Category Manager (Construction)

Help shape the future of healthcare construction. Your expertise could genuinely change lives.

If you’re a construction procurement professional looking for a role where your skills make a real difference, this could be the next step you’ve been waiting for!

At NHS SBS, we’re growing our Construction Category Team and are now looking for a Category Manager to lead and deliver one of our major frameworks: Public Sector Construction, HPCCAS.

You’ll be joining an award‑winning team that plays a vital part in improving NHS construction and infrastructure across the country. The work you do won’t just shape procurement strategies — it’ll support better environments for patients, staff, and communities.

You’ll help our NHS clients navigate complex construction challenges, drive value, strengthen supply chains, and deliver smarter procurement solutions — all while helping shape the next generation of healthcare facilities.

We know that experienced procurement professionals value balanced working too. That’s why we fully support flexible working, with monthly collaboration meet‑ups in our Salford office and occasional travel to client sites, exhibitions, and conferences.

What you will be doing

• Providing a procurement support function for clients and handling tender activity appropriate to category through to contract award.
• Taking an active role in developing the annual work plan and implementing policy, supplying short and long‑term category strategies.
• Reviewing, negotiating, re‑negotiating and drafting contracts for cost optimisation and savings targets.
• Leading across a complex high‑value project portfolio, building knowledge and expertise.
• Developing and improving key supplier relationships and exploring new business opportunities.
• Working with clients to develop constructive relationships with operational contract managers, providing support to ensure effective delivery of outcomes.

What you will bring

• Experience of PCR 2015, EU/UK regulations and company policies and the New Procurement Act 2023.
• Experience of working in procurement, commissioning, bid writing or contract management team within the NHS/Construction Sector/Public Sector is beneficial but not essential.
• Knowledge and skill in procurement process (scoping, briefing, tendering, selection, contract negotiation, including service level agreements, and management of suppliers).
• Reporting and providing evidence to the procurement team of savings and benefits delivered through the effective management of the vendor base.
• Knowledge and experience in conducting market research.
• Validated analytic skills (analysis of information, interpreting and communicating findings).
• Excellent stakeholder skills, grounded in commercial awareness and practical problem‑solving.

It would be great if you also have

• CIPS Level 4 (or working towards it), or a comparable qualification.
• Consultancy or professional services procurement experience.

Employment Type: Full Time, Permanent

Location: Nationwide – monthly onsite visits to the Salford Office

Security Clearance Level: DBS

Internal Recruiter: Adrian

Salary: Up to £40,000 dependent upon experience

Benefits: 25 days annual leave with the option to buy extra days, 4 x death in service life assurance, private medical insurance, pension, 3 days paid volunteering and 5 days paid carers leave.

We support many ways of working and can offer a range of flexible working arrangements. So, if you’re interested and need to work flexibly, we encourage you to apply and talk to us about what might be possible.

We embrace difference as a source of creativity, innovation and competitive advantage and are striving to become a more diverse organisation. We welcome applications from people with a diverse variety of backgrounds and identities. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation or marital status. We have partnered with Vercida, the UK's largest diversity and inclusion focused careers site, where all our vacancies are available in an accessible format.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, to enable you to perform to the best of your ability, please let us know when completing your application. We participate in the Disability Confident scheme and are committed to offering an interview to any candidate with a disability, who meets the minimum criteria for the role. If you believe this could apply to you, please let us know when completing your application.

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