Finatal
Interim / Fractional Procurement Lead
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Interim / Fractional Procurement Lead - 2-3 days per week
Day Rate: £1000-£1300pd
Location: Remote, occasional travel into London
Reference: NT325363
We are seeking an experienced Interim Procurement Lead to deliver material cost-of-sales savings and establish a sustainable in-house procurement capability within a UK technology and managed-services business.
The business operates in a fast-paced, acquisition-led environment, with a significant direct-spend base across telecoms, IT, cloud, unified communications and hardware.
The immediate priority is to identify and deliver commercially sustainable savings across direct cost of sales, while establishing the procurement processes, governance and supplier-management capability needed to support the business longer term.
The Opportunity
This is a hands-on delivery role rather than a strategy-only assignment.
You will be expected to quickly establish a consolidated view of supplier spend, contracts, pricing and volumes; identify immediate savings opportunities; lead supplier negotiations and competitive tenders; and put in place the governance and capability required for ongoing procurement management.
Savings must be sustainable and must not compromise customer delivery, supplier accreditation, certification, rebate eligibility, support arrangements or service quality.
Key Objectives
- Deliver material, evidenced savings across direct cost of sales.
- Establish an effective in-house procurement capability.
- Improve supplier governance, contract control and renewal management.
- Rationalise fragmented supplier arrangements and purchasing routes.
- Improve stock, inventory and working-capital discipline.
- Identify additional savings across selected indirect and overhead categories.
- Transfer procurement capability and knowledge to the internal team.
Key Responsibilities
- Reconstruct a consolidated group view of supplier spend, contracts, pricing, volumes, renewal dates and relevant entities/accounts.
- Run structured RFIs with incumbent carriers, vendors, distributors and aggregators to obtain accurate estate, contract and pricing data.
- Identify duplicate supplier accounts, inconsistent pricing, overlapping technology platforms, fragmented purchasing routes and weak commercial terms.
- Create and maintain a contract register, supplier map, renewal calendar and procurement reporting dashboard.
- Develop and execute a phased RFP and supplier-negotiation programme.
- Deliver early quick wins before progressing to the most material supplier lines and more complex categories.
- Establish a robust savings methodology covering identified, secured and realised savings, working closely with Finance.
- Improve stock and inventory controls, including stock policy, reorder logic, ageing/obsolescence reporting and working-capital measurement.
- Train internal buyers and management in RFIs, tenders, negotiations and renewals.
- Leave behind category playbooks, approved supplier panels, governance routines and practical handover documentation.
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Spend Categories
Telecoms
- Mobile airtime and hardware
- Fixed voice
- SIP
- Broadband and data circuits
- Leased lines
- Ethernet
- Legacy telecoms services
UCaaS & Telephony
- UCaaS platforms
- Microsoft Teams Phone
- Handsets and headsets
- Session border controllers
- Associated services
IT & Cloud
- Microsoft 365
- Azure
- CSP/NCE
- Cybersecurity licensing
- Hosting
Hardware
- Network infrastructure
- Endpoints
- Channel distribution
Internal Technology
- RMM
- PSA/ticketing
- Backup and disaster recovery
- Internal security products
- Rationalisation of duplicated or inherited platforms
Indirect Spend
- Property
- Energy and utilities
- Insurance
- Internal IT
- Fleet and fuel
- Consumables
- Travel
- Professional services
Stock & Inventory
- Hardware purchasing
- Inventory levels
- Ageing and obsolete stock
- Working-capital optimisation
Savings Focus
The assignment will begin with a structured diagnostic rather than an imposed savings target.
Potential value levers include:
- Supplier and account consolidation
- Group-volume negotiations
- Wholesale and market benchmarking
- Renegotiation of inherited commercial arrangements
- Distributor and aggregator rationalisation
- Vendor rebate optimisation
- CSP/NCE optimisation
- SKU and platform rationalisation
- Hardware standardisation and total-cost-of-ownership analysis
- Improved payment and credit terms
- Inventory reduction and working-capital release
The successful candidate will be expected to quantify opportunities, agree the methodology with Finance and demonstrate banked, recurring and finance-validated savings.
Essential Experience
We are looking for an experienced interim procurement or commercial leader with a strong track record in a technology-channel environment.
You should have:
- Senior procurement, commercial or supply-chain leadership experience within an MSP, telecoms reseller, IT reseller, UCaaS provider, distributor/aggregator, carrier/wholesale provider or comparable technology business.
- Practical knowledge of channel commercial levers, including vendor programme tiers, rebates, deal registration, distributor and aggregator terms, direct-versus-channel routes to market and volume negotiations.
- Strong working knowledge of Microsoft CSP/NCE commercial models, telecoms wholesale/carrier arrangements and IT distribution.
- A demonstrable track record of delivering material, recurring and finance-validated savings on direct cost of sales, rather than solely overhead expenditure.
- Experience leading RFIs, spend and contract mapping, competitive RFPs, complex supplier negotiations and implementation programmes.
- The ability to work credibly with CFOs, executive teams and senior stakeholders and report savings to a high financial standard.
- The ability to operate effectively with fragmented data, incomplete contracts and decentralised supplier ownership.
- Strong stakeholder-management and negotiation skills, particularly where supplier switching costs, accreditation or operational risk need to be considered.
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Desirable Experience
- Buy-and-build or post-acquisition procurement integration.
- Hardware inventory, stock-control and working-capital management.
- CIPS qualification or equivalent formal procurement experience.
- Private-equity value-creation, turnaround or exit-diligence environments.
Assignment Structure
Initial term: c.6 months
Commitment: Up to 2 days per week
Location: UK / hybrid, as required
Style: Hands-on interim delivery with a focus on measurable outcomes
Phase 1 — Set-up & Quick Wins
c.3 months
- Spend and contract mapping
- Supplier RFI
- Contract register
- Initial supplier negotiations
- Identification and delivery of quick wins
- Finance validation of savings
Phase 2 — Roll-out
c.3 months
- Major supplier negotiations and tenders
- Consolidated supplier arrangements
- Agreed savings run-rate
- Procurement processes and governance
Phase 3 — Consolidation & Handover
Part-time / tapering
- Completion of remaining negotiations
- Internal training
- Operational handover
- Live savings reporting
- Transfer of procurement capability
A formal decision point is anticipated at the end of the initial phase, with continuation dependent on demonstrated progress and evidenced savings.
Candidate Profile
The successful candidate will be pragmatic, hands-on and commercially assertive, with the ability to operate independently and deliver results without relying on a large consulting team.
You will need to be comfortable creating the underlying data, analysis and governance while simultaneously delivering.
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