Senior Category Manager (Health)

Help shape the future of healthcare procurement. Your expertise could genuinely change lives.

If you’re a healthcare procurement professional looking for a role where your skills make a real difference, this could be the next step you’ve been waiting for!

At NHS SBS, we’re growing our Healthcare Category Team and are now looking for a Senior Category Manager to lead and deliver one of our major frameworks: Healthcare Planning.

You’ll be joining an award‑winning team that plays a vital part in improving NHS healthcare across the country. .

We know that experienced procurement professionals value balanced working too. That’s why we fully support flexible working, with monthly collaboration meet-ups in our Salford office and occasional travel to client sites, exhibitions, and conferences

What you will be doing:

• Lead, mentor and support a talented team of healthcare procurement specialists at different stages in their careers.
• Working closely within the Health Category to ensure effective management and delivery of portfolio framework agreements.
• Develop short and long-term category strategies that improve resilience, unlock value, and align with wider business objectives.
• Use data and insight to spot opportunities for cost savings, process improvements, and supply chain efficiencies.
• Oversee a portfolio of high-value projects, influencing key procurement decisions and raising overall quality.
• Present confidently to Senior Leadership, contributing to discussions at formal Board-level settings.
• Work closely with Service Directorates, Heads of Procurement and senior NHS leaders to provide robust national procurement support.
• Negotiate effectively with suppliers to ensure every aspect of the category — from product to service delivery — meets stakeholder needs.
  
  

What you will bring:

• Public sector procurement is beneficial but not essential
• CIPS accreditation and knowledge of PCR 2015, PA23, and associated policies is useful but not essential.
• Experience managing and developing direct reports, helping them grow and strengthen their procurement capability is crucial
• Growth of frameworks and dealing with suppliers’ experience is required
• Ability to present category performance to the SLT in formal ‘Board’ settings
• Experience managing risk in healthcare supply chains — from insolvency issues to geopolitical disruptions — and crafting effective contingency plans.
• Strong market awareness and an eye on emerging industry trends.
• Excellent stakeholder skills, grounded in commercial awareness and practical problem‑solving.
  
  

If you are interested in this role but not sure if your skills and experience are exactly what we’re looking for, please do apply, we’d love to hear from you!

Employment Type: Full Time, Permanent

Location: Nationwide – with monthly onsite visits to the Salford Office

Security Clearance Level: DBS

Internal Recruiter: Adrian

Salary: up to £60,000 per annum depending upon experience and development needs

Benefits: £5,400 cash alternative car allowance, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy extra days, 4 x death in service life assurance, private medical insurance, pension, 3 days paid volunteering, 5 days paid carers leave and a generous flexible benefits fund which you can take in cash.

We support many ways of working and can offer a range of flexible working arrangements. So, if you’re interested and need to work flexibly, we encourage you to apply and talk to us about what might be possible.

Loved reading about this job and want to know more about us?

NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) was created by the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver corporate services to the NHS. A unique joint venture with Sopra Steria, a European leader in digital services and software development, we make life easier for NHS employees, patients, and suppliers, and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. Proud members of the NHS family, we provide finance & accounting, digital, procurement and workforce services to more than half the NHS in England. Our solutions are underpinned by cutting-edge technologies and our teams’ expertise, in-depth understanding of the NHS, and commitment to service excellence.

We share common values and unity of purpose with the rest of the NHS family, are committed to being a force for good, and are dedicated and empowered to act responsibly and sustainably at organisational, team and individual level.

Would you like to join us on our journey?

We embrace difference as a source of creativity, innovation and competitive advantage and are striving to become a more diverse organisation. We welcome applications from people with a diverse variety of backgrounds and identities. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation or marital status. We have partnered with Vercida, the UK's largest diversity and inclusion focused careers site, where all our vacancies are available in an accessible format.
If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, to enable you to perform to the best of your ability, please let us know when completing your application. We participate in the Disability Confident scheme and are committed to offering an interview to any candidate with a disability, who meets the minimum criteria for the role. If you believe this could apply to you, please let us know when completing your application.