Category Strategy Support Manager - GFR

The Category Strategy Support Manager plays a key role in developing and communicating category strategies that align with business goals, value creation, risk mitigation, and supply chain optimisation.

You will apply your expertise to create category presentations, reports, and other strategic documents that support decision-making and stakeholder engagement.

Key Accountabilities

• Develop impactful presentations and communications to drive partner alignment and decision-making.
• Support demand planning, organisational change, and strategic sourcing initiatives.
• Handle tactical categories end-to-end, including strategy, stakeholder engagement, and value delivery.
• Monitor and report on category performance, KPIs, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Drive standardisation of category processes, templates, and performance measures.
• Find opportunities for efficiency, innovation, and commercial value through scope and spend reviews.
• Lead supplier performance management activities, including performance reviews, risk assessments, and improvement plans.
• Build and maintain strong supplier relationships to ensure service excellence, value delivery, and contract compliance.
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners to resolve supplier issues and optimise supplier value.
• Support contract management, dispute resolution, and supplier risk mitigation.
• Handle and optimise SAP Ariba buying channels, catalogues, and category content to improve compliance and user experience.
• Implement controls and monitoring to ensure contract compliance and reduce procurement risk.

Essential Experience & Job Requirements

• Partner with stakeholders to translate business needs into sourcing and category strategies.
• Strong market intelligence and category expertise, with knowledge of industry trends and supplier landscapes.
• Provide category leadership, governance, coaching, and best-practice guidance.
• Analyse spend and market data to identify optimisation and value-creation opportunities.
• Handle contracts, ensure compliance, and mitigate commercial risks.
• Develop strategic supplier partnerships that drive performance and innovation.
• Monitor compliance, identify risks, and implement corrective actions.
• Lead cross-functional sourcing and procurement projects from end to end.
• Apply strong analytical and problem-solving skills to drive data-based decisions.
• Champion innovation and continuous improvement across sourcing activities.
• Demonstrated people leadership, coaching, stakeholder management, and team development skills.

Essential Education:

• An undergraduate degree (ideally in procurement or business) or equivalent experience.
• Minimum 8-10 years professional experience in Indirect Procurement is required.
• Experience of working cross culturally and in an international environment
• Ability to communicate and influence across different levels in the organisation
• Engaging and collaborative way of working
• Resilient and experienced in working in wide-ranging environment

At bp, we provide the following environment and benefits to you:

• A company culture where we respect our diverse and unified teams, where we are proud of our achievements and where fun and the demeanor of giving back to our environment are highly valued
• Possibility to join our social communities and networks
• Learning opportunities and other development opportunities to craft your career path
• Life and health insurance, medical care package
• And many other benefits.