Category Buyer; Indirects

Background

The world around us is experiencing significant change, the greatest in generations.

At Motion Applied, we’re accelerating the response to that change. Our vision is that our people and technologies will pioneer a better future. Our mission is to achieve breakthroughs in performance.

We’re at the cutting edge of innovation in industries including automotive transportation and motor sport. We create solutions that drive efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

We want to help to reduce the carbon footprint and become more sustainable. Our focus is on electrification and telemetry, control and analytics.

To deliver efficient lightweight electric powertrain and vehicle development; motor sport solutions that make series more sustainable and efficient; reliable connectivity solutions for transportation and insightful analytics and monitoring of transport fleets.

By applying our expertise, we deliver real benefits and pioneer a better future.

As Motion Applied continues its journey from a traditional Purchasing model to a fully embedded, strategic Procurement function, the Category Buyer – Indirects plays a pivotal role in shaping how the organisation manages spend, suppliers, and commercial risk.

This role moves beyond transactional buying to focus on category strategy, supplier value creation, and business partnering. While grounded in today’s purchasing operations, the position is instrumental in building future Procurement capability — embedding governance, driving smarter sourcing decisions, and delivering sustainable commercial outcomes across the business.

• Develop and execute category strategies across key indirect spend areas (e.g. IT, HR, Professional Services, Marketing, Facilities).
• Segment suppliers, assess risk, and identify opportunities for consolidation, innovation, and value creation.
• Conduct market and supply analysis to inform sourcing decisions and long‑term category plans.
• Align category strategies with business objectives, budget cycles, and risk appetite.

• Lead commercial strategy for tenders, negotiations, contracts, SLAs, and long‑term agreements.
• Develop negotiation plans that balance cost, service, risk, and flexibility.
• Own contract lifecycle management, including renewals, performance clauses, and governance.
• Reduce commercial leakage and ensure value realisation from contracted suppliers.

• Own category savings plans, including cost reduction, cost avoidance, and demand management initiatives.
• Partner with Finance to forecast, validate, and track savings and budget performance.
• Actively reduce off‑contract spend and improve compliance to preferred suppliers and processes.

• Act as a trusted commercial advisor to internal stakeholders across corporate functions.
• Influence decision‑making through insights, benchmarking, and data‑led recommendations.
• Lead cross‑functional initiatives to improve supplier performance, processes, or commercial outcomes.

• Contribute to the development of procurement policies, tools, and standard ways of working.
• Support reporting, dashboards, and performance metrics to increase transparency and maturity.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory, ethical sourcing, and corporate governance requirements.

• Proven experience in strategic purchasing, category management, or procurement roles.
• Strong commercial acumen with advanced negotiation and contract management capability.
• Ability to develop and communicate clear category strategies and value cases.
• Confident stakeholder influencer with strong analytical and problem‑solving skills.
• Experience using ERP/purchasing systems and performing financial or commercial analysis.
• CIPS or equivalent procurement qualification (desirable).

In return for everything you bring to the table, we can ensure an exciting, challenging role in a dynamic business surrounded by some of the best people in their respective fields.

At Motion Applied we firmly…