Global Head of Indirect Procurement, IT and R&D

Global Head, Category Lead for IT & R&DResponsibilities

Strategic Business Partnering & Enterprise Alignment

Serve as a trusted advisor and proactive thought partner to CIO and R&D leadership, co‑developing strategies and influencing the direction of major technology and innovation initiatives.

Translate business strategy into actionable procurement strategies, supplier models, and investment approaches, ensuring alignment with enterprise priorities.

Bring an informed perspective on current challenges while shaping forward‑looking roadmaps, identifying where procurement can guide, challenge, and enable better outcomes.

Embed procurement early in strategic planning cycles, ensuring meaningful involvement in defining priorities—not just executing on them.

Constructively challenge senior stakeholders and provoke new thinking, improving decision quality across complex and ambiguous topics.

Define and execute global category strategies across IT, Digital, Software, Infrastructure, R&D, and Clinical services.

Lead the framing of value—clearly defining what ‘winning’ looks like across initiatives (innovation, capability, speed, cost, risk) before structuring commercial approaches.

Build multi‑year value pipelines aligned with Finance and business leadership, embedding savings, cash, and broader value outcomes into business plans.

Leverage deep market intelligence, supplier insight, and technology trends to enable innovation and competitive advantage.

Position category strategies as growth and capability enablers, not simply cost management tools.

Own executive‑level relationships with strategic technology, digital, and AI partners.

Establish and lead strategic supplier ecosystems across hyperscalers, SaaS providers, AI partners, CROs, and specialist providers.

Redefine partnership models to enable mutual value creation, including structuring incentives that reward innovation, performance, and long‑term outcomes.

Drive supplier‑enabled innovation and access to emerging technologies and differentiated capabilities.

Lead robust Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) to deliver performance, resilience, and sustained value.

Maintain deep, real‑time understanding of key supplier relationships, contracts, and commercial structures.

Ensure clear visibility of financials, commitments, risks, and opportunities across the supplier landscape.

Drive simplification of fragmented data and contract environments, ensuring critical insights are always accessible.

Establish disciplined approaches to monitoring, performance tracking, and continuous optimisation of strategic partnerships.

Promote a mindset of ownership and accountability for commercial outcomes across the organisation.

Lead complex, global commercial engagements, including AI initiatives, ERP transformations, and multi‑year digital programmes.

Design and orchestrate commercial constructs that align incentives, balance risk, and deliver long‑term strategic outcomes.

Focus on structuring the right outcomes and value architecture, rather than relying solely on traditional negotiation techniques.

Navigate modern technology procurement challenges, including licensing models, consumption‑based pricing, data ownership, and intellectual property considerations.

Partner closely with Legal, Finance, and Risk to ensure governance, compliance, and protection of enterprise interests.

Act as a leader in ‘procurement in the age of AI’, ensuring the function is equipped to manage emerging technology categories effectively.

Shape procurement and supplier strategies in response to rapid AI‑driven disruption, evolving supplier models, and changing market dynamics.

Drive adoption of digital procurement tools, AI‑enabled workflows, and advanced analytics to improve speed, decision quality, and user experience.

Support the organisation in navigating AI‑related supplier risk, innovation models, and commercial implications.

Lead capability development to ensure procurement teams can operate effectively in increasingly…