{"id":2920945,"url":"https://alion.io/job/awe-category-manager-explosives","title":"Category Manager - Explosives","company":{"id":1799578,"name":"AWE","domain":"awe.co.uk","url":"https://alion.io/company/awe-co-uk","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Reading, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":40000,"max_usd":88000,"period":"year","method":"role_country_seniority_unknown","sample_n":501},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"closed","first_seen_at":"2026-10-20T11:58:42Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-23T03:14:13Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":"2026-10-23T03:14:13Z","days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"If you’d like to be considered for this opportunity we encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment as if applications are high the role will close before the closing date given.\nRole: Category Manager - Explosives\nJob Family: Commercial \nGrade: C1 \nAdditional Info: Applications are welcomed from across the business, however at this time those employees currently going through a formal consultation process will take priority for interview.\nWe thank you for your understanding at this time. Any questions, please speak to the Recruiter or your Senior People and Culture Partner.\nLet us introduce the role\nThe Category Manager is responsible for developing and executing category strategy across an assigned sub-group of categories, delivering value-driven activities and compliance across the commercial lifecycle. They shall possess proficient category expertise in their category and its group of sub-categories.\nThe role requires close collaboration with cross-functional teams and stakeholders from across Commercial and the AWE business to ensure delivery of the commercial pipeline in line with the agreed prioritisation, whilst also ensuring their category strategies align with business requirements and support delivery of AWE business goals.\nThe role will also be responsible for overseeing the contract management lifecycle and supplier relationships for a portfolio of medium value and complexity contracts to ensure business operational requirements are met efficiently, effectively through the performance of supplier contracts and in alignment with business strategic goals.\nThis role is responsible for identifying and mitigating contractual risk and fostering positive relationships with key suppliers to drive value and performance.\nThe role reports to a Senior or Principal Category Manager for the respective category.\nKey Accountabilities:\nManages and fosters effective relationships cross-functionally, ensuring functional and business wide alignment. \nDevelops and executes category strategies which are aligned with corporate objectives. \nConducts thorough market analysis to identify trends, risks, and opportunities that influence decision-making and keeps up to date with market trends and best practice for their categories. \nEstablishes strong relationships with key suppliers within the category to align on shared objectives. \nPrepares, leads and supports negotiations which secure optimal terms, fostering long-term partnerships while delivering value to the business. \nCommercially manages medium value and complexity supplier contracts through the entire contract lifecycle, including renewals, amendments, and terminations. \nCollaborates with operational teams, Legal, Finance, and any other relevant teams to ensure effective implementation and management of contract and supplier relationships, ensuring all terms and performance requirements are understood and met. \nMonitors and identifies risk in the sub-category, working closely with the Commercial Enablement team to feed into the functional overarching risk management plan whilst also ensuring compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and company policies. \nSupports the operational teams within the agreed performance-management frameworks, including KPIs and SLAs reviews, working collaboratively with operational contract management representatives in AWE. \nEssential Criteria:\nCompliance with relevant legislation and regulations. \nMust have proven professional experience. \nExperience of working in a Procurement / Commercial function. \nExperience in managing smaller, lower complexity categories of spend in a relevant area. \nExperience in preparing and executing procurements incorporating tender documentation, evaluation criteria, tender analysis, negotiations and contracting. \nExperience of managing contracts, contract management and SRM activities. \nProficient in Microsoft Suite specifically Excel. \nNegotiation and contract management skills. \nKnowledge and application of contractual arrangements. \nAbility to interpret and analyse financial analysis. \nA natural analytical thinker with ability to align business priorities to commercial outcomes. \nGood stakeholder management skills. \nComfortable with a degree of ambiguity and changing priorities. \nAll candidates must be willing and able to obtain and maintain the appropriate security clearance for this role.\nNext steps: \nEveryone who works at AWE brings unique skills and perspectives to the table. We recognise that great people don’t always ‘tick every box’. That’s why we focus on your potential, your fit with our values, your transferable skills as well as your experience. Even if you don’t meet every point above, but you feel that this role and AWE are a great fit for you, please go ahead and apply, we’d love to receive your application.\nImportant things you need to know:\nWe encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment if applications are high and the role therefore closes.\nYou will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE. The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV. \n We want you to feel comfortable and able to shine during our recruitment process. Please let us know on your application form if you need any adjustments/accommodationsduring the process.\nOur interviews typically take place over Teams and for most roles are a 1 stage process.\nOur ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. Westrive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants. Any inclusion information you provide will be stored in accordance with GDPR and kept separate from your application form and CV, and the information will not be shared with anyone involved in interviewing or making hiring decisions.\nPlease note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6125,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-20T11:58:42Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-10-23T03:14:13Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":null,"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/awe-category-manager-explosives","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/awe-category-manager-explosives.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-23T05:05:42Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":8387,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-24T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1799578},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1799578"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fawe-category-manager-explosives"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fawe-category-manager-explosives"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fawe-category-manager-explosives"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/awe-category-manager-explosives\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fawe-category-manager-explosives"}]}