Senior Buyer 

Location: Leeds OR Stowmarket
Contract Type: Full-time, Permanent
Salary: Competitive + Car Allowance + Flexible Benefits

Freedom has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Buyer to join our Procurement team. This is a strategic procurement role responsible for leading procurement activities across contracts and projects, supporting operational delivery, work winning, and commercial performance.

Working closely with Operational, Commercial and Supply Chain teams, you will act as the procurement lead across designated contracts, developing and implementing procurement strategies, managing supplier relationships, and driving value through effective sourcing, negotiation and performance management.

This role is suited to an experienced procurement professional who can operate independently, make informed commercial decisions, and lead complex procurement activities while supporting and developing others within the team.

Some of the key deliverables in this role will include:

• Promote and support a strong Health & Safety culture across all procurement activities.
• Lead supplier performance reviews, ensuring agreed service levels are achieved and improvement plans are implemented where required.
• Support and develop members of the procurement team, providing guidance, coaching and clear objectives.
• Act as the procurement lead across contracts and projects, supporting operational teams with strategic procurement expertise.
• Develop and implement procurement strategies aligned to contract and business objectives.
• Lead procurement activities including sourcing, market engagement, negotiations, tender management and supplier selection.
• Support work-winning activities by providing procurement data, market intelligence and commercial advice.
• Ensure suppliers and subcontractors deliver best value and support excellent customer outcomes.
• Develop and maintain procurement plans and schedules in collaboration with operational teams.
• Support contract mobilisation through the establishment of supplier agreements and contract-specific service level arrangements.
• Manage supplier segmentation in line with the Group's Customer of Choice strategy.
• Lead regular supplier and procurement review meetings, ensuring actions are tracked and delivered.
• Establish and manage procurement savings, rebate and cost-reduction targets.
• Produce monthly procurement reports and contribute to contract and business performance dashboards.
• Drive continuous improvement, innovation and value-add opportunities across the supply chain.

What We're Looking For

Essential:

• Significant experience in a procurement, purchasing or supply chain role, ideally within utilities, construction, infrastructure or engineering environments.
• Experience leading complex procurement activities including tenders, negotiations and supplier management.
• Strong commercial awareness with experience managing budgets, savings targets and supplier performance.
• Proven ability to build and maintain effective relationships with operational and senior stakeholders.
• Experience developing procurement strategies and implementing them successfully across projects or contracts.
• Strong communication, negotiation and influencing skills.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications.
• Full UK Driving Licence.

Desirable:

• Experience working within the utilities sector.
• Knowledge of plant hire, construction materials, utility products and subcontractor procurement.
• Experience using procurement systems such as Focal Point or similar P2P platforms.
• Professional procurement qualification (e.g. CIPS) or working towards qualification.
• Experience managing or mentoring procurement team members.

Benefits

We're always evolving our benefits to ensure we're attracting and retaining great people. Some of what you can expect includes:

• Pension with a leading provider and up to 8% employer contribution
• 25 days Annual Leave + Bank Holidays
• Car Allowance
• Salary sacrifice car scheme (Hybrid/Electric Vehicle)
• Personal Wellbeing and Volunteer Days
• Private Medical Insurance
• Free 24/7 365 Employee Assistance Program
• Flexible benefits including Dental Insurance, Gym Memberships, Travel Insurance, Tax Free Bikes
• Personal development programme

 

Next Steps: 

As a business, we’re on a journey to build on our culture where everyone is included, treated fairly and with respect. This starts with recruitment and how we bring people into the organisation.  

We’ll do our best to outline the recruitment process to you ahead of time with plenty of notice. If you require any accommodations to participate in the application or interview process, please let us know and we will work with you to ensure your needs are met. 

About Us:

Freedom are part of the NG Bailey Group, one of the leading independent engineering and services businesses in the UK. Founded in 1921, with a turnover of £500m and 3000 employees, we are proud of our history of developing great people through our investment in training.

Working across a variety of sectors within the building and infrastructure industry, our innovative, responsible and forward thinking approach allows us to work on fantastic ground-breaking projects, providing solutions using the latest tools and technologies.

Progression is something we value and we will make sure that when you join us you have a clearly defined development path, supported by regular reviews, training and ongoing support to enable you to be the best you can be.

 

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