Category Manager – Design

Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS)
Building a sustainable tomorrow

BAM UK & Ireland are recruiting for a Category Manager – Design to support the global strategy of BAM, the Procurement strategy and objectives, and leverage our scale, whilst also balancing our local project delivery and commercial requirements. Sharing this knowledge with the BAM organisation and being recognised both internally and externally by the business and vendors as a centre of expertise creates trust and sustainable relationships with our internal stakeholders and our vendors, driving innovation and actively contributing to win work activities. This will increase our competitive edge to a maximum extent. The Category manager reports hierarchically to the Head of Supply Chain and Systems – BAM UK & Ireland and works in close collaboration with the Procurement Leadership Team (PLT), Design Assurance Team and Procurement community in the segments.

Your work environment

• This role can be based at any UK & I regional office and home, travel will be required across the UK and Ireland.
• BAM operates a flexible working policy
• People are at the heart of what we do at Bam. We recognise that creating a diverse and inclusive environment that nurtures our employees and encourages them to bring their best and whole self to work is crucial. We’re on an exciting journey to get us there by recruiting the very best talent to join us regardless of race, colour, religion, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability or other characteristics.

Your mission

As Category Manager – Design, you will be responsible for the following:

• Develop, implement and communicate the Category plan according to the UK & Ireland Supply Chain management and Procurement strategy and methodology with the aim of reaching agreements going beyond project and region specific category strategy
• Capture and share knowledge of the integral chain of the category, including performance trends and market demands
• Accountable for the coupling of the current and future demand within BAM to continuously improve the category strategy
• Build and maintain excellent relations with internal and external stakeholders, relevant organisations, governmental organisations and other entities that are of importance
• Develop and manage contract database, list of design partners and categorisation of design partners
• Negotiate contracts with design partners and anticipate key issues in the respective category
• Translate the market and internal information to practical appliance
• Cross division collaboration – facilitate alignment between Civils and Buildings division to foster cohesive procurement approaches and share learning
• Provide tools and guidance for team members involved in the category to realise the Category Plan
• Liaise with the contract specialists to increase procurement efficiency for the assigned category
• Develop and manage short- and long- term category strategy, based on the BAM Category Management approach resulting in continuously improvement of the procurement process;
• Support sourcing activities in the tender phase by providing current recommendations based on existing performance across the division
• Actively interact within the BAM organisation, including Procurement community (more specifically PLT, buyers, tender managers, project managers, Tender Desk, Procurement Support, etc) to support, share and communicate all relevant aspects of the category strategy, including category specific knowledge and expertise
• Hold regular vendor performance meetings and be the point of contact and escalation for any poor performance of vendors
• Keep vendor and contract database up to date, maintain and develop preferred supplier list, including rationalising and categorising the vendors
• Capture detailed category data and produce detailed reports from tender to project award
• Ability to improve visibility, track performance and address gaps at a strategic level

Who are we looking for?

• Professional academic background or experience
• Significant years relevant work experience in the category field of expertise and/or (construction related) industry
• Work experience in a complex matrix organisation, preferably project company
• Business fluency in English is essential (written and oral)
• Ability to interact with all levels of the organisation
• Effective time and project management, teamwork, execution and organisation skills
• Experience in vendor relationship management

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary
• A wide range of family-friendly policies
• Company car/car allowance/travel allowance
• 8 % matched pension contributions
• Private healthcare
• Life assurance
• 26 days holiday
• 2 wellbeing days
• 1 volunteering day
• Personal and professional development

BAM UK & Ireland is also committed to equality of opportunity in all its employment practices and to developing policies that support work-life balance.

Who are we?

The art of building is about building for communities; it’s about building for life.

Where others stop, we go further, leading the way towards a sustainable tomorrow for us and future generations. As an industry leader, we raise the bar.

Our values: sustainable, inclusive, collaborative, reliable and ownership, enable us to achieve our ambitions. Today, tomorrow and every day.

Our recruitment process

For more information about the vacancy and our projects, please contact Zainab Rubbani, Recruiter, at

BAM is committed to ensuring a fully inclusive recruitment and onboarding process, so if at anytime you feel you may need any reasonable adjustments, do not hesitate to speak with one of our team, and we will do our best to support you.