Head of Procurement

Practice Group / Department:

COO – Finance TransformationJob Description

We're Norton Rose Fulbright - a global law firm with over 50 offices and 7,000 employees worldwide. We provide the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. At Norton Rose Fulbright, our strategy and our culture are closely entwined. We know that our expansion will mean little unless it is underpinned by truly global collaboration and we understand that pioneering work only takes place when our people have room to move and think beyond boundaries. As well as the relevant skills and experience, we're looking for people who are innovative, commercial and value the work that they do. 

The Team

The EMEA Head of Procurement will be responsible for the management and delivery of all processes and procedures relating to NRF LLP’s procurement.

The role will work closely with the global procurement function, the Head of Finance, the Firm’s GC office, IT, Operations, Property, regional COOs across EMEA, the Firm’s Sustainability team and other Business Services Department Heads who will be the main customers for the function.

The role will be Newcastle based with occasional travel to London required.

The role will initially have one direct report with the potential to add further heads in the future.  The role will also be supported by the global procurement team.

The Role                       

The Head of Procurement will be responsible for the end-to-end procurement process and will work closely with multiple cross-functional teams and business units across a wide range of spend categories in support of our EMEA business.

The successful candidate will be responsible for further developing a procurement strategy with a focus on centralising procurement activity, reducing complexity, driving out cost reductions and managing risk while also reviewing the potential for greater automation and / or systems adoption.

You will be responsible for analysing spend, developing purchasing strategies, managing tenders, negotiating contracts, managing the contract life cycle and building and maintaining vendor relationships.

The key to success will be working collaboratively with your internal customers to deliver on their requirements. Sometimes this will mean taking the lead while at other times providing assistance within existing structures or with existing relationships.

Main responsibilities of the role include the following:

• Manage the EMEA procurement function including line management responsibilities
• Establish a procurement strategy and build the profile of the procurement function
• Review existing tools and systems and generate a development roadmap including a review of the current contract management database
• Review resourcing levels and link any future team growth to the development roadmap and delivery of cost savings
• Develop relationships with the global procurement team, heads of departments and regional COOs and build wider awareness of the procurement function and the value it brings to the business
• Review and maintain centralised procurement policies and procedures for EMEA
• Work closely with the Firm’s Sustainability team to manage and deliver strategic sustainability goals and embed the Firm’s sustainability policies into the procurement process
• Build insights into key strategic vendors to build NRF intelligence and develop supplier strategy including a review of vendor CSR performance
• Carry out a review of vendor spend with the aim of reducing the number of vendors and overall spend while driving out greater purchasing power
• Oversee and improve the vendor management process including the development and maintenance of a preferred vendor list and the introduction of a regular review cycle of vendors
• Review vendor performance under the largest contracts and review SLAs and KPIs working with departmental heads and regional management where appropriate to highlight and resolve delivery or quality issues
• Maintain strategic procurement relationships with the firm’s highest spending vendors working with departmental heads and regional management where appropriate
• Drive supplier innovation, cost reduction and performance improvement in order to maximise the value from supplier relationships over and above contractual commitments
• Play an active role in the budgeting process, helping budget holders keep a tight control on costs
• Ensure all business activities conducted comply with legal and ethical standards and statutory requirements
• Develop KPIs and objectives and deliver regular reporting to senior management
• Participate and contribute to special projects when and where assigned and assist with other administrative tasks as necessary

Skills and Experience Required:

• 10+ years of experience working within a procurement function
• The IT department will be the biggest customer so experience in Software, SaaS and Cloud contracts is an important requirement
• Strong knowledge of procurement systems and contract databases
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite in particular data manipulation in Excel and presentation build in PowerPoint
• Proactive and change focussed with a proven ability to develop innovative and practical solutions to issues and challenges
• Client centric with a focus on operational excellence
• Strongly collaborative and able to build relationships internally and externally
• Experienced in working across international borders and multiple functions
• Strong analytical skills
• Strong negotiating skills and a proven track record of value delivery
• Deadline and objective driven with the ability to perform tasks with a high degree of accuracy
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and able to present information in a compelling way to a variety of audiences
• Able to work effectively with all levels of the organization
• Clear influencing and persuasion skills, able to influence senior stakeholders
• Exposure to sustainability and CSR assessment and reporting an advantage

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

To attract the best people, we strive to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work, have a sense of belonging, and realize their full career potential. 
Our new enabled work model allows our people to have more flexibility in the way they choose to work from both the office and a remote location, while continuing to deliver the highest standards of service. We offer a range of family friendly and inclusive employment policies and provide access to programmes and services aimed at nurturing our people’s health and overall wellbeing. Find more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion here.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams. We strive to create an inclusive and accessible recruitment process for all candidates. If you require any tailored adjustments or accommodations, please let us know here.