Purchasing Business Manager - Concepts & TDS Ancillaries/Services, Luton/Flexible

What you will be doing

As Purchasing Business Manager you will engage and consult with the various source markets and key stakeholders (internal and external) in order to help define and scope out the appropriate contracting strategy for each category within a pre-determined time period and commercial / financial targets, ensuring buying strategy is aligned to the individual source markets product and business strategy. This will demand adequate awareness of all source market product and service delivery requirements to ensure that all requirements are in scope and considered.

Maintaining an adequate awareness of geographical macro-economic indicators you will ensure competitiveness through benchmarking and tendering (the candidate is not required to be qualified in this aspect, but should have a broad working knowledge or understanding of benchmarking and tendering practices).

The role will be responsible for managing the activity of the team to provide service to Source Market stakeholders whilst delivering Mainstream objectives and assisting with the delivery of required synergy benefits identified within non-accommodation buying to ensure goals and commercial objectives are cascaded and that there is clear goal congruence within the team.

You will also assist in helping define and implement best practice procedures for all tenders, negotiations, supplier evaluation and vendor rating processes across all Group source markets, ensuring that procedures complement adequate degree of risk management to be installed within the team.

As part of your role you will regularly deal with high profile industry figures and stakeholders from a wide and diverse range of countries/companies and be able to make commercial presentations in order to maximise commercial benefits.

You will provide leadership and development to all direct reports and ensure the team are appropriately engaged with peers to make sure that all strategies to deliver goals and objectives across the teams are aligned.

What we are looking for

• Leadership, clear focus and takes full accountability during change. Promotes change to peers and encourages new ideas and acts on own initiative
• High level of strategic thinking, with long term planning in place and all relevant risks and opportunities identified
• Experience of dealing with several different types (micro and macro-economic factors) of destination and delivering and maintaining hard differentiated product through key suppliers
• Ability to drive change in an assertive and confident manner. Shows positive attitude even in the most difficult of circumstances
• Demonstrates the ability to use ‘emotional intelligence’ by considering the needs of own and others’ emotions. Especially, in building long term commercial relationships
• Ability to lead and manage multinational team, empowering to take ownership and accountability for decisions to meet Mainstream goals
• Ability to manage relationships with all key stakeholders across a range of seniority and roles
• Collaborative and innovative approach to manage and bridge the potentially conflicting demands of multiple stakeholders
• Extensive knowledge of tour operating, especially commercial contracting, product, pricing and trading
• Comprehensive understanding of tour operating business processes
• Ability to work well under own initiative and under pressure
• Multinational leadership capabilities
• Ability to demonstrate entrepreneurial skills and consideration of wider macro-economic environment in making commercial and business decisions
• Ability to influence and persuade internal and external customers through open and directional communication according to audience
• Performance driven with a passion for change management and results
• Ability to communicate vision through various channels and gain commitment from a range of stakeholders
• Ability to adopt a ‘hands-on’ approach
• Excellent leader with experience of leading teams through change
• Excellent experience of driving teams towards clearly defined financial goals and objectives
• Experience of delivering large change programmes within business as usual
• Ability to use excellent verbal and written skills, ability to adapt the style of these skills according to the audience. Must be able to deliver at senior level.
• Use of excellent analytical skills in consideration, evaluation and making business case decisions
• CIPS qualification or commitment to work towards attaining qualification