Supply Chain Solutions Business Partner

Supply Chain Solutions Business Partner role based anywhere in the UK

Overall Purpose To bring genuine shipper-side supply chain experience into commercial activity, enabling deeper customer conversations, stronger sourcing decisions and customer-led solutions for significant bids. The role provides independent, evidence-based advice, owns solution design and cost modelling for major opportunities, and protects solution integrity through mobilisation.

Core Accountabilities

Value diagnostics & advisory

• Lead the facilitated company Value Diagnostic with the KAM
• Analyse customer data; assess value, evidence confidence and change readiness;
• Produce a prioritised improvement roadmap; support QBRs,customer discovery and complex supply chain conversations.

Supplier sourcing & partner development :

• Scope new requirements, identify and qualify suppliers,
• Support commercial negotiation and recommend the best option based on capability, compliance, technology fit, financial standing, cultural fit, risk and value.

Opportunity qualification, RFQs & tenders

• Apply disciplined opportunity gateways; define pursue conditions;
• Own the operating solution and cost model for significant bids;document assumptions and sensitivities;
• Support the KAM to present a defensible response.

Implementation & solution integrity

• Support mobilisation so that the agreed solution is built as sold;
• Clarify dependencies, controls and decision points;
• - Maintain a decision record; apply process improvement methods; and hand over cleanly at steady state.

Key Responsibilities / Outputs

Customer diagnostics and capability building

• Prepare and facilitate diagnostic workshops across leadership focus, financial control, cost, service, visibility and risk; record differences in stakeholder priorities as findings.
• Convert unverified points into follow-up data requests; produce a scored assessment, gap analysis, improvement roadmap and clear realisation conditions.
• Build KAM capability through observation, co-facilitation, coaching and structured debriefs, with the aim of making the team increasingly self-sufficient.
• Identify improvement and growth opportunities within existing accounts and translate customer objectives into actionable supply chain problem statements.

Sourcing and solution design

• Maintain an informed view of relevant supplier markets, qualify new partners and convert partner capability into repeatable company propositions.
• Lead or support negotiations and present recommendations that clearly set out reasoning, risks, alternatives and key dependencies.
• Design the proposed operating model, network, supplier mix and service commitments for significant opportunities.
• Build and own cost models with transparent assumptions,sensitivities and failure points, working with Finance on validation.

Commercial qualification and mobilisation

• Assess strategic fit, data sufficiency, feasibility, delivery capability, risk and commercial attractiveness before bid commitment.
• Challenge unsupported commitments, recommend bid or nobid, and run structured reviews of wins and losses.
• Support Operations and the KAM during mobilisation, using process mapping and recognised improvement techniques to reduce delivery risk.
• Capture implementation learning and feed it into future diagnostics, sourcing decisions, propositions and bids.

What Success Looks Like

• 8-10 facilitated Value Diagnostics in the first 12 months, with conversion baseline established.
• Gateway assessment completed for every significant opportunity, including declined opportunities.
• Solution and costings owned for 100% of significant tenders; win-rate baseline established and improved.
• defined sourcing process applied to every new requirement; savings verified with Finance.
• At least two KAMs able to co-facilitate a diagnostic unsupported by year end.
• Improved margin accuracy and reduced implementation variance between solution sold and solution delivered.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt held or achieved within 12 months, with one sponsored improvement project delivered.

Person Specification

• The successful candidate will combine operational supply chain depth, commercial judgement, sourcing capability, analytical rigour and strong facilitation skills.
• The defining requirement is substantial shipper-side experience as the customer, rather than experience gained solely within a logistics provider.

Key Skills And Experience

• Substantial shipper-side supply chain experience, with direct accountability for cost, service,inventory and/or supply continuity.
• Practical experience of sourcing and negotiating with logistics or supply chain providers from the buying side.
• End-to-end supply chain mapping, current-state diagnosis and future-state solution design.
• Proven ability to facilitate structured workshops with senior customer stakeholders, including delivering challenging evidence-based findings.
• Track record of building and defending supply chain cost models, options and business cases.
• Ability to interpret incomplete data, state assumptions clearly and distinguish evidence from professional judgement.
• Credibility with senior commercial and operational stakeholders, with the confidence to challenge constructively without damaging relationships.
• Ability to influence without line authority, work across functions and produce concise, well reasoned written recommendations.

Desirable

• Tender and RFQ experience from either side of the table.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or equivalent continuous improvement qualification.
• Exposure to 4PL, lead logistics provider or control tower models.
• European logistics markets and cross-border partner procurement.
• Working knowledge of transport management systems and supply chain visibility tools.
• CIPS, MCIPS or equivalent procurement qualification.

Key Relationships

Credibility with specialists and senior leaders Structured thinking and transparent assumptions Constructive challenge Influence without authority Independent, customer-centred judgement Capability building and knowledge transfer