Strategic Sourcing Senior Manager
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Type of Role: 9-month Contract position, Inside IR35
Location: Hybrid or Remote

Looking for opportunities with purpose, impact and possibilities? Our client, Vertex, is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation. As they grow their pipeline at pace, they are strengthening their reputation for creating transformative medicines for people with serious diseases.

Position Summary
The Strategic Sourcing Senior Manager will play a highly visible enterprise-wide role in enabling Vertex to access the flexible workforce capacity and external talent-acquisition expertise needed to deliver business priorities.
The role will support the business in securing contingent talent while partnering with Talent Acquisition and business leaders to source, manage, and optimize recruitment solutions, including staffing agencies, managed service providers, recruitment process outsourcing, executive search, and related talent-services partnerships.

This is an opportunity to lead a strategically important category at the intersection of workforce enablement, talent acquisition, and business delivery.
Working closely with HR, Talent Acquisition, business stakeholders, Legal, Finance, Procurement Operations, and suppliers, the Category Manager will develop and execute sourcing strategies; lead complex sourcing events and commercial negotiations; manage supplier performance and governance; and drive adoption of scalable workforce and recruitment solutions.

The successful candidate will be a commercially minded sourcing professional who can build trusted relationships, influence decisions, and bring stakeholders on the journey. They will translate business needs, market insight, and supplier capabilities into practical solutions that create value, manage risk, and improve the experience of hiring managers and candidates.
The role may also support selected consulting services sourcing projects as strategy in that area develops.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead category management for Temporary Labor and Talent Acquisition Services, including Managed Service Providers (MSPs), staffing suppliers, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), contingent search, executive search, and related workforce solutions.
• Develop and execute category and sourcing strategies aligned with business and HR / Talent Acquisition priorities across multiple geographies and complex spend areas.
• Lead end-to-end sourcing initiatives, including requirements definition, RFx development, supplier evaluation, competitive bid analysis, stakeholder alignment, negotiation planning, and contract execution.
• Conduct market research, benchmarking, pricing analysis, and supplier assessments; convert findings into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Identify and deliver cost savings, commercial value, and continuous improvement opportunities.
• Manage strategic supplier relationships, performance management, governance meetings, Executive Business Reviews, and supplier-improvement plans.
• Lead complex negotiations for statements of work (SOWs), master services agreements (MSAs), amendments, renewals, pricing, service levels, and other commercial terms.
• Partner with Business Owners and risk subject-matter experts to identify, assess, and mitigate sourcing risks.
• Influence stakeholders and support adoption of workforce strategies, operating models, tools, and process improvements—including VMS and hiring-manager journey enhancements.
• Support selected consulting services and SOW sourcing projects, as needed.

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Experience in strategic sourcing, procurement, or category-management experience, including complex sourcing events, negotiations, and supplier management.
• Experience in contingent labor, managing staffing suppliers, MSP programmes, recruitment services such as contingent search, exec search, RPO solutions, or related workforce solutions. Knowledge across multiple geographies, with particular focus on US and UK markets.
• Demonstrated ability to manage senior stakeholders, influence decisions, navigate difficult conversations, and build trusted relationships.
• Strong commercial, analytical, project-management, communication, and presentation skills.
• Experience developing sourcing strategies, conducting market research and benchmarking, and identifying cost savings and broader value opportunities.
• Strong supplier relationship and performance-management capability, including governance and business-review processes.
• Experience working in a regulated environment; pharmaceutical or life-sciences experience is preferred.
• Solid knowledge of ERP, e-sourcing, business-intelligence, and reporting tools; exposure to VMS platforms and systems such as Coupa or Icertis is preferred.
• Ability to manage multiple complex projects independently, while collaborating effectively with Legal, Finance, Compliance, Procurement Operations, HR, Talent Acquisition, and business stakeholders.
• Can-do, AI-ready mindset with the ability to thrive in ambiguity and identify practical ways to improve sourcing outcomes.

• Consulting services, procurement and SOW experience.
• Broader HR services or recruitment-procurement experience.
• Experience across the extended-workforce ecosystem, including FMS and related workforce models.
• CCWP or contingent-workforce programme-management certification.