JOB DESCRIPTION

Credible and sustainable procurement. Smooth operations. Impacting the future. 

Senior Procurement Manager

£60,000 – £70,000 (+ Benefits)

Grade: M2

Reports to: Head of Procurement

Contract: ​Permanent​

Hours: ​Full time 35 hours per week​

Location: ​Stratford, London​. ​Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)​

Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

Closing date: 09 December 2025 23:55

This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Recruitment process: Two competency-based interviews with an exercise

Interview date: From the week commencing 09 December 2025

How do I apply? We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

​​We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you. ​

Cancer Research UK’s Procurement team plays a critical role in ensuring the charity has the resources it needs to operate and deliver on our mission. Managing around £200m of annual spend, we are driving an ambitious transformation to create a strategic, data-driven procurement function that delivers value, mitigates risk, and fosters innovation. By embedding procurement best practice across the organisation, we aim to maximise value for money, enhance quality, improve efficiency, and uphold our promise to direct 80p of every £1 donated towards beating cancer.

As a Senior Procurement Manager, you will lead and develop strategic procurement initiatives across our Chief Operating Office (COO) and Scientific Research & Innovation (R&I) directorates to support Cancer Research UK’s mission to beat cancer. This will involve managing a team of Category Managers, driving value through effective sourcing and supplier management, and fostering strong cross-functional collaboration to ensure procurement is a trusted and enabling partner across the charity.

If you have a category management background with experience leading and managing stakeholders and procurement teams to drive change and achieve maximum value, we would love for you to join our mission.

What will I be doing?

• Leading the development and delivery of strategic category plans that align with Cancer Research UK’s mission to beat cancer, ensuring they create measurable impact and long-term value for the charity.
• Managing and mentoring a team of 4-5 Category Managers, fostering a high-performing, inclusive, and development-focused culture.
• Collaborating proactively with stakeholders across the charity, building trusted partnerships to understand needs, influence early engagement, and co-create procurement solutions that enable teams to achieve their objectives and deliver maximum impact.
• Championing effective and ethical supplier relationship management, ensuring high performance, innovation, sustainability, and long-term value across key contracts.
• Overseeing complex, high-value procurement projects, ensuring they are delivered on time, within budget, and aligned with organisational priorities and governance standards.
• Promoting and communicating procurement strategies and outcomes effectively, influencing senior leaders and cross-functional teams to embed best practices and strategic thinking.
• Ensuring compliance with procurement policies, legal requirements, and ethical standards, supporting audit readiness and governance.
• Representing procurement internally and externally, enhancing the team’s profile and contributing to continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.
• Harnessing data and insights to inform decision-making, track performance, and drive procurement excellence across the organisation.
• Supporting the ongoing transformation of Cancer Research UK’s Procurement team by taking ownership of and delivering both reactive and strategic improvement initiatives that streamline processes, enhance value, and enable Cancer Research UK’s long-term goals.

What skills will I need?

• Procurement professional with significant category management experience owning sourcing processes from beginning to end.
  • Ideally, has experience doing this within the charity, public, or healthcare sector, but we welcome applicants from alternative industries.
• Strategic with demonstrable experience in delivering procurement strategies, planning, and sourcing.
• Successful track record of leading and managing teams of c.4-5 direct reports with the ability to empower, motivate, and coach others and drive high performance.
• Has built credible and collaborative cross-functional stakeholder and senior leadership relationships with demonstrable interpersonal, communication, influencing, and negotiating skills.
• A resilient leader with experience driving change and leading and motivating teams and stakeholders in navigating ambiguity.
• Result-oriented with a track record of taking ownership of delivering projects, achieving measurable outcomes, and making informed decisions.
• A proactive approach to problem-solving with a continuous improvement mindset for identifying and implementing continuous improvements, encouraging innovation, promoting best practices, and challenging conventional organisational approaches and thinking.
• Demonstrable knowledge of contract law, procurement regulations, and sustainability practices.

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.

Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination

Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism

Human: Act to have a positive impact on people

Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively

We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.

What will I gain?

We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.

You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.

Additional Information

For more information about working with us please visit our website or contact us at [email protected].

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.

We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact [email protected] or 020 3469 8400 as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.