RS Group
Head of Buying
Get notified of more jobs like this · No spam, ever
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Location: This is an office-based role, working out of Manchester, Corby, London, or Melton (near Hull).
Contract Type: Full-time, permanent position.
The Opportunity
You would be accountable for defining and executing the commercial product and supplier strategy for RS Safety Solutions, ensuring the business delivers a differentiated, customer-focused, and profitable proposition across UK & Ireland. This role is also responsible for developing and executing the company's purchasing and sourcing strategy to achieve sales, profit, and growth targets. Leading the buying team, you would manage key supplier relationships, negotiate commercial agreements, and ensure the right products are available at the right time, price, and quality.
The role will develop strong supplier partnerships and commercial performance while strengthening RS Safety Solutions' position as a trusted partner of PPE and safety equipment, protecting people from the equipment they operate and protecting the equipment from human touch and contamination risk.
What you’ll be doing
Working closely with the General Manager and Site Director, the Head of Buying will identify market opportunities, anticipate customer needs, and leverage supplier relationships to deliver innovative products, value-added solutions, and competitive advantage. The role will combine strategic thinking with commercial execution, ensuring the product portfolio supports business growth ambitions while maximizing customer value and profitability.
You will also:
- Identify market opportunities, customer trends, and emerging technologies that support category growth
- Build differentiated product and service propositions that strengthen competitiveness
- Develop category plans that balance short-term commercial performance with long-term strategic growth
- Create joint business plans with strategic suppliers to support growth, innovation, and market leadership, as well as identifying opportunities to broaden partnerships to strengthen market position
- Drive development of our VAS offering that differentiates us from competitors
- Ensure robust forecasting, planning, and commercial governance processes are in place
- Own category revenue, margin, and profitability performance; monitoring and reporting performance against financial and operational targets
- Use customer, supplier, and market insight to inform strategic decision-making
- Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, and CS to deliver on goals
- Create a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement
- Act as the voice of the market within RS Safety Solutions
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
What you’ll bring
The successful candidate will bring deep category and supplier expertise, strong commercial acumen and ambition, and a proven ability to build market-leading propositions through effective supplier engagement, category management, and customer insight.
We're looking for an externally focused leader who combines strategic vision with relentless execution and will bring:
- Significant Commercial, product, and buying experience
- Proven success growing a B2B industrial, safety, distribution, MRO, manufacturing services, or technical products business
- A track record of materially growing revenue, profit, and market share
- Strong commercial acumen with deep experience of customer strategy and business development
- Experience leading through change, transformation, and organizational scaling
- An engaging individual with outstanding stakeholder management and influencing capability
Not essential but would be great if you had:
- Experience in a multi-site, retail, wholesale, manufacturing, or FMCG environment
- Professional qualification such as CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply)
- Degree in Business, Supply Chain, Purchasing, Retail Management, or a related field
We Are RS
At RS, we are making amazing happen for a better world.
As a global product and service solutions provider, we help industrial customers operate more efficiently and sustainably. Operating in 33 markets, we support around one million customers worldwide with more than 875,000 stocked products, access to over five million additional products, and a range of service solutions designed to help businesses thrive.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
What sets us apart is our people. More than 8,500 colleagues around the world bring technical expertise, digital innovation, and a customer-first mindset to everything we do. Guided by our values – We are one team, We deliver brilliantly, We do the right thing, and We make every day better, we're creating an environment where our people can grow, contribute, and make a meaningful impact.
Join us and help make amazing happen.
Rewards
Our Reward Strategy Philosophy is designed to offer market-competitive base salaries and provide all of our people the opportunity to participate in a short-term incentive, enabling them to share in the success of the Company.
Our total reward package is more than just the cash; our recognition and benefit offering provide the opportunity for us to recognize, reward, and enable the wellbeing of our people at all stages of their journey with RS. Our rewards and benefits vary by country, but include:
Financial
- Pension/retirement
- Life assurance
- Salary finance (payroll deduction loan scheme)
Wellbeing
- Medical plans
- Health screening
- Critical illness
- Disability insurance
- Holiday/paid time off
- Employee assistance programme
- Discounted gym/health club membership
Lifestyle
- Transportation assistance schemes (e.g., cycle to work, travel loans, car leasing)
- Onsite catering/lunch vouchers
- Retail discounts
Spotlight
- Our global recognition programme provides a platform to highlight and recognize people role modelling our values
Ready to Make Amazing Happen?
Join over 8,500 colleagues and help us shape the future of our industry. Whoever you are, wherever you are — it all starts here.
Apply now and make RS a part of your journey.
#LI-MR1
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London