Head of Procurement – Sector Delivery
Your Consultant
We are a £2BN global defence and security company delivering mission-critical solutions that protect lives and enable operational advantage. Our vision is “to be the chosen partner around the world innovating for our customers’ advantage”.
To do this, we combine deep technical expertise with a bold approach to innovation – helping our customers solve complex challenges across land, sea, air, space and cyber. We employ over 8,000 people in 50 locations across the UK, Europe, US and Australia.
About Procurement and Supply Chain
Finance is a Global Group Function with Procurement and Supply Chain, a key department, reporting directly to the Chief Financial Officer and influencing £1BN spend across directs and indirects. The Procurement and Supply Chain department has several key pillars including Business Partnering, Category Management, Supply Chain, Responsible Procurement, and Operational Excellence.
To deliver QinetiQ’s five-year growth strategy, we need to foster and enable a progressive mindset. We aspire to be a key business enabler and value creator. To do this, we need to shape and influence stakeholder strategies, drive value, deliver excellence, and manage supply chain opportunities and risk.
Sector Delivery Supply Chain Team
From bid to delivery, the Sector Delivery Supply Chain Team ensures the right supply chain is in place and performing across ~£680M supplier spend –supporting winning proposals and delivering excellence to our clients across UK Defence and UK Intelligence sectors.
Key Responsibilities
- Serve as the trusted advisor and commercial authority to sector leadership teams, influencing investment decisions, bid strategies and programme delivery models
- Ensure early procurement engagement in bidding, capture and demand planning, maximizing win probability and long-term value
- Own delivery of measurable procurement value across the sectors, including cost optimisation and avoidance, supplier enabled innovation, ESG and responsible procurement outcomes
- Define and lead the end-to-end procurement and supply chain strategy for Sector Delivery and Supply Chain Bidding, aligned to business growth, client-side capture priorities and enterprise objectives
- Lead procurement and supply chain transformation across Sector Delivery and Bidding, including the deployment of digital platforms, process simplification and standardisation
- Act as a key member of the business function’s senior leadership team, influencing functional strategy, operating model, and capacity development
- Drive integration between procurement, engineering, finance and programme teams to deliver commercially optimised supply chain solutions
- Champion SME and non-traditional supplier engagement to enhance agility, innovation and social value
- Leverage category strategies and market intelligence to unlock enterprise-wide value opportunities
- Oversee the development of a high-performing, resilient and diverse supply base, aligned to sector and bidding needs
- Lead governance of critical strategic supplier relationships, ensuring value delivery, innovation and risk mitigation
- Accountable for end-to-end supply chain risk management across delivery and bids, including operational and financial risk, geo-political and security considerations, supply continuity and resilience
- Lead, inspire and develop a high-performing, multi-layered leadership team, fostering succession and capability growth
Key Person Attributes
- Acts as a visible, values-led leader, role modelling integrity, inclusion and continuous development
- Highly credible at Executive level, able to challenge, influence and shape decisions in complex, high-stakes environments
- Translates complex commercial and supply chain dynamics into clear, actionable insight
- Deep commercial acumen with a strong growth mindset, balancing cost, innovation, risk and long-term value
- Proven ability to lead large-scale transformation, embedding new ways of working, systems and behaviours
- Builds strong, trust-based relationships across business units, functions, external partners and suppliers
- Makes high quality decisions under ambiguity, balancing risk, pace and opportunity
- Demonstrates resilience and composure in high-pressure, delivery-critical environments
- Passionate about developing leaders and building capability at scale
- Creates an inclusive, high-performing culture where teams are empowered to deliver and grow
- Challenges the status quo and drives modern, digital and data-led procurement practices
Experience and Qualifications
- Degree or equivalent professional experience
- MCIPS qualified
- Minimum fifteen years’ strategic procurement and supply chain experience with at significant proportion in Defence sector
- Strong experience for developing and leading high performing teams
- Proven track record of building successful relationships with C-suite stakeholders and suppliers
- Experience of supplier relationship management in a matrix environment and experience of developing successful relationships with SMEs
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Understanding of Procurement Technology landscape, AI and automation use cases in procurement