Skills

Negotiation Coaching

Job Specifications

Senior Category Manager – Technology

Key Info:

12‑month FTC
£80,000 - £100,000 base salary
ASAP start date (February 2026)
Bristol-based – ideally 2 days onsite,
Wednesday is the anchor day
Experience working in Procurement within Financial Services is desirable
Experience in the Technology Category highly desirable

The Role:

Sanderson are partnering with a major financial services organisation to hire an experience Technology Category Manager.

This role would suit someone thrives in transformation, loves shaping strategy, and wants to join a genuinely supportive, high‑performing team within a growing business.

The organisation are investing heavily in modernising its digital platforms, upgrading their technology, and reshaping how millions of clients experience their offering. Procurement would include Cloud Migration, Data Centre transformations, Application Suite upgrades and Office Moves.

You will be working closely with the CTO and other C‑suite leaders to steer business‑critical technology decisions.

You’ll also be working alongside a collaborative team who are looking for someone to elevate the function during a period of change. You’ll be driving new supplier engagements, spotting opportunities, and structuring commercial agreements that deliver long‑term value.

What You’ll be doing:

Building and maintaining category plans aligned to business and technology strategy.
Leading complex sourcing activity. Market assessments, negotiations, commercial modelling, and contract execution.
Structuring commercial agreements that protect the organisation and deliver sustained value.
Establishing strong governance frameworks to manage performance, risk, and commercial outcomes.
Coaching Contract Managers to uplift capability and drive value across the supplier lifecycle.
Identifying opportunities for innovation, cost optimisation, and supplier resilience.

What you’ll Bring:

Senior‑level experience building category strategies and influencing senior stakeholders.
A strong track record in complex technology procurement. In particular, software, cloud, AI, automation, and major platforms.
Experience working with a regulated environment, ideally financial services.
Excellent negotiation skills, including experience with outsourcing/offshoring arrangements.
Strong understanding of financial services regulation and EBA outsourcing guidelines.
Analytical capability to interpret financial, contractual, and risk data.

About the Company

We are a global recruitment solutions company with four decades of experience. The idea of partnership is at the heart of everything we do at Sanderson. Working with clients and candidates alike, we deliver permanent or contract hires, executive search assignments, fully outsourced recruitment solutions, including RPO and MSP and deploy high-performing project teams. We strive to deliver with personality and a passion for service excellence. Our services are built on collaboration, understanding and flexibility. Our breadt... Know more