Full-Time
Senior Strategic Category Management Lead
Facilities
Posted on 8/18/2025
Bank of England
Central bank sets policy, regulates banks
Compensation Overview
£79.2k - £89.1k/yr
Leeds, UK
In Person
 Operations & Logistics (1) |
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- Extensive knowledge of new and emerging trends within the facilities supplier market and supply chain, with a record of using this knowledge to deliver value and new benefits to an organisation
- Experience of strategic category management best practice within a similarly complex organisation.
- Significant proven record of delivering sophisticated category strategies within a public sector environment.
- Experience of supplier relationship management technique and using these to build long-term, strategic partnerships with key suppliers, within the public sector procurement environment
- Experience in crafting sophisticated delivery pipelines of sourcing activities to support the delivery of the category strategy, including the use of innovative commercial and procurement models, in compliance with public sector procurement legislation and regulation.
- Strong partner leadership skills and assertiveness, with ability to challenge.
- Leading a team of 10-15 public sector commercial professionals, responsible for delivering the sourcing and strategic contracting activities required to deliver the outcomes of the Category Strategies
- Engaging with senior stakeholders responsible for each area of strategic spend within their Category to understand their current supplier and commercial landscape, future and strategic objectives that, when coupled with market data and trends, will be used to create medium- and long-term category strategies for each area
- Providing commercial and specialise category insight and challenge to senior partners on alternative delivery methodologies and contract models available with supplier markets to craft the Bank’s category strategies
- Supporting the development of a coordinated pipeline of the Bank’s future procurements, both tactical and strategic that will collectively deliver the commercial landscape that will underpin the delivery of the commercial strategies
- Overseeing the management of the Bank’s strategic contracts within each category to ensure both their individual performance and that they contribute to the objectives of the respective category strategy
- Supporting the development of appropriate relationships with Bank’s key, strategic suppliers and coordinating senior bank representative engagement
- Ensuring that the category strategy and all commercial activity undertaken to deliver it follows Bank policy and the relevant legislative regime, including the new Procurement Act 2023
- Collaborating with the supplier management team to embed third party risk management controls into the deliver and management of the category strategy
- Working with experts to support the implementation of the Bank’s sustainability and ESG policies into the Bank’s contracts and supply chain
- Align with the commercial function’s efficient and consistent use of eProcurement systems, in line with the defined workflows (aligned to internal policy), and
- Acting as a role model in the Bank including modelling listening and asking for feedback in a positive and professional manner.
- Experience of working within a Public Contract Regulations 2015/Procurement Act 2023 controlled environment
- MCIPS qualification (or equivalent Commercial experience)
- Effective interpersonal skills, ability to build rapport and constructive relationships.
- Demonstrable influencing skills
- Excellent management skills and experience
- Excellent written and oral communications skills, with the ability to present and communicate clearly and succinctly at all levels.
- Self-motivation, with the ability to work both on your own initiative and as part of a team.
The Bank of England is the United Kingdom’s central bank, responsible for monetary policy, currency issuance, and the supervision of financial institutions. It uses tools like the official interest rate to influence inflation and borrowing costs, manages the UK’s foreign exchange and gold reserves, and serves as the government’s banker. Its regulatory arms—the Financial Policy Committee and the Prudential Regulation Authority—identify and mitigate systemic risks and supervise banks and other financial firms. Its goal is to maintain monetary and financial stability for the UK, support sustainable economic growth, and return any surplus income to the UK Treasury.
Company Size
N/A
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
$85.6M
Headquarters
London, United Kingdom
Founded
1694
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Proactively addressing AI security threats via Cross Market Operational Resilience Group meetings.
- Modernizing forecasting infrastructure through £45M budget reallocation and voluntary staff restructuring.
- Testing tokenized asset settlement via RT2 Synchronisation Lab with 18 firms including UAC Labs.
What critics are saying
- Claude Mythos AI discovers hidden system flaws faster than humans, threatening financial system security.
- 8% workforce departure amid budget cuts delays critical forecasting system upgrades and capabilities.
- Legacy CHAPS settlement system faces obsolescence from superior tokenized asset protocols in development.
What makes Bank of England unique
- Mandated by law to maintain 2% CPI inflation target with primary price stability objective.
- Controls Bank Rate, influencing UK borrowing costs and economic conditions across all sectors.
- Supervises financial institutions through Prudential Regulation Authority to mitigate systemic risks.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
401(k) Retirement Plan
Paid Vacation
Performance Bonus
Profit Sharing
Flexible Work Hours
Company News
The Bank of England will warn City leaders about risks from Claude Mythos, a new AI system from Anthropic deemed too dangerous for public release. The tool can discover hidden computer system flaws faster than humans, raising concerns it could breach financial system security. Duncan Mackinnon, the Bank's risk chief, will chair a Cross Market Operational Resilience Group meeting within a fortnight to discuss the threat. Treasury officials, the Financial Conduct Authority and National Cyber Security Centre will attend. The alarm follows a crisis meeting this week between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Wall Street executives. The UK's AI Security Institute is testing Mythos to develop defences, whilst Anthropic has enrolled tech giants including Apple, Microsoft and Amazon to identify vulnerabilities in their software through Project Glasswing.
