Global IT Category Manager

Entity: Technology Job Family Group: Procurement & Supply Chain Management Group Job Description: Let me tell you about the role To provides strategic category leadership for key categories at Castrol and is accountable for end-to-end management of global categories. They are responsible for fostering end-to-end category operational perfection through leading teams who handle supply chain risk and improve value, including sustainability, within their category. They do this through extensive collaboration across and beyond procurement, including with regional and business resources. The individual will be a strategic problem solver who leads development of exceptional executable category strategies to meet business objectives and also ensures competitive procurement outcomes. They ensure that strong category guidance is established for efficient execution across sophisticated categories. They cultivate partnerships with senior stakeholders and collaborate to deliver step changes in 3rd party spend management. They have high commercial acumen ensuring alignment with business goals and delivering secure optimal, compliant, and competitive, risk-managed procurement outcomes. A transformational leader, adept at change management, who builds high performing teams through displaying emotional understanding and fostering resilience. The category teams directly influence delivery of the business / entity financial plans and the overall value delivery of procurement, and are accountable for ensuring a safe, risk handled, sustainable and competitive supply chain. This role will lead the global IT Services procurement category strategy for IT Consulting, shaping strategy, driving commercial value, and partnering with business stakeholders to deliver driven, innovative and compliant IT services sourcing and supplier‑management outcomes. The category manager will build the category strategies and sourcing roadmaps for IT service aligned with IT operating model, technology roadmap and business priorities. The category manager will define sourcing approaches build vs buy insource vs outsource, single vs multi-vendor, regional vs global and tower model designs with clear commercial models for the strategy which include rate cards, blended rates, skill pyramids, outcome-based, fixed price etc. Develop and deploy the global IT services category strategy, covering areas such as IT application services, support services, consulting services and managed services. Use market intelligence and industry trends to shape long‑term IT services procurement strategy and drive competitive advantage. Provide strategic steer in major negotiations with global and regional IT services suppliers. Act as the senior commercial partner to global and regional IT leadership team. What you will deliver Category Strategy leadership: Leads the category team developing and delivering transformational procurement strategies, aligned with business needs, which ensures their category operates highly effectively end to end. Possesses commercial savvy and awareness of external market dynamics, providing strategic guidance and challenging the team to formulate innovative, value-driven strategies. Leverages methodologies, such as systems thinking, to extract incremental value Ensures their strategy is aligned to business and regional needs Category excellence: Demonstrates data led ownership of the end-to-end performance of the category, working with collaborators to develop category management plans that allow efficient end to end category management reflecting business / region context such as laws, tax, market conditions and content. Transformational Leadership and Change Management: Leads change initiatives, which deliver value to business through ensuring supplier performance in a environment. Team leadership: Builds high performing teams by fostering a culture of collaboration, excellence, and continuous improvement. Their team has strong technical skills and leads the category across procurement and the broader organization. Builds category knowledge across the wider procurement organization to ensure strategy execution Develops the team’s technical capabilities in order to deliver category operational excellence Nurtures accelerator skills; curiosity in external markets, innovation and technological disruption, digital fluency, data-driven insights, and strong collaboration with both suppliers and stakeholders Establishes an environment of psychological safety as a foundation for collaborative learning, ideation and innovation Supplier & Stakeholder Management: Uses storytelling to communicate impactful with stakeholders and external partners, respectfully challenging to achieve the right outcomes, resolving conflict and focusing on priorities. Skilled at leading and influencing through complexity and ambiguity, managing virtual relationships with stakeholders in multi-discipline, multi-cultural environments Builds deep stakeholder relationships, brin