Head of Procurement - Corporate Services

London, England, United Kingdom

12/20/2024

WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients, and communities.

Working at WPP means being part of a global network of more than 115,000 accomplished people in 110 countries. WPP has headquarters in New York, London and Singapore and a corporate presence in major markets worldwide.

We create transformative ideas and outcomes for our clients through an integrated offer of communications, experience, commerce, and technology.

WPP and our award-winning agencies work with most of the world's biggest companies and organisations – from Ford, Unilever and P&G to Google, HSBC, and the UN. Our clients include 61 of the FTSE 100, 307 of the Fortune Global 500, all 30 of the Dow Jones 30 and 62 of the NASDAQ 100. WPP are the leader in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index and 20th in the FTSE 100 rankings for Women on Boards.

Why we're hiring:

At WPP we are undergoing a global company wide transformation programme that will enable us to work together in a more coordinated, connected and efficient way across the group. We are three years into building the global procurement function to support and assist WPP in meeting those goals. Over the past three years we have made positive progress but there is still a significant amount to achieve. We have spent considerable amount of time focused on our next 3 year strategy and are taking the opportunity to make a few changes to our procurement leadership design, to ensure we are set up for success. This role is bringing together a number of categories under one leader to create a new Head of Procurement - Corporate Services. We are looking for an experienced procurement professional who can operate within a complex organisation and develops great stakeholder relationships at all levels of the organisation.

What you'll be doing:

The Head of Procurement – Corporate Services role is accountable globally for four key areas of spend. These include Professional and Financial services, Insight, Employee benefits and rewards and Travel. Procurement is structured in a Category delivery model supported by procurement operations and centres of excellence covering responsible procurement, risk, data and supplier relationship management. You will be required to work closely with senior leadership across WPP, and within our key Agency Networks to deliver and drive significant value globally. The position plays an important role within the Procurement leadership and will also be a partner, representing procurement, into one of our major agency networks.

Key elements of the role include:

• Create the next 3–5-year Corporate Services procurement strategy
• Develop and execute a pipeline of projects to drive continuous improvement, value, innovation and cost benefits, including personal leadership of projects
• Maintain a deep understanding of key supply markets and provide meaningful insights to stakeholders
• Build sustainable competitive advantage for WPP through suppliers and supply chains
• Lead and motivate a multi-location-based team, coach, mentor and develop the team and virtual team members
• Drive the Travel strategy and manage key operational requirements
• Provide appropriate and credible senior level commercial, manage up to and including ExCOM to ensure that procurement approach is robust and that commercial 3rd party relationships are structured to meet WPP’s needs
• Partner with business stakeholders to drive cost-consciousness and create a work environment that engages employees at all levels in the business to reduce the total cost of ownership
• Leadership and accountability for operating within the Procurement operating model
• Support the Global CPO in developing team strategy and vision
  
  

What you'll need:

• Significant and demonstrated experience leading and managing a procurement team in a global structure matrix organisation
• Procurement category expertise in travel, global benefits (with experience in US Healthcare) and professional services preferable
• Demonstrate that you have driven change within a hugely complex federated business
• Track record of implementing multi-year global category plans and executing complex strategic sourcing projects
• Ability to lead complex projects globally
• Strong capability to mentor, motivate and develop senior procurement teams and leaders
• A master at building great stakeholder relationships
  
  

Who you are:

You're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are accepting: of new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

What we'll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – We promote a culture of people that do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?

WPP is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, military/veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability. We believe in creating a dynamic work environment that values diversity and inclusion and strives to recruit a diverse slate of candidates to help us achieve that goal.

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