Commercial & Vendor Specialist

About us

NGED Procurement team spends ~£1bn per year (excluding indirect and IT) with significant cost efficiency targets.   It’s an exciting time to join National Grid, we are going through a period of significant network investment growth driven by electricity demand doubling by 2050.  

NGED Procurement develop end-to-end category strategies spanning multiple regulatory periods, which requires sophisticated procurement category strategies to maximise cost efficiency opportunities, ultimately translating into more affordable solutions for our customers and increased returns to NG shareholders.  NGED is 2 years into the ED2 price control and is already developing longer term and more strategic supply chain plans for ED3 (2029-2033). 

This role is a permanent position on a hybrid basis working from our Warwick office.

Job Purpose

The Commercial & Vendor Specialist will join the HVDC Category Team within National Grid. As a Commercial & Vendor Specialist you will be responsible for managing a portfolio of Managed Service Agreements, as well as collaborating with Procurement teams to provide critical support for future tender processes. Using your experience as a Commercial professional you will apply Contract Management and Vendor Management best practices to deliver value effectively and innovatively so that business outcomes and objectives are met. 

Key Accountabilities

•    Deliver multiple strategic sourcing events within portfolio, working with stakeholders to understand and challenge demand and ensure the best possible solutions for National Grid.
•    Build and sustain effective relationships with suppliers to deliver exceptional performance in cost, quality, time and compliance
•    Support the contract management activity for a portfolio of strategic Managed Service Agreements.
•    Lead the negotiation and agreement of new call off contracts as and when required.
•    Prepare contract documentation in collaboration with stakeholders.
•    Build effective relationships with internal customers and act as point of contact for commercial, legal and contract support, ensuring policies and procedures are correctly adopted and applied. 
•    Provide advice and recommendations at the appropriate level (including Senior Leadership) on commercial risks, issues and governance across your contract portfolio. Develop and execute plans to mitigate risks.
•    Provide critical support to Procurement teams in RIF/RFP shaping, negotiations and contracting.
•    Lead the onboarding of new supplier contracts.
•    Develop insights to continually improve supplier management processes, through research and analysis of supply markets and emerging supplier trends.
•    Input into the development and execution of sourcing strategy for the allocated category and execute standardised strategic sourcing processes from market engagement through to award, ensuring goods / services are procured in a best-in-class manner that drives value. 
•    Work with Contract Managers or Procurement Programme Managers to ensure the successful delivery of contracted activities, identifying continuous improvement opportunities through engagement with suppliers and stakeholders, and maximizing value for money from contracts awarded.  
•    Support the overall development and delivery of assigned category strategy and share best practice across other category teams. 
•    Role model excellence in procurement standards, taking a proactive role in mentoring / providing guidance to Buyers and Associate Buyers to ensure best-in-class methodologies are adopted and utilized across National Grid Procurement.  
•    Profile category characteristics and research supply markets, suppliers and assess trends, opportunities and risks feeding insights into the Global teams and Market and Supplier Development teams.

Qualifications

•    Degree level or equivalent
•    Comprehensive experience in contract management, from negotiation and onboarding, through to renewal and exit. 
•    Experience of managing outsourced Managed Service Provider contracts and onshore and offshore suppliers.
•    A deep knowledge of supplier management practices to build strong, performance and value driven relationships.
•    Confidence in managing complex supplier portfolios.
•    Commercial acumen – ideally, you will have worked in corporate environments, managing significant supplier spend, with the ability to balance commercial priorities with risk management and regulatory compliance.
•    A solid understanding of contractual documentation, with the ability to review, interpret and advise on contract rights and obligations.
•    Excellent interpersonal and stakeholder management skills; able to communicate effectively at all levels including senior leaders within the internal business and supplier organisations.
•    Formed positive working relationships with colleagues, customers and suppliers and is comfortable challenging to gain the best outcome.
•    Good influencing and negotiation skills to drive optimum value throughout the life of a contract.
•    Experience in defining, driving and overseeing commercial and contract governance.
•    A continuous improvement mindset, having delivered improved ways of working and efficiencies to contracts and supplier relationships which has resulted in lasting change.
•    Proactively identified risks and issues and managed plans to mitigate.
•    Your analytical approach enables you to interpret commercial and performance data, giving you the ability to prepare reports and collate information to make insightful recommendations, as well as presenting this in a concise manner for a range of stakeholders to support decision making.
•    An understanding of Energy & Utilities or another regulated environment would be useful.
•    Industry standard and/or professional body accreditations e.g MCIPS is highly desirable.
•    Significant experience of strategic sourcing and category management.
•    Strong knowledge in HVDC projects would be useful but not essential.
•    Create joint technical development roadmaps and innovative supply chain solutions.
•    Strong influencer, able to manage the cross functional team, affecting change to business design standards and constructing coherent arguments around specification rationalisation.
•    Previous experience or an understanding in RFI’s/RFP’s/RFQ’s processes.
•    Ability to prepare for and to lead negotiations. 
•    Ability to build and manage complex commercial assessment models. 
•    Conduct market analysis to identify trends and opportunities for improvement and innovation in the supply chain processes.
•    Identify potential risks within the supply chain and implement effective strategies to mitigate them.

More Information