The Bank of England received 712 applications for its voluntary resignation scheme, with 446 staff — approximately 8% of employees — ultimately departing. The Bank will pay £36 million in settlements, averaging £81,000 per person. The departures are part of efforts to save £45 million, or 8% of operating costs, to fund an overhaul of the Bank's forecasting systems following recommendations by former Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke. His 2024 report criticised the Bank's "out of date" and "not adequately maintained" forecasting infrastructure. The voluntary scheme will account for £35 million in savings, with a further £10 million needed from elsewhere. Governor Andrew Bailey warned that compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out, despite the current scheme being entirely voluntary.
Zürich-based UAC Labs has been selected by the Bank of England as one of 18 firms to participate in its RT2 Synchronisation Lab, a programme testing synchronised settlement of tokenised assets and digital money. UAC Labs is the only Swiss participant and one of five firms based outside the UK. The company will test its patent-pending Coordination State Machine protocol, which enables atomic multi-party settlement across different ledgers and payment systems without requiring smart contracts or blockchain bridges. UAC Labs is one of only two participants focused on decentralised solutions. Founded in 2025 by George Heyward II and Dr Alexander Hobbs, the company aims to enable financial institutions to coordinate across heterogeneous systems whilst maintaining existing custody arrangements. The Lab runs from spring to autumn 2026.
British lawmakers have warned that financial regulators are not doing enough to prevent AI from harming consumers or destabilising markets, urging a move away from a "wait and see" approach. The Treasury Committee called for AI-specific stress tests and detailed FCA guidance on consumer protection by end-2026. About three-quarters of UK financial firms now use AI across core functions including insurance claims and credit assessments. The committee warned of significant risks including opaque credit decisions, algorithmic exclusion of vulnerable consumers, and potential market instability from AI-driven trading systems amplifying herding behaviour. Committee chair Meg Hillier expressed concern that Britain's financial system is unprepared for a major AI-related incident. The FCA has previously resisted AI-specific rules due to rapid technological change.
UK digital challenger bank Kroo Bank is gearing up for a fundraise of up to £70m and is to launch a current account tracker rate, as it rails against traditional banks’ “cryptic” interest rate levels.Kroo was granted a full UK banking licence last year and has caused a stir in the market with its current 4.35 percent interest rate on its current account, outstripping rivals and rated by financial pundit Martin Lewis as a “top-pick bank account”.In October, Kroo will launch a tracker rate, in an effort to entice customers.This tracker rate will see customers paid at a rate, which will be 0.9 percent lower than whatever is the Bank of England base rate, currently 5.25 percent.The 0.9 percent deduction, says Kroo CEO Andrea De Gottardo, is “the bare minimum to cover some of the costs”.He adds:“Banks have been for far too long way too obscure and cryptic and the customer never quite understands how the rate is set on.”With the tracker rate, he says the customer is “fully empowered and knows exactly what the rate is based on”.The app-based bank is something of a rarity, as banks seldom offer significant interest rates on free current accounts.The neobank, founded in 2016, is still small compared to the likes of Starling and Monzo but is hoping its eye-catching interest rate, coupled with social media advertising can woo customers.It launched a prepaid payment card offering in 2019, which it has since been trying to covert to full current account customers, following the netting of its UK banking licence.De Gottardo says it has now more than 130,000 current accounts, seven months after launching the product, representing a “good mix’” of customers moving from traditional and challenger banks to Kroo.De Gottardo says Kroo’s aim is to garner a million customers over “the next couple of years”. Its primary market is 18 to 35-year-olds.Kroo (the name doesn’t mean anything specifically but wants to invoke building a crew in the consumer’s mind) raised $33m (£26m) in a Series B in May last year.It is now looking to rise between £50m and £70m in a Series C round which is likely to kick off later this year or early next year.“I would be delighted if we get it finalised and closed up this year,” he says.According to Sifted, its team has grown by 137 percent to 216 employees in the past 12 months. De Gottardo says the number now stands at around 250.The reason for the uptick, says De Gottardo, is the bank has been busy, moving into lending, opening a second office in Manchester, and launching a customer acquisition drive.On it receiving a full UK banking license, De Gottardo says it is “the hardest thing I have ever done in my life”.It was “much longer and much harder than we originally anticipated but we understand why it is so hard, it is a big responsibility,” he adds.Critics might suggest that Kroo is late to the party, and that the UK neobank winners have already been decided.But De Gottardo points to Bank of England data showing 84 percent of people in the UK bank with traditional banks.“When we think that Monzo and Starling have already made it, it's not quite [true} because they were only able to attract a very small proportion of a big market, so there is still a lot of space for new players to get in there.”Kroo is not yet profitable and De Gottardo says he believes it will be profitable in a shorter period than it took Starling, around five years, and Monzo, around eight years, to swing into profit. But he will not put a timeframe on when this will be.The bank partners with a reforestation project and plants trees for every new customer that joins.Lead image via facebook.com/getkroo