Supplier Management Team Leader

📍 Remote based with a monthly office visit to Hampshire

Company & role

This role sits with a well established technology services provider that relies on a broad supplier ecosystem to deliver quality and value to its customers. The supplier base runs to several hundred active suppliers across overheads, services and third party providers, so this is a high volume environment rather than a small strategic panel.

As the business sharpens how it manages that ecosystem, it is bringing in a Supplier Management Team Leader to lead the function and take ownership of the full supplier lifecycle from onboarding through to performance and risk.

This is a leadership role with real scope. You will lead and develop the Supplier Management team while also shaping the frameworks and processes that sit underneath them. The focus is on building a best in class onboarding and lifecycle capability, getting more value from existing suppliers before reaching for new ones, and making sure supplier performance genuinely aligns to Sales, CTO, and Delivery needs.

Why This Role Stands Out

You lead the team and own the framework. This is not just people management. You will define how supplier onboarding, governance, and lifecycle management actually work, then build the team to deliver it.

There is a clear improvement mandate. The business wants faster onboarding, better data, and a stronger governance model, so there is a genuine problem to get your teeth into rather than a process to babysit.

Real scale to work with. A supplier base in the hundreds means the improvements you make to onboarding cycle time and data accuracy land across a large, varied estate rather than a handful of accounts.

The role has commercial and strategic weight. Supplier segmentation, scorecards, QBR cadence, and commercial leverage all sit with you, so the work goes well beyond administration.

You will shape the sustainability agenda. Embedding ESG and sustainable procurement into the supplier lifecycle is part of the remit, working alongside the GRC and sustainability team, which gives the role a forward looking edge.

Broad stakeholder exposure. You will work across Sales, CTO, Delivery, and Procurement, giving you visibility and influence across the business.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and coach the Supplier Management team
• Own the end to end supplier lifecycle across onboarding, performance, optimisation, and risk
• Define and embed supplier governance, onboarding, and lifecycle processes
• Drive continuous improvement in onboarding, reducing average cycle time and improving data accuracy across a large supplier base
• Optimise existing supplier relationships before onboarding new ones
• Align supplier capabilities with Sales, CTO, and Delivery requirements
• Own supplier segmentation and implement scorecards and a QBR cadence
• Monitor and report on supplier performance, SLAs, and risk, keeping compliance tight across legal, financial, and regulatory standards
• Partner with Procurement on commercial leverage and with the GRC and sustainability team to embed ESG into supplier selection and onboarding

Ideal Experience

Essential

• Strong supplier or vendor management experience within an IT services environment
• Experience onboarding suppliers at volume across a large and varied supplier base, not a small panel of strategic partners
• Proven leadership and team management capability, with a track record of developing high performing teams
• Commercial acumen and a genuine understanding of how supplier value is captured
• Solid grounding in procurement, compliance, and supplier governance operations
• Strong stakeholder management across multiple business functions
• Good understanding of supplier risk profile management

Desirable

• Experience building or overhauling supplier onboarding and lifecycle frameworks
• Exposure to sustainable procurement or embedding ESG into supplier processes