Category Manager - Hard Services

Category Manager - Hard Services

Leicester or Sheffield (with hybrid working)

Role Overview

You are responsible for developing and implementing the category strategies that shape how Bellrock buys hard services and capital works across our portfolio. Covering mechanical and electrical, plumbing and drainage, HVAC, building fabric, CAPEX and lifecycle project spend, and potentially a portfolio of specialist compliance-driven services, you will build the supplier base, commercial agreements and market insight that allow our account teams to deliver compliance, performance and P&L impacting savings  ideal candidate will bring genuine category management experience in an engineering, construction or hard FM supply chain, the analytical rigour to build a strategy from the data, and the influencing skills to land it across a decentralised business.

• Develop multi-year category strategies across the hard services portfolio, using spend analysis, market insight and cost drivers to shape future sourcing plans.
• Identify opportunities for supplier consolidation, preferred supplier coverage and improved commercial value.
• Lead end-to-end sourcing activity, including specification development, market engagement, tendering, evaluation, negotiation and contract award.
• Establish national and regional agreements, rate cards and frameworks that account teams can use with confidence.
• Ensure supplier agreements protect Bellrock Group’s commercial position and reflect relevant client contract requirements.
• Support Supply Chain Managers and account teams with supplier recommendations, benchmarking, market intelligence and category expertise.
• Work with bid and business development teams to provide supplier solutions, pricing, cost models and innovation for new business and retender opportunities.
• Build and develop a capable, compliant and geographically diverse supply chain, leading strategic reviews and addressing performance issues.
• Manage category risks including supplier failure, capacity constraints, price volatility, skills shortages and compliance.
• Support Bellrock Group’s ESG, carbon reduction and social value commitments while tracking savings and reporting progress to senior stakeholders.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Demonstrable category management experience — building and delivering category strategies, not solely transactional or operational buying.
• Experience sourcing hard services, engineering, construction or capital works spend, ideally within FM, property, construction or a technical services environment.
• End-to-end sourcing capability: specification, market engagement, tender, evaluation, negotiation and award.
• Working knowledge of maintenance regimes and statutory compliance in a built environment (for example SFG
  20, and accreditation frameworks such as Gas Safe, F-Gas, NICEIC and SSIP schemes).
• Strong analytical skills, comfortable interrogating large and imperfect spend datasets to build a defensible commercial case.
• Proven ability to influence and deliver through others without line authority.
• MCIPS qualified, or actively working towards it.

Desirable

• Ideally degree educated.
• Experience of CAPEX, lifecycle or project procurement, and familiarity with NEC or JCT forms of contract.
• Exposure to compliance-driven specialist services such as fire detection and suppression, security systems, lifts, or statutory inspection and testing regimes — these categories may sit with either Category Manager, so experience here is welcome in both roles.
• Experience of managing subcontract supply chains delivering into outsourced or managed service contracts.
• Experience of supplier-led innovation, decarbonisation or asset lifecycle optimisation.

AI fluency & learning mindset:
We are looking for people who actively use AI in their day‑to‑day work, demonstrate strong curiosity about new technologies, and take ownership for continuously improving how they think, work, and deliver.

Working arrangements

We embrace smarter working practices which offer our employees the opportunity to work their hours flexibly and remotely where their roles and business needs allow. In this role, the successful candidate would be required to…