Senior Procurement Operations Manager

Credible and sustainable procurement. Smooth operations. Impacting the future. 

Senior Procurement Operations Manager

£60,000 - £70,000 (+ Benefits)

Grade: M2

Reports to: Head of Procurement

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time 35 hours per week

Location: Stratford, London. Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)

Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship. 

Closing date: 09 December :55

This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact  as soon as possible.

Recruitment process: Two competency-based interviews with an exercise

Interview date: From the week commencing 09 December 2025

How do I apply? We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won't be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That's why we're looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

Cancer Research UK's Procurement team plays a critical role in ensuring the charity has the resources it needs to operate and deliver on our mission. Managing around £200m of annual spend, we are driving an ambitious transformation to create a strategic, data-driven procurement function that delivers value, mitigates risk, and fosters innovation. By embedding procurement best practice across the organisation, we aim to maximise value for money, enhance quality, improve efficiency, and uphold our promise to direct 80p of every £1 donated towards beating cancer.

As a Senior Procurement Manager (Operations), you will lead the newly created Procurement Operations team, overseeing supplier relationship management, procurement reporting and analytics, and the Procurement Service Desk. You'll manage and mentor a high-performing team, championing stakeholder training and engagement while fostering collaboration across the charity. In this role, you'll design and implement a supplier management programme, embed ethical and sustainable procurement practices, and drive continuous improvement and change management initiatives. Your leadership will ensure operational excellence, compliance, and alignment with Cancer Research UK's strategic goals and sustainability commitments.

If you have a procurement operations background with experience leading and managing stakeholders and procurement teams to drive change and achieve maximum value, we would love for you to join our mission.

What will I be doing?

• Leading and developing a high-performing Procurement team across supplier relationship management, sustainability, procurement systems, and data analytics, ensuring they create measurable impact and long-term value for Cancer Research UK.

• Managing and mentoring the Procurement Operations team (3-4 direct reports), fostering a high-performing, inclusive, and development-focused culture.

  • Direct reports include: a Sustainable Procurement Manager, a Procurement Operations Manager, and a Procurement Data Analyst.

• Designing and implementing a supplier management programme to monitor performance, manage risk, and drive continuous improvements.

• Overseeing procurement reporting and analytics, ensuring accurate and timely insights are shared with stakeholders and leadership.

• Championing effective communication and engagement across the organisation to promote Procurement's value, services, and best practices.

• Developing and delivering procurement training courses and materials to upskill internal stakeholders and improve compliance across the organisation.

• Collaborating proactively with stakeholders across the charity to ensure systems, processes, and templates are fit for purpose, user-friendly, and continuously improve to enable them to achieve maximum impact.

• Supporting change management initiatives and process improvements across procurement operations.

• Overseeing the running of the Procurement Service Desk, triaging and directing queries to the appropriate team members.

• Embedding Cancer Research UK's sustainability goals into ethical and sustainable procurement practices and supplier engagement.

• Ensuring compliance with procurement policies, legal requirements, and ethical standards across procurement operations (including supporting audit readiness and governance).

• Acting as a key liaison between the Procurement team and other departments, ensuring operational alignment and strategic support across Cancer Research UK.

What skills will I need?

• Procurement professional with a successful track record of managing and developing procurement operations teams or shared service functions (c.3-4 direct reports) in large, complex organisations.

• Expert knowledge of end-to-end procurement operations, systems, and supplier relationship management, including:

  • Procure-to-Pay(P2P), supplier sourcing, and contract lifecycle management.

  • ERP platforms (e.g. SAP, Oracle, Coupa, Jaggaer, etc.) with the ability to optimise system usage and reporting

• Skilled in driving sustainable and ethical operational efficiency and continuous improvements with:

  • Demonstrated success in improving operational performance, reducing cycle times, and enhancing user experience.

  • A proactive, solutions-focused approach to problem-solving, encouraging innovation, promoting responsible practices, and challenging conventional organisational approaches and thinking.

• Proven ability to apply knowledge of procurement policies, compliance requirements, governance frameworks, and sustainable practices to deliver stakeholder training, clear guidance materials, and effective communications that improve compliance and embed operational excellence.

• Has built credible and collaborative cross-functional stakeholder relationships with excellent customer service and demonstrable interpersonal, communication, influencing, and negotiating skills.

• A resilient and adaptable leader with experience driving change and leading and motivating teams and stakeholders in navigating ambiguity and responding to evolving business needs.

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.

Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination  

Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism   

Human: Act to have a positive impact on people  

Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively

We're looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.

If you're interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we'd still love to hear from you.

What will I gain?

We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.

You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.

Additional Information

For more information about working with us please visit our website or contact us at   

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.

We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact or 0 as soon as possible. 

Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.