P2P Service Delivery Team Leader

Company:
Thames Water Salary: £43,790 to £55,000 a year

Hours:

Full-time

Location:

Reading, RG1 8DB
Job type:
Permanent Posting date: 16 Oct 2026 Closing date: 29 Oct 2026

The role is responsible for leading and managing all elements of purchase order creation and management, invoice processing and associated account management within Purchase to Pay.

Providing a service to Thames Water in line with business compliance, business expectations and service level agreements. Particularly the resolution of issues, identification of improved ways of working and delivering change management.

The team leader will analyse operational performance, trends and insights to improve service and build strong relationships with stakeholders across the business.

Develop a strong ethos throughout the whole team for delivering a continuous improvement culture, self-sufficiency, and development.

• Lead and manage the Service Delivery Team to process all transactions in a timely and efficient manner and in line with KPIs and SLAs.
• Lead and manage the service delivery team to satisfy regulatory requirements.
• Ensure that processes supporting the conversion of requisitions into purchase orders and the processing of invoices are robust and auditable.
• Demonstrate effective management of performance against individual and team targets.
• Maintain stakeholder relationships both internal and external that facilitate smooth and efficient service delivery.
• Identify root causes of business and supplier issues within the P2P processes and plan then deliver corrective actions.
• Proactively reduce the time taken to process transactions and the volume of queries coming into the team.
• Lead meetings and workshops ensuring that meetings are productive and task oriented.
• Provide effective/strong leadership and support to the team ensuring clear decision making and team involvement in the development of goals etc.
• Develop the team to achieve self-sufficiency and ensure all tasks are performed whether supervised or not.
• Motivate, support and develop the team using appropriate styles.
• Lead and drive continuous improvement by identifying and evaluating areas for change which add value by undertaking quantitative and qualitative analysis.
• Maintain proactive support in the prevention and resolution of queries.
• Involvement in ad-hoc projects that require requisition/purchase order or invoicing input.
• Ensure P2P Service Delivery team adherence to business policies and procedures according to agreed standards and service levels.
• Carry out spot audits of processes and procedures to ensure compliance.
• Manage functional reporting and escalations – including people, risk, opportunity, successes, KPI, etc.

• Extensive experience in a fast-paced purchasing and/or invoicing team performing a similar role
• Strong demonstrable leadership and interpersonal skills required
• CIPS qualified is an advantage
• SAP experience, particularly Supply Chain and Finance modules
• Knowledge of the procedures supporting requisition to payment processes
• Awareness of invoice scanning systems including OCR
• Strong influencing skills required at different levels within the organisation
• Be able to develop and sustain working relationships
• Must be able to communicate in both a written and oral format with people at different levels in a professional manner
• Practical experience with process improvement and change management
• Ability to work alone or in a team environment whilst adopting the theme of collective responsibility
• Effective at delegating tasks
• Able to prioritise effectively
• Determined approach to problem resolution, drawing on own ability and experiences to see things through to…