Sr. Category Manager Professional Services
At Aristocrat, the Sr. Category Manager – Professional Services will help craft sourcing strategies, increase value, and ensure smooth delivery across a broad range of professional services. This role gives a chance to create a significant impact by leading complex sourcing projects and building positive relationships with senior business collaborators.
The successful candidate will formulate and uphold complete category strategies for assigned Professional Services categories, aligned with business priorities and market conditions. They will analyze internal spend, supplier landscapes, demand patterns, and external market intelligence to identify sourcing opportunities and category risks. The role involves leading complex end-to-end sourcing initiatives, negotiating commercial terms, and establishing effective commercial frameworks for various engagements.
This position requires serving as a trusted procurement advisor to senior leaders and functional collaborators across the organisation, ensuring that sourcing and contracting activities align with procurement policies, delegated authorities, legal requirements, and internal control standards. The role also involves using spend analytics, market intelligence, supplier data, and performance metrics to inform category decisions and evaluate outcomes, while providing category expertise, mentorship, and support to sourcing colleagues and business collaborators.
- Formulate and uphold complete category strategies for assigned Professional Services categories, aligned with business priorities and market conditions.
- Analyze internal spend, supplier landscapes, demand patterns, and external market intelligence to identify sourcing opportunities and category risks.
- Lead complex end-to-end sourcing initiatives, including collaborator discovery, requirements definition, market analysis, supplier evaluation, negotiation, selection, and implementation.
- Negotiate commercial terms, pricing models, service levels, and other key contractual conditions.
- Establish effective commercial frameworks for consulting, advisory, agency, legal, recruitment, and contingent labor engagements.
- Develop supplier segmentation and governance models based on spend, business criticality, performance, risk, and strategic importance.
- Serve as a trusted procurement advisor to senior leaders and functional collaborators across the organization.
- Ensure sourcing and contracting activities align with procurement policies, delegated authorities, legal requirements, and internal control standards.
- Use spend analytics, market intelligence, supplier data, and performance metrics to inform category decisions and evaluate outcomes.
- Provide category expertise, mentorship, and support to sourcing colleagues and business collaborators.
- Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain, Procurement, Finance, Business Administration, Economics, or a related field (required).
- An advanced degree or equivalent experience is preferred (preferred).
- Considerable background in strategic sourcing, procurement, category management, supplier management, or a related commercial role (required).
- Established capability in handling complex Professional Services categories like consulting, contingent labor, recruitment, legal, human resources, marketing, finance, audit, or other advisory services (required).
- Strong commercial and negotiation capability, with experience negotiating high-value master services agreements, statements of work, rate cards, and complex service arrangements (required).
- Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, changing, and globally distributed organization (required).
- Excellent communication, facilitation, presentation, and project-management skills (required).
- Strong skills in managing relationships with key individuals, with the ability to influence senior leaders and navigate competing priorities (required).
- Experience applying spend analytics, market intelligence, benchmarking, and supplier data to guide sourcing decisions (required).
- Working knowledge of supplier risk, privacy, information security, regulatory compliance, and third-party governance requirements (required).
- Strong financial competence and experience developing arguments, validating savings, and tracking realized value (required).
- Comprehensive pay and benefits package designed to stay competitive in the market, support wellbeing, and recognise contribution.
- Pay-for-performance belief in rewarding individual impact.
- Specific compensation package determined by factors such as skills, experience, qualifications, and location.
- May be eligible for annual bonuses and incentives, health and wellbeing benefits, paid time off, retirement plans, insurance coverage, and other local or statutory benefits (dependent on role and location).
Aristocrat Leisure Limited is an Australian gaming and technology company and one of the world's largest providers of gambling products. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and headquartered in Sydney, it designs and manufactures electronic gaming machines and casino-management systems, and runs sizeable online real-money gaming (Aristocrat Interactive) and mobile games (Pixel United) businesses. Founded in 1953, the group employs more than 7,000 people across over 20 locations worldwide. It is the largest gaming-machine manufacturer in Australia and among the biggest slot-machine makers globally.