Job Summary

This role could be based in UK and Poland. When you start the application process you will be presented with a drop down menu showing all countries, please ensure that you select a country where the role is based.

 We are seeking a highly experienced and commercially astute Strategic Supplier Relationship Manager to oversee and elevate the Bank’s most critical HR & Travel supplier partnerships with flexibility for the role to be based in either UK or Poland.
In this strategic role, you will act as the primary executive interface between the Bank and its key suppliers, driving long-term value, strengthening trust, and ensuring alignment with business priorities. You will play a pivotal role in shaping supplier strategy, enhancing performance, and ensuring resilience across the Bank’s third-party ecosystem.
This position requires a senior professional with the credibility and influencing capability to engage effectively with senior stakeholders across a global organisation, while managing complex, high-value supplier relationships.
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is responsible for the commercial oversight, performance management, and risk governance of the Bank’s third party ecosystem.
The SCM HR & Travel Team is looking for a candidate with strong experience in Strategic Supplier Relationship Manager / HR & Travel Categories with the seniority and credibility to engage and influence Senior Leaders across the Organisation, while leading strategic value based relationships with the Bank’s most strategic [Insert Category] suppliers. This role drives strategic alignment, commercial value, and long-term partnerships that support resilience, innovation and growth and the successful candidate will be accountable for the overall health, trust, and long term partnership outcomes of key supplier relationships

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Relationship Management

• Serve as the key executive liaison for designated strategic HR and Travel suppliers, ensuring seamless communication and collaboration.
• Design, implement, and continuously refine supplier engagement strategies that reflect evolving business goals and market dynamics.
• Drive innovation and value creation through proactive joint business planning sessions and performance evaluation forums.
• Identify and pursue new strategic sourcing opportunities to enhance the Bank’s supplier ecosystem.

Performance Oversight and Value Enhancement

• Monitor and report on relationship health indicators such as trust, responsiveness, and strategic fit to senior leadership.
• Develop and manage robust supplier KPIs, scorecards, and performance dashboards to ensure transparency and accountability.
• Lead executive-level governance meetings, fostering constructive dialogue between the Bank and its suppliers.
• Implement cost optimisation strategies, value engineering initiatives, and continuous improvement projects aligned with financial and operational targets.
• Conduct root cause analysis of performance challenges and implement corrective actions that support sustainable improvements.
• Champion the integration and tracking of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors within supplier engagements.

Risk Management and Compliance

• Proactively identify and mitigate risks within the supply chain, ensuring robust business continuity plans.
• Stay abreast of market, geopolitical, and sector-specific trends that could affect supplier performance or relationship dynamics.
• Develop and oversee contingency planning efforts to safeguard critical services and operations.
• Ensure supplier data integrity and compliance with governance frameworks and regulatory standards.
• Support internal audit, compliance reviews, and regulatory reporting related to third-party risk management activities.

Skills and Experience

Core Competencies and Expertise

• Proven ability to manage executive-level supplier relationships with a strategic and consultative approach.
• Exceptional strategic thinking skills, enabling the formulation and execution of supplier strategies that align with complex organisational objectives.
• Strong decision-making capabilities supported by analytical rigor and business insight.
• Advanced vendor and procurement process knowledge, with experience navigating complex, multi-national organisational dynamics.
• Effective stakeholder management skills with the aptitude to influence and build consensus among senior leaders and external partners.
• Superior communication and presentation skills to effectively engage diverse audiences and facilitate stakeholder alignment.
• Negotiation expertise with a track record of achieving win-win outcomes that benefit all parties involved.
• Commercial awareness, including the ability to leverage financial and market data to optimise supplier value.
• Proficiency in Excel and project management tools to support data analysis, reporting, and coordinated supplier initiatives.

Qualifications

Essential Qualifications and Experience

• Minimum 5-10 years of professional experience in vendor or strategic supplier management roles, ideally within professional services or the financial sector.
• Demonstrated experience in establishing, restoring, and maintaining complex executive-level supplier relationships across diverse and global environments.
• Subject matter expertise in Strategic Supplier Relationship Management, with a proven history of executive relationship leadership.
• Ability to think and make decisions strategically at multiple organisational levels including functional, project, and vendor management.
• In-depth knowledge of vendor management and procurement processes within large, multinational organisations, with a preference for financial services experience.
• Track record of collaborative working within teams and across business units to develop and execute supplier strategies that deliver measurable business value.
• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent academic qualification is required.
• Professional certification such as CIPS or equivalent is advantageous but not mandatory.
• Fluent proficiency in English, both written and spoken, is mandatory for effective communication and reporting.

About Standard Chartered

We're a global bank connecting clients to our differentiated network, offering growth opportunities in the world's most dynamic markets. Our strategy, which combines cross-border capabilities and leading wealth management expertise, helps us deliver our purpose - to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity.

Over our 170-year history, and across a unique geographical footprint connecting Asia, Africa and the Middle East to each other and the world, we've built a bank like no other, with diverse capabilities and partnerships that set us apart.

What We Offer

• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions, and geographies.
• In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.
• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global employee assistance programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and self-help toolkits.
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual, and digital learning.

Visit our careers website to learn more about us: www.sc.com/careers.