).Knowledge of relevant categories.

Proven track record of identifying and delivering procurement savings against multi-million pound expenditures.

High quality communication ability, both written and orally.

Highly commercial, with a proven ability to use procurement to unlock value for the business.

Delivery focused with a pragmatic, hands-on approach that enables strategies to be fully executed.

Desirable:

Relevant business experience in the commercial aerospace sector, knowledge of the customer programmes of GKN Aerospace.

Relevant professional and academic qualifications are…