Heathrow
Senior Category Leader
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Introduction
Join Heathrow’s Business Services team and you’ll help us deliver our bold ambitions, whilst supporting colleagues to achieve theirs.
Our team is involved in every element of People and Finance activity. That includes payroll, casework, referencing and onboarding, through to billing, paying suppliers, and month end activities. It’s up to us to lead, support and deliver an excellent service across our core processes including;
- Managing Revenue
- Procurement
- Project and Asset Management
- Finance Processes
- People Processes
Our Business Services teams focus on three areas: Systems and Transformation, Service Delivery, and Business Intelligence.
There’s no place like Heathrow when it comes to the scale of our ambitions. Our airport is in a period of rapid growth and change. To succeed, we need to be able to make decisions quickly, evaluate the financial, non-financial and carbon impact of our choices, and ensure they are supported by accurate data and insight.
This is an exciting time, as we deliver a new Business Services vision that embraces technology, drives continuous process improvement and unlocks insights to drive our business. Join us and discover unlimited opportunities to make a difference.
Job Description
This is a high‑impact leadership role at the heart of Heathrow’s Energy & Utilities transformation. The role leads end‑to‑end operational procurement for some of the airport’s most critical energy categories such as, electricity, water, gas, fuel and desalination. This role shapes how Heathrow sources, contracts and manages the systems that keep the airport running.
In this role, you will set the direction for category strategy, lead complex sourcing and commercial negotiations, and provide programme wide commercial oversight that directly informs senior decision making. With a mandate to drive value, resilience and innovation, the role translates complex technical and commercial detail into clear, actionable strategies that support Heathrow’s net‑zero ambitions and long‑term energy roadmap.
This role will require your leadership in a fast‑moving, multi‑stakeholder environment, and bringing deep Energy & Utilities procurement expertise, strong renewable market insight and the ability to challenge, advise and influence senior stakeholders.
Your role will involve
- Leading commercial oversight of the Energy & Utilities Programme, ensuring alignment to strategic objectives, delivery milestones and operational requirements.
- Developing and evolving category strategies, sourcing pipelines and market intelligence to drive long‑term value, resilience and performance.
- Running complex, end‑to‑end strategic sourcing activity, shaping route‑to‑market strategies and delivering robust commercial outcomes.
- Providing leadership across Energy & Utilities procurement, driving market engagement, supplier capability assessments and forward‑looking strategy informed by regulatory and market developments.
- Negotiating and managing complex commercial agreements, KPIs and value mechanisms, ensuring benefits realisation and continuous performance improvement.
- Acting as a trusted advisor within programme governance, influencing senior stakeholders, ensuring consistent procurement standards and driving collaboration across teams.
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These Skills Are Essential
- Significant experience leading Energy & Utilities procurement, with strong knowledge of renewable energy markets and regulatory dynamics.
- Proven ability to develop and execute category strategies and lead complex end‑to‑end strategic sourcing.
- Strong commercial and contractual leadership, including negotiating complex agreements and ensuring governance and value for money.
- Programme‑level commercial oversight capability, managing risks, interdependencies and performance across large, multi‑workstream environments.
- Credible senior stakeholder influence, acting as a trusted advisor and aligning diverse groups to procurement and commercial outcomes.
- Leadership experience driving high‑performance delivery, developing teams and fostering collaboration across procurement and wider functions.
Ideally you will have
- Experience shaping forward‑looking Energy & Utilities strategies informed by market dynamics, regulatory change and innovation.
- Strong understanding of renewable commercial mechanisms such as shaping, imbalance management, sleeving and certificate retirement.
- Familiarity with complex programme governance structures, providing challenge, assurance and commercial insight at senior forum
- Experience partnering with CAPEX teams to ensure effective contract mobilisation, delivery and performance management.
About Us
There’s something so special about working at the world’s most iconic airport. Its sights. Its sounds. Its constant air of excitement. Heathrow is an amazing backdrop to a career filled with unique opportunities.
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Every day, you’ll discover a world full of fresh possibilities and end the day buzzing with stories to tell, as you encounter people from all cultures, nationalities and experiences. A world full of pride for what we do and no end of exciting career prospects to explore.
It brings out the best in all of us. And inspires everyone to deliver on our ambitious plans. Together, we’re working to welcome millions more passengers while ensuring aviation can continue to be a force for good by leading global efforts in sustainability.
Join us on that journey and we'll help you achieve your ambitions too. Supporting you to learn, encouraging you to be yourself, backing you to achieve more than you might ever have imagined. Because there’s no place like Heathrow.
Our rewards
We offer competitive salaries and excellent benefits that will support you now and in the future. As well as performance-based annual bonuses and our longer-term Share in Success Bonus plans, we also offer generous annual leave allowances and market-leading pensions. With family friendly policies, access to private health insurance and a wide range of wellbeing tools, we’ll support you to be at your best inside and outside work. And of course, we’ll provide varied learning and development opportunities too. Here you’ll find everything you need for a fulfilling career journey that can take you in exciting directions.
Working Location
Our Hybrid working approach offers the opportunity for colleagues in some roles to work from home for an average of two days a week, providing the flexibility to work in an agile way whilst ensuring we deliver for the operational needs of Heathrow. Working arrangements vary from team to team and will be confirmed during the recruitment process. You’ll need to be based in the UK and within a commutable distance to Heathrow.
Sustainable Travel to work
Heathrow’s Sustainable Travel Guide sets out easy and sustainable travel options that everyone can access.
Equal Opportunities
As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all. We believe that diverse talent makes us stronger – not least because we welcome passengers from all corners of the globe, every single day. Heathrow is an accessible place to work. With five diversity networks, we champion inclusivity and celebrate individuality.
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