Head of Procurement

Join us at EIT:

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we’re on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you’ll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society. Explore more at www.eit.org.

Your Role:

We are looking for a Head of Procurement to shape and lead the future of procurement at EIT Oxford. You’ll set the vision for a long‑term procurement strategy and put in place the policies, systems, and best‑practice processes that will support a world‑class research and innovation organisation. Day‑to‑day, you’ll work closely with senior leaders and key suppliers, ensuring that sourcing is efficient, compliant, and delivers outstanding value. As our procurement expert, you’ll guide and develop the team, build strong internal and external relationships, and drive continuous improvements that elevate quality, performance, and impact across the organisation.

Your Responsibilities:

• Develop and implement a long‑term procurement strategy that aligns with EIT Oxford’s organisational goals and risk priorities.
• Lead the creation, enhancement, and embedding of procurement policies, controls, and frameworks to ensure compliance, transparency, and operational consistency.
• Partner with senior leaders to understand future organisational needs and ensure procurement solutions effectively support growth, efficiency, and quality.
• Monitor market trends, evolving supply chains, and industry benchmarks to inform strategic decision‑making and innovation.
• Oversee and refine procurement processes, ensuring timely, cost‑effective sourcing of goods, services, and consultancy support across all areas of the business.
• Lead the supplier due diligence framework, including risk assessment, onboarding, and periodic reviews in alignment with contractual timelines.
• Develop strong supplier relationships and oversee supplier performance evaluation, ensuring high standards of quality, cost control, performance, and delivery.
• Oversee the requisition‑to‑pay process, ensuring efficiency, timely PO management, and excellent service to internal stakeholders.
• Support and guide sourcing activity, including running competitive processes, managing pre‑qualification, and identifying suitable suppliers.
• Own and optimise procurement systems and tools (e.g., Oracle Fusion), ensuring streamlined workflows and high data integrity.
• Lead procurement reporting, including spend analysis, cost‑saving initiatives, compliance metrics, and supplier performance reporting.
• Work closely with Finance to resolve invoice queries, improve end‑to‑end processes, and ensure prompt supplier payments in line with contractual terms.
• Identify opportunities for automation, process improvement, and improved procurement‑stakeholder experience.

Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement

• Provide leadership, coaching, and development support to the procurement team members, fostering a high‑performance culture.
• Act as the organisation’s procurement expert, influencing and guiding teams to ensure procurement practices are well understood and consistently followed.
• Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders, supporting them to plan ahead, understand processes, and achieve the best outcomes from supplier engagements.

Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• Degree in business, supply chain management, procurement, or a related field.
• CIPS qualification (or equivalent) preferred.
• Significant procurement experience with clear progression, ideally including leadership responsibility.
• Strong commercial acumen with a track record of delivering value, compliance, and operational efficiency.
• Proficiency in procurement systems (ideally Oracle Fusion) and the ability to quickly adapt to new technologies.
• Excellent analytical skills, with experience in spend analysis, supplier evaluation, and performance monitoring.
• Outstanding communication, negotiation, and relationship‑building skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.
• Previous experience working within Life Sciences

Our Benefits:

• Salary depending on experience + travel allowance + bonus
• Enhanced holiday + options to buy additional days
• Pension
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance
• Hospital Cash Plan
• Therapy Services
• Perk Box
• Electric Car Scheme
• Childcare benefit

Working Together – What It Involves:

• You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. In certain cases, we can consider sponsorship, and this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
• You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford (or be willing to relocate).