Procurement Business Partner - Defence

Permanent - Full Time
Location: Home Based with UK wide travel to Serco offices and sites.
Band 2

At Serco, procurement plays a critical role in enabling the delivery of essential public services. With over £1.4bn of global third-party spend, our Procurement team partners closely with the business to drive value, manage risk, and support sustainable growth.

We're now looking for a Procurement Business Partner to support our Defence business unit. This is a senior, strategic role where you'll act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders, shaping procurement strategy, supporting complex bids, and driving measurable commercial outcomes.

A background in Defence is desirable but not essential - what matters most is your experience supporting complex bids, your ability to influence senior stakeholders, and your credibility in regulated environments.

The role

As Procurement Business Partner, you'll be the primary interface between the Defence business unit and the wider Procurement function acting as the "intelligent customer" and ensuring procurement delivers against business priorities, performance targets, and global strategy.

You'll bring strong commercial judgement, exceptional stakeholder management, and a proactive approach to delivering value, risk mitigation, and compliance.

What you'll be responsible for

• Leading delivery of procurement performance targets, including savings and value creation
• Building and maintaining strong senior stakeholder relationships across the Defence leadership team
• Providing procurement support to bids and transitions, shaping competitive and compliant supply chain solutions (highly desirable experience)
• Partnering early with Growth and Bid teams to influence bid strategy, cost models, and supplier architecture
• Developing and maintaining a forward-looking Procurement Plan aligned to global category strategies
• Ensuring sourcing demand is prioritised through a clear, value-led pipeline
• Identifying and managing business-critical suppliers and leading risk mitigation activity
• Supporting governance of sourcing activity and approval of key sourcing stages
• Tracking spend, compliance, performance, and benefits realisation, taking corrective action where required

What you'll bring

• Post-graduate qualification or MCIPS desirable but not essential
• Strong commercial and business acumen, with the ability to translate business needs into procurement solutions
• Proven experience operating in a complex, multi-stakeholder procurement environment
• Procurement bid experience - particularly supporting growth, transitions or complex sourcing - highly desirable
• Ability to influence and challenge at senior leadership level, including MD and Board-level stakeholders
• Strategic mindset with flexibility to adapt to business and market needs

• Eligibility and ability to obtain SC (Security Check) clearance - essential

Why Serco?

At Serco, you'll work on services that protect national interests and deliver real public value.This role gives you visibility, autonomy and influence, working closely with Defence leaders and growth teams to shape outcomes that matter. You'll be supported by a strong procurement community and given the opportunity to grow your career in a global organisation.

What we offer:

• Company car / £4200 cash alternative
• Private healthcare
• Bonus scheme of up to 20%
• Pension - 6%
• A company passionate about diversity and inclusion
• Serco discounts which include cinema, merlin entertainment and online shopping discounts, and discounts on mobile phone plans and leisure centre memberships.
• A range of benefits to support the health and wellbeing of you and your family such as Employee Assistance Programme, Simply Health Cash Plans, and more.
• A wealth of career development training to suit your future aspirations. These range from role specific training, leadership coaching, formal study and much more to support you to build your career with Serco.
• A safe and supportive culture.

All Serco employees must ensure that their current line manager is aware of their application. For confidential enquiries please contact MyHR. Serco are Disability Confident Leader employers and are committed to employing and retaining people with disabilities. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview. For help with your application please contact 0345 010 4000.