Sourcing Specialist

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Job Title

Sourcing Specialist

Office Location

Birmingham or London

Department

Operations

The Procurement function is responsible for the strategic, holistic management of third party spend across Hogan Lovells globally, to deliver cost effective purchasing solutions while maintaining compliance with internal policies and external regulations.

Working Hours

35 hours per week, 9:30am to 5:30pm but additional hours may be required. We are happy to consider agile and flexible working patterns. Our approach to hybrid working allows for up to 40% of time working from home and 60% working in the office, please contact a member of the recruitment team to discuss further.

Role Overview

The Sourcing Specialist supports strategic sourcing, contract management, supplier relationship management and strategic operations’ duties and tasks as directed:

• Strategic Sourcing – Employ best practices and procedures, including defined templates for all sourcing activities.
• Contract Lifecycle Management – Manage the process for review and approval of IT commercials documentation to ensure compliance.
• Relationship Management – Develop and enhance relationships with firm stakeholders, business owners and third-party suppliers.
• Supplier Risk Management – Follow all firm processes and procedures to assess and onboard qualified vendors.
• Supplier Performance Management – Monitor supplier SLAs and perform audits to ensure service and financial compliance across defined KPIs.

Key Responsibilities

Specific duties or responsibilities may be reviewed from time to time to reflect changes in personnel and management structure, staff location or services. All members of the firm participate in our Responsible Business program.

Strategic Sourcing

• Lead end-to-end procurement processes, manage the RFx life-cycle and contract negotiations.
• Analyse, synthesise and benchmark responses, collaborate with stakeholders and business owners to conduct scoring and other evaluations to inform finalists.
• Support the presentations, demonstrations and additional supplier evaluation through the selection of final vendors.
• Support the identification of suppliers for new or replacement suppliers and products / services upon request.
• Support the firm’s business owners in the execution of key supplier renewals and purchase activities.
• Negotiate price, value adds and commercials for optimal outcomes for the firm.
• Supports initiatives to identify and realise cost savings within the IT function.

Contract Lifecycle Management

• Ensure contracts and agreements are reviewed in a timely manner, allowing for renegotiation and possible exit.
• Review contracts to ensure compliance with firm requirements.
• Review and negotiate contracts to ensure optimal commercial outcomes as informed by business owners and other stakeholders.
• Responsible for all required documentation for sourcing activities, including NDA, SLAs, KPIs, Contracts and Statements of Work.
• Collaborate with the General Counsel and other key firm personnel to ensure comprehensive considerations in executing contracts.
• Support the implementation of standard processes to maintain appropriate governance and minimise potential third-party supplier risks.
• Apply technology, as appropriate, to create efficiencies.

Customer Relationship Management

• Form and develop partnerships with stakeholders and business owners to ensure engagement and compliance with procurement protocols.
• Provide procurement guidance and support to stakeholders.
• Support business owners in contract review to ensure compliance with firm standards as needed.

Supplier Risk Management

• Support the definition and continuous improvement of supplier risk management policies and procedures.
• Ensure required supplier documentation is collected and stored in compliance with defined procedures.
• Collaborate with firm personnel as required to ensure holistic process definition to manage third-party risks.
• Manage supplier onboarding tasks related to risk management.

Supplier Management

• Support the business owners in the relationship management for key suppliers.
• Monitor and report on supplier performance, contractual compliance and adherence to SLAs and KPIs.
• Participate in supplier and client audits as directed.
• Maintain a broad understanding of the commercial IT environment.

Software Audit and Licensing

• Supports software licensing activities to ensure compliance in accordance with the contract.
• Supports the identification of opportunities for savings by either using different licensing models or reducing license count.
• Support the Procurement Sourcing Managers in negotiations for the firms contracts as directed.
• Support the activities for annual true ups and ensure license compliance.

Supplier Performance Management

• Supports the development of strategies to address under-performance and compliance failures, including application of contract terms.
• Supports and engages experts and stakeholders to ensure active review and benchmarking to inform continuous improvement initiatives.
• Supports the sourcing managers to ensure that service level agreements are met and cost effective, service delivery is monitored effectively and that identified actions to maintain or improve levels of service are implemented.

Skills & Experience

• Familiarity with sourcing categories, including IT categories spanning hardware, software, cloud services, and professional services.
• 3 years’ experience in strategic sourcing or senior vendor management experience.
• Familiarity with the end-to-end process for RFx activities.
• Knowledge and proven experience of negotiation skills.
• Familiarity with contract law, data privacy, information security and cybersecurity standards.
• Proven vendor management experience.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to synthesise and tabulate large quantities of data into a clear and concise format.
• Technical expertise specific to contract lifecycle management, including redlining and commercial terms negotiation.
• Strong networking skills leveraged to build effective relationships quickly and efficiently across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Effective communication skills, both verbal and written with the ability to explain complex contractual terms in language business owners and stakeholders understand.
• Proven track record of leading global scope programs and projects.

General Attributes

• Comfortable working in a global organisation, flexing to accommodate different time zones and working patterns where necessary.
• Ability to follow instructions furnished in written or verbal form.
• Self-motivated, proactive, independent, and responsive – requires reasonable supervisory attention once objectives are confirmed.
• Ability to prioritise tasks to meet deadlines and manage multiple projects effectively.
• Strong service-oriented mindset with demonstrated ability to partner effectively with a variety of stakeholders to effectively impact desired outcomes.
• Strong ability to adapt to firm culture and values by focusing on services and service delivery to our partners, people and clients.
• Proven ability to both manage and enable change.
• Comfortable working independently and as part of a team.

Equal Opportunities Employment & Agile Working Statement

It is the policy of Hogan Lovells to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion. Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of racial or ethnic origin, religion, sex, gender and gender identity, age, sexual orientation, marital and civil partnership status, pregnancy or disability.

Our goal is to embed flexibility across our business by giving everyone the opportunity to work in an agile way, whether as a regular pattern or on an ad hoc basis, and we will be happy to discuss this further.

All vacancies are open to direct applicants. Recruitment agencies; please be advised that we have a preferred supplier list in place for all roles.