Job Description

About us
At University College London (UCL), we are proud to be recognised as London's Global University -- a world-leading institution that combines pioneering research, innovative teaching, and a diverse community of over 51,000 students and 18,000 staff from more than 150 countries.
Our Commercial & Procurement function plays a key role in supporting UCL's strategic ambitions and long-term financial sustainability. With an annual spend of over 900 million, the team ensures that every procurement decision delivers value for money, drives innovation, and supports UCL's Sustainable Procurement Strategy.
We work collaboratively across the university to ensure that our partnerships, sourcing strategies, and supplier relationships help UCL achieve its mission -- advancing knowledge, addressing global challenges, and creating positive social impact. Joining our team means contributing to a culture of excellence, integrity, and continuous improvement within one of the UK's most dynamic higher education environments.
About the role
As a Category Manager - IT & Telecoms, you will lead on developing and delivering strategic procurement solutions that drive value, efficiency, and innovation across your category area. You will act as the primary commercial partner for senior stakeholders, managing key relationships and ensuring UCL's procurement strategies align with institutional and category objectives.
You'll be responsible for developing, owning, and implementing a comprehensive category strategy, encompassing everything from supplier engagement and contract negotiations to sustainability and compliance. You'll deliver commercially excellent outcomes through frameworks, preferred supplier lists (PSLs), and competitions, ensuring UCL achieves both financial savings and operational excellence.
In this role, you'll also champion continuous improvement and new ways of working -- helping UCL embrace technological change, streamline procurement processes, and enhance supplier performance. This is an exciting opportunity for a confident, strategic procurement professional to make a significant impact within a globally recognised institution.
About you
You are a strategic, commercially minded procurement professional with extensive experience managing complex sourcing and contract management activities in large, multi-stakeholder environments. You combine strong analytical and negotiation skills with the ability to build trusted relationships at a senior level, influencing outcomes and driving innovation.
You bring a proven track record of developing and implementing category strategies that deliver measurable value and efficiency. You're confident leading major procurement projects, managing supplier relationships, and using data to inform decisions and drive change.
Your communication skills -- both written and verbal -- are excellent, allowing you to present complex commercial information clearly and persuasively. You're highly organised, adaptable, and collaborative, with a natural ability to balance strategic objectives and hands-on delivery.
Ideally, you'll hold (or be working towards) CIPS accreditation and have prior experience in IT, telecoms, or communications-related procurement. Above all, you are committed to innovation, sustainability, and service excellence -- reflecting UCL's values and contributing to its long-term success.
What we offer
As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)

• Additional 5 days' annual leave purchase scheme

• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan

• Immigration loan
• Relocation scheme for certain posts

• On-Site nursery
• On-site gym
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• Discounted medical insurance

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Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As London's Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world's talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.
We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL's workforce.
These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.
Available documents

Skills Required