{"id":3596220,"url":"https://alion.io/job/boots-category-manager-professional-services-hr-procurement","title":"Category Manager – Professional Services & HR Procurement","company":{"id":1757026,"name":"Boots","domain":"boots.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/boots-com","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"BrassRing","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":89,"open_postings":198,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.611,"repost_share":0.045,"time_to_fill_p50_days":11,"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"}},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Nottingham, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":29000,"max_usd":65000,"period":"year","method":"role_country_seniority_unknown","sample_n":550},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-02T04:09:41Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-02","last_verified_at":"2026-11-12T10:55:10Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":10,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":10},"description":"Contract: 12 month FTC\nRecruitment Partner: Vyoma Gandhi\nWhat you'll be doing\nAs Category Manager - Professional Services & HR Procurement, you’ll take ownership of an assigned portfolio covering areas such as consultancy, managed service/BPO, audit, temporary labour, R&D, data, learning and development, HR operations and reward. Based on-site in Nottingham, you’ll report into the Category Director for Professional Services and work across Boots UK & Republic of Ireland, Opticians and No7 Beauty Company to shape category strategy, improve value and support strong supplier governance.\nThis is a high-impact role within a Professional Services Procurement team responsible for around £450m spend. You’ll work alongside two other Category Managers and a cross-functional team of Procurement Associates, partnering with senior stakeholders up to CxO and Executive level to turn business needs into practical, commercial sourcing strategies.\nKey responsibilities\nLead, develop and take personal responsibility for category strategies across your assigned Professional Services and HR Procurement portfolio.\nWork with stakeholders up to CxO and Executive level to test business requirements, challenge current approaches and balance value, service, risk and compliance.\nUse external market insight, spend analysis and supplier knowledge to shape strategies that support Boots, Opticians and No7 Beauty Company.\nDrive procurement-led change and sourcing activity across categories such as consultancy, managed services/BPO, temporary labour, R&D, data, learning and development, HR operations and reward.\nProject manage category workstreams and initiatives, ensuring objectives are delivered on time and within agreed governance.\nCollaborate with teams including Finance Business Partners, Legal, InfoSec and Data Protection to support robust commercial decisions.\nLead supplier selection, negotiations and contracting for local and regional arrangements.\nTrack and report on savings, ROI and other procurement KPIs, using data to inform decision-making and demonstrate impact.\nSupport key supplier relationships, developing strategic partnerships that create mutually beneficial outcomes.\nMonitor supplier risk and compliance, identifying mitigation plans in line with the business’s risk appetite.\nWhat you'll need to have (our must-haves)\nStrong category management and strategy development experience, ideally across professional services, HR procurement, marketing-related categories or other complex indirect services.\nCommercial acumen, with the ability to balance value, service quality, innovation and risk.\nProven negotiation experience, including exploring options and reaching outcomes that work for all parties while maximising return for the business.\nContracting expertise, including negotiating commercial terms for local or regional supplier arrangements.\nProject management skills, with the ability to shape, lead and deliver initiatives on time and in full.\nExcellent stakeholder management skills, including the confidence to work with senior leaders and navigate complex business areas.\nStrong communication skills, with the ability to explain direction, plans, commercial outcomes and issues clearly to a wide range of stakeholders.\nData analytics capability, including the ability to analyse complex information and turn it into insight for negotiations, category plans and decision-making.\nIt would be great if you also have\nExperience structuring large-scale, complex managed service tendering and negotiations.\nExperience negotiating a consultancy roster or preferred supplier list, and shaping a consultancy strategy that drives value and consistency.\nA strong understanding of supplier risk, governance and performance management in complex service environments.\nAn inquisitive mindset, with the confidence to challenge the status quo and look beyond BAU renewals or incremental savings.\nExperience working in a large, matrixed organisation where procurement partners closely with Finance, Legal, InfoSec, Data Protection and senior business stakeholders.\nWhere your brilliance can take you\nAt Boots, you’ll have the opportunity to influence how a well-known, trusted brand buys and manages professional services across a broad and visible portfolio. This role offers senior stakeholder exposure, ownership of meaningful category strategy and the chance to build your experience across complex procurement-led change.\nYou’ll be supported by a collaborative team and leaders who value curiosity, constructive challenge and progress. Bring your commercial expertise, your voice and your drive to make an impact, and you’ll be trusted to help shape what comes next for Professional Services & HR Procurement at Boots.\nRewards designed for you\nBoots Retirement Savings Plan\n\nDiscretionary annual bonus\n\nGenerous employee discounts\n\nEnhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave pay and gift card for anyone expecting or adopting a child\n\nFlexible benefits scheme including option to buy additional holiday, discounted gym membership, life assurance, activity passes and much more.\n\nAccess to free, 24/7 counselling and support through TELUS Health, our Employee Assistance Programme.\n\nThere’s lots more in our benefits and discounts, MyBoosts - there to give you that little lift in your everyday. Find out more at http://boots.jobs/rewards. Exclusions may apply; eligible roles only. Please note that any salary estimates provided on third-party sites are not endorsed by Boots and may not be accurate.\nA bit about us\nAt Boots, we're proud to be an equal opportunity employer, creating a place where everyone feels welcome, supported and free to be themselves. We believe that when our people feel valued and included, they thrive, so we're committed to creating a brilliant Boots for our people so they can make a difference for our customers and colleagues every time.\nWhat’s next?\nIf you apply, our team will be in touch to let you know the outcome of your application or to arrange next steps. Where a role is advertised as full-time, we are open to discussing part-time and job share options. If you require additional support as part of the application and interview process, we are happy to provide reasonable adjustments to help you be at your best.\nBoots is a Ban the Box employer and will consider the suitability of applicants with criminal convictions on a case-by-case basis.\nWe hope to hear from you soon.\nBe brilliant with Boots.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6467,"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":["Gym membership","Retirement plans","Stock options"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"},{"name":"Ireland","iso":"IE","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Supply Chain","Cosmetics & Makeup","Optometry & Optical Stores","Pharmacies"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-02T04:09:41Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":39,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.525,"p_room":0.75,"age_days":10,"expected_fill_days":11,"reasons":["conf:5","stale_co","velocity","win:late","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-12T10:38:37Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/boots-category-manager-professional-services-hr-procurement","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/boots-category-manager-professional-services-hr-procurement.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-12T14:48:44Z","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":30832,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-13T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"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":1757026},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1757026"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fboots-category-manager-professional-services-hr-procurement"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"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%2Fboots-category-manager-professional-services-hr-procurement"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"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%2Fboots-category-manager-professional-services-hr-procurement"},{"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/boots-category-manager-professional-services-hr-procurement\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fboots-category-manager-professional-services-hr-procurement"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3596220}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"boots.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3596220},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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