Contract & Commercial Management Specialist (Hardware and IT Supplies)

Purpose Statement

The Procurement Specialist will be responsible for supporting the business representatives by assisting the departments in identifying and screening procurement suppliers, negotiating favourable terms and conditions, driving improved supplier service levels whilst managing the contract life cycle.

Position Summary

The Contract and Commercial Management Specialist: IT Hardware (ITH) is responsible for driving category performance, commercial value, and supplier innovation across the business.

The role will lead strategic sourcing initiatives, manage key supplier relationships, and support business stakeholders in achieving cost optimisation, risk mitigation, and service excellence. The role carries a defined annual savings and value delivery target, measured as return on investment (ROI) across IT Hardware and related services spend categories.

Reporting to the Category Manager, this role plays a key part in executing category strategies, growing existing supplier partnerships, and identifying new commercial opportunities that enhance value delivery to the organisation.

The role will also drive initiatives to improve the speed to market of IT hardware procurement by optimising procurement processes, reducing operational friction, and ensuring efficient stakeholder engagement while maintaining strong procurement governance.

Experience

Min:

• 5 years’ experience working in a strategic Procurement role
• Spend managed > R100m
• Management of multiple categories
• Exposure to analysis and presenting