Category Lead

About Us

We are part of International Airlines Group (IAG), one of the world's leading airline groups and owner of some of the biggest brands in the sky.

IAG Transform provides creative and innovative solutions to drive sustainable transformation by delivering procurement and airline services, as well as group-wide systems across IAG. Each operating company benefits from the Transform centralised model, driving efficiencies, automation, and economies of scale.

Purpose of the role

Lead the strategic transformation of IT resource procurement across the group by driving harmonisation of supplier roles, rate cards, and delivery models. This role will focus on optimising external resource portfolios, consolidating supplier relationships, and ensuring consistency in commercial terms and service quality across OpCos

Your responsibilities

Category Strategy & Execution

• Develop and implement a unified IT services category strategy across group companies, with a focus on external resource optimisation and IT service providers harmonisation.
• Align sourcing initiatives with business objectives, procurement best practices, and transformation goals.

Supplier Management & Harmonisation

• Lead the consolidation of supplier frameworks, standardising roles, rate cards, and delivery models (onshore/nearshore/offshore).
• Drive supplier benchmarking and comparative analysis across OpCos to identify inefficiencies and harmonisation opportunities.
• Establish preferred supplier lists and negotiate group-wide agreements to maximise leverage and rebates.

Commercial & Contractual Excellence

• Own high-value sourcing initiatives including RFP design, supplier selection, negotiation, and contract finalisation.
• Collaborate with legal and finance teams to ensure robust contractual compliance and risk mitigation.
• Champion specification simplification and standardisation across business units.

Stakeholder Engagement & Governance

• Act as a strategic partner to senior stakeholders, influencing decisions and enabling value creation through procurement.
• Maintain strong relationships with internal stakeholders and external suppliers, serving as the primary point of contact for category-related decisions.
• Establish governance frameworks for external spend and supplier performance monitoring.

Data-Driven Optimisation

• Use spend intelligence and analytics to identify rate leakage, contractor dependency, and opportunities for role-based optimisation.
• Promote a shift from named contractor selection to skill-based resource planning.

Your skills, experience and qualifications

• Minimum 5–7 years in strategic IT procurement or consultancy sourcing within a matrixed, multinational environment.
• Proven success in delivering savings and value through IT sourcing initiatives, especially in external resource planning.
• Strong understanding of IT categories including application development, digital workplace, cybersecurity, and professional services.
• Experience in supplier consolidation, rate card evolution, and role standardisation.
• Excellent negotiation, stakeholder management, and communication skills.
• Familiarity with procurement tools (e.g., Ariba), governance frameworks, and contract law.
• Ability to operate effectively under tight deadlines and finite resources.
• Multilingual capabilities, English and Spanish mandatory.
• Willingness to travel across OpCos as needed.

What we offer

• The chance to enjoy a challenging career in an exciting, fast-moving environment in a dynamic industry.
• The opportunity to work in a multi-cultural environment with great offices in many locations. We support our people in maintaining work/life balance, as well as providing the many benefits one would expect from a global organisation, including health insurance, pension and performance bonuses.

We are an equal opportunities employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law