Senior Category Manager - Finance and Customer Services

Base Location: Glasgow, Perth, Reading or Havant

Salary: £58,100- £87,100 + performance-related bonus + a range of benefits to support your finances, wellbeing and family.

Working Pattern: Permanent | Full Time | Flexible First options available

About the role

As Senior Category Manager - Finance & Customer Services, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping category strategies that balance commercial rigour with long-term sustainability. You’ll lead category management approaches across key portfolios, ensuring compliance, resilience, and value for money - while reducing risk and optimising total cost of ownership.

You’ll work across diverse categories including finance, metering, banking, and insurance, creating clear Category Management Plans and sourcing strategies that reflect real business needs. Through strong stakeholder relationships and thoughtful supplier engagement, you’ll help deliver outcomes that support both operational excellence and stakeholder experience.

You will

- Build strong, trusted relationships by working in close partnership with internal teams, suppliers, and external collaborators to co-create successful and resilient category strategies.

- Enable cross-functional collaboration by bringing people together, encouraging open dialogue, and fostering positive engagement between departments and the category team.

- Guide stakeholders with confidence and care through consultative processes that reflect genuine service needs and support sustainable, long-term outcomes.

- Champion operational excellence by ensuring sourcing and procurement activities are clear, consistent, and aligned with agreed supplier lists and buying channels.

- Support supplier success and sustainability by nurturing supplier relationships, monitoring performance, and strengthening reliability across the supply chain.

You have

- Extensive hands-on procurement experience, with a strong track record of delivering detailed category management activity in comparable sectors.

- Proven capability managing complex and challenging categories, with CIPS qualification preferred, but not essential.

- Strong commercial and legal insight, including a solid understanding of UK and EU procurement legislation and statutory compliance.

- Collaborative leadership skills, with the ability to influence, inspire, and bring cross-functional teams and suppliers together.

- Confidence using data and systems such as Oracle and Jaggaer to inform decisions, improve outcomes, and strengthen supply chains.

About SSE

SSE’s purpose is to provide energy needed today while building a better world of energy for tomorrow. We do this by developing, building, operating and investing in electricity infrastructure and businesses needed in the energy transition. Our Transforming for Growth investment plan sees us investing £33bn in critical electricity infrastructure across the five years to 2030.

Our Procurement & Commercial teams help us get the best service and value from partners, while ensuring suppliers meet compliance, contractual and business obligations.

Flexible benefits to fit your life

Enjoy discounts on private healthcare and gym memberships. Wellbeing benefits like a free online GP and 24/7 counselling service. Interest-free loans on tech and transport season tickets, or a new bike with our Cycle to Work scheme. As well as generous family entitlements such as maternity and adoption pay, and paternity leave.

Work with an equal opportunity employer

SSE will make any reasonable adjustments you need to ensure that your application and experience with us is positive. Please contact janet.gossman@sse.com / 01738 351816 to discuss how we can support you.

We're dedicated to fostering an open and inclusive workplace where people from all backgrounds can thrive. We create equal opportunities for everyone to succeed and especially welcome applications from those who may not be well represented in our workforce or industry.

Ready to apply?

Start your online application using the Apply Now box on this page. We only accept applications made online. We'll be in touch after the closing date to let you know if we'll be taking your application further. If you're offered a role with SSE, you'll need to complete a criminality check and a credit check before you start work.

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