Senior Purchasing Leader

Company Description

Veolia Group is a global leader in environmental services, operating across all five continents with nearly 218,000 employees. Specialising in water, energy, and waste management, Veolia Group designs and implements innovative solutions for decarbonisation, depollution, and resource regeneration, supporting communities and industries in their ecological transformation.

Veolia brings together a dedicated team of experienced professionals committed to tackling the world’s most complex challenges related to water scarcity, quality, productivity, and energy. Together, we pursue a shared mission to create a more sustainable future.

Global Senior Purchasing Leader

Office-based in Lane End, High Wycombe with International Travel

Permanent, Full-time, Monday - Friday 37 hours

25 Annual Leave + UK Bank Holidays (with option to buy / sell!), Company Bonus Scheme, Company Car or Cash Allowance, Pension Scheme, Private Medical Insurance, Access to a Private GP and much more!

________________________________________________________________________

Shape the Future of Global Procurement

Are you an experienced procurement leader with a passion for strategic sourcing, supplier partnerships, and building high performing international teams?

We are looking for a Global Senior Purchasing Leader to lead the purchasing function for our Labwater Solutions Division. This is a senior leadership opportunity for someone who thrives in a fast paced, international environment and is driven to deliver operational excellence, optimise global supply chains, and create long term value for the business.

As a member of the Executive Committee, you will play a key role in shaping procurement strategy, influencing business decisions, and ensuring our global purchasing operations support continued growth and innovation.

What you will be doing…

As Global Senior Purchasing Leader, you will:

• Develop and execute the global procurement strategy, ensuring alignment with business objectives and production plans.

• Provide direct leadership to an international purchasing and procurement team, fostering a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement and high performance.

• Build and maintain strong supplier relationships, negotiating strategic agreements that deliver the best value in cost, quality and delivery.

• Identify opportunities to reduce costs through supplier consolidation, alternative sourcing strategies and process improvements.

• Monitor global market trends and proactively adapt sourcing strategies to strengthen supply chain resilience.

• Lead purchasing budget management, ensuring effective cost control and accountability across the function.

• Oversee the ERP / MRP purchasing system, maintaining data integrity and ensuring purchasing activities are aligned with production schedules.

• Work closely with Supply Chain, Operations, Production Planning and R&D to support business priorities, inventory optimisation and successful new product introductions.

• Develop supplier risk mitigation strategies to ensure continuity of supply for critical materials and components.

• Monitor supplier performance and procurement KPIs, driving continuous improvement across the global supplier network.

• Ensure compliance with company policies, legal requirements and industry standards while supporting sustainability and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

• Support the purchasing lifecycle for product discontinuation and replacement strategies.

About You

We are looking for a commercially minded procurement leader who combines strategic thinking with operational excellence and strong stakeholder management.

You will ideally have:

• Significant experience leading global procurement or purchasing functions within a complex international organisation.

• A proven track record of developing sourcing strategies, negotiating high value supplier agreements and delivering measurable cost and operational improvements.

• Experience managing international teams and large procurement budgets in a technical manufacturing environment.

• A background within laboratory instrumentation, scientific equipment, medical devices or a related industry.

• Strong…