Category Manager in London - Oliver James

Contract | 6 Months | £350-500/day | Hybrid - London one day a week

Our client, a well-known professional services organisation, is going through a procurement transformation and is looking for a Category Manager to join on an initial 6-month contract while they build out the permanent function.

You'll join a small, established category management team (covering Tech and Professional Services categories) and take ownership of a broad stakeholder base - facing off across 6-7 categories including People & Culture and HR. This isn't a high-value negotiation-heavy role; you'll be running smaller RFPs and building relationships across the business rather than managing complex contract negotiations.

What you'll be doing:

• Acting as category lead/stakeholder contact across a range of indirect categories including HR and People & Culture
• Running smaller-scale RFP processes
• Building relationships across a genuinely open organisation - you'll be talking to everyone from junior stakeholders through to C-suite

What we're looking for:

• Procurement experience from a services background (not goods/indirect commodity buying)
• Comfortable working in a small team - ideally from a similarly-sized function previously
• Confident engaging senior stakeholders, including C-suite
• Flexible, personable, low-ego - this is a relaxed, well-run business, not a high-pressure environment

Process: Two-stage interview process with a quick turnaround - genuine opportunity to fast-track for the right person.