Procurement Manager

Department: Finance

Team: Finance Business Partnering

Location: London

Position type: Permanent Full-Time

What the hiring manager says

This is an opportunity to join the Finance team as Procurement Manager. GSMA is committed to strong cost control and this position will be critical in enabling GSMA to manage its suppliers, ensure value for money and streamline the purchase to pay cycle.

The role reports to the Head of Finance Business Partnering and will work closely with stakeholders across the business convening the “Buyer Community” and working with Corporate Services teams which include Risk & Compliance, the Legal department and IT & Cyber/Infosec teams.

Claire Knapman, Head of Finance Business Partnering

About the Team

The Finance team is based in London with some regional staff and business partners located in Spain, USA Nairobi, Delhi and Shanghai.

About the Role

This role is responsible for the Purchase-to-Pay cycle at GSMA. Starting with choosing a supplier, the Procurement Manager will be responsible for rationalizing GSMA’s supplier base, identifying and promoting key suppliers and streamlining onboarding whilst maintaining controls.

The Procurement Manager will refine GSMA’s procurement policy, developing guidance and training for the use of tenders at the relevant levels of spend, providing tools and documents which simplify the process.

GSMA has a decentralized purchasing model, therefore the role of the Procurement Manager is to support the buyers across the business (“buyer community”) to achieve value for money through the provision of benchmarking, analysis, and negotiation support.

General and Task Management

• Ensure that appropriate purchasing policies and processes are in place to meet business objectives and operational needs in terms of price, quality, and delivery targets

• Create and review opportunities to implement best practice purchasing policies, processes, and procedures to aid and improve business performance and deliver best value and business savings

• Support / Lead new and ongoing initiatives and projects related to procurement, including but not limited too;
  • P2P process improvements across GSMA in 2024/25
  • Oversight, reporting and responsibility for the GSMA’s Critical Third-Party Management framework – adoption in 2024/25 and ongoing management and oversight thereafter

• Evaluate the challenges faced by the business and take action to mitigate risks and develop opportunities 
• Provide management reports and key performance data
• Support the management of relationships with suppliers and select and develop new suppliers
• Support the negotiation and management of contract terms with suppliers to ensure value for money, quality standards and delivery terms with technical and operational input from stakeholders and colleagues
• Support the review and negotiation of existing agreements to optimise commercial terms
• Provide oversight of the Tender Process and where applicable support the assessment of tenders from potential suppliers
• Work with suppliers and have a process in place to measure effective performance, quality, and compliance. Develop relevant KPI criteria to measure against
• Ensure supplier onboarding processes are adopted in line with policies in place
• Ensure professional and consistent supplier management is applied across the supply base in line with the purchasing policy
• Ensure that the business function and GSMA operates in accordance with any health, safety and environmental policies and procedures as appropriate
• Ensure compliance of suppliers with regards GSMA supplier code of conduct
• Develop supplier selection, tendering processes and ongoing monitoring to include relevant environmental, social and governance standards

Stakeholder interaction       

• Liaising with key company employees to determine their product and service needs
• Support the training and education of the decentralised buyers across the GSMA, providing relevant procedural training and wider purchasing training as required
• Be the purchasing “guru”, the focal point for any procurement queries
• Developing strong relationships with business stakeholders and strategic supply partners
• Work collaboratively, negotiate and engage with key stakeholders to facilitate delivery and compliance with the purchasing strategy
• Communicate with stakeholders the impact of market change and potential effects on supply, recommending solutions without compromising quality or service while optimising cost
• Stay current and up to date on any changes that may affect the supply and demand of required services and advise stakeholders of potential impacts
• Contribute to new business initiatives and projects and review and communicate the impact on purchasing activities

Capabilities: https://www.gsmaconnect.com/gsma-capabilities/

The key capabilities for this role are stakeholder management, commercial awareness, effective communication, and delivery. The role sits in the Finance Business Partnering Team however it is a standalone role and therefore the ability to work autonomously with drive and motivation is key.

About You

• You will have experience in procurement, managing RFPs and supplier onboarding processes
• You will be able to demonstrate strong stakeholder management, balancing a strong control environment with the needs of the business
• This is a role where the ability to add value in a negotiation is critical and so you will be able to demonstrate core negotiation skills and examples where you have personally generated savings
• You will strive to become a trusted business partner and the subject matter expert in all things procurement with the opportunity and focus to develop the existing end-to-end purchase to pay process to ensure it aligns appropriately with GSMA’s global footprint and diverse lines of business

Contract type

Worker type

What We Offer

Working at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile, whatever your role. By joining the GSMA, you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment, working on global solutions, genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.

In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation, our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities, generous holiday allowances, four additional days off for professional development and many others.

To learn more about the GSMA, visit our career site, our LinkedIn page and our Twitter page.

Being You at the GSMA

We care deeply about diversity, equity and inclusivity and aspire to be the best at it. Your well-being and work/life balance is important, so flexi-time and remote working is available to all staff. We're keen to ensure everyone is equal, represented and connected so we particularly encourage applications from all demographics. The sucess of the GSMA year on year will continue to be contributed by people from all walks of life.

GSMA Values

Our values not only drive our culture – they shape how we work and interact inside and outside our global organisation.

Passionately driven

We approach everything we do with unparalleled capability, tenacity and commitment, knowing that the challenging scale, pace and complexity of our work is what leads to its world-changing impact.

Insightful leaders

We continually develop and engage our expertise, insight and creativity so that we’re always ready to respond to the changing landscape with authority, agility and nuance.

Stronger together

We lean on each other so the industry can lean on us, embracing our diversity by actively seeking out perspectives and skill sets beyond our own, fuelling each other’s successes and constantly asking how we can help.

Underpinning our values is our collective mindset to show up purposefully as good human beings every day, in every situation. When we’re at our best – we are collaborative, considerate and compassionate to others, and we create a safe space for one another to thrive, assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we aren’t at our best and the pressure is on – we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious, lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.