Procurement Manager - Bids & NPI

Job Title: Procurement Manager - Bids & NPI
Location: Cheltenham (Hybrid)
Salary: DOE

The Opportunity

As a senior procurement leadership position, you will be responsible for shaping sourcing strategy across New Product Introduction (NPI) and bid activity, influencing engineering design through Design for Manufacture (DFM) and Design for Test (DFT), developing strategic supplier partnerships and driving cost, quality, resilience and production readiness across complex defence products.

You will lead a Project Procurement team and work closely with Engineering, Operations, Quality, Programme Management, Supply Chain and Commercial functions to ensure the business achieves maximum value from its supplier network.

This is an excellent opportunity for a procurement professional who wants to play a genuine role in shaping future products, influencing engineering decisions and developing a resilient supply chain, rather than simply managing purchase orders and supplier relationships.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, manage and develop the Project & Bid Procurement team.
• Establish and implement effective procurement and sourcing strategies across NPI and bid programmes.
• Provide regular project and procurement status updates, ensuring priorities and objectives are achieved.
• Establish long-term strategic supplier partnerships focused on total cost of ownership, quality, delivery and resilience.
• Work closely with Category Managers to optimise the supplier base and ensure suppliers have the appropriate capability, capacity and performance.
• Monitor market conditions, supply chain risks and supplier capability, adapting sourcing strategies where required.
• Lead and support Production Readiness Reviews and supplier capacity planning to ensure production commitments can be achieved.
• Work closely with Engineering during NPI to maximise DFM and DFT opportunities, reducing design cycles, manufacturing costs and production risk.
• Influence future product designs by bringing supplier capability, market intelligence and manufacturing expertise into the engineering process.
• Lead make/buy analysis and sourcing decisions, including the development of turnkey supplier solutions.
• Identify and deliver cost reduction, efficiency and value-generation opportunities.
• Support bids and proposals by providing credible supplier, cost, capacity, lead-time and risk information.
• Develop and implement technology-enabled procurement solutions to improve efficiency, visibility and decision-making.
• Ensure appropriate commercial, intellectual property, confidentiality and supplier governance requirements are maintained.
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders across Engineering, Operations, Quality, Programme Management and Supply Chain.
• Report regularly to senior leadership on procurement initiatives, opportunities, risks, performance and objectives.
• Continuously develop procurement processes and capabilities to improve supply chain resilience and business performance.

Essential Experience

• Proven experience leading and developing procurement, sourcing or project procurement teams.
• Strong background in strategic sourcing, supplier management and procurement strategy.
• Experience with in a complex engineering, manufacturing, defence or aerospace environment.
• Strong commercial understanding, including total cost of ownership, cost reduction and value optimisation.
• Proven experience developing and managing strategic supplier relationships.
• Experience negotiating commercial agreements and managing supplier performance.
• Strong understanding of New Product Introduction (NPI) and product lifecycle management.
• Practical experience of Design for Manufacture (DFM) and ideally Design for Test (DFT).
• Experience supporting bids and proposals from a procurement/supply chain perspective.
• Experience with production readiness, supplier capacity planning and supply chain resilience.
• Experience making or supporting make/buy and sourcing decisions.
• Strong analytical capability, with the ability to assess market conditions, supplier risks, cost data and performance information.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Confident presenting to senior leadership and cross-functional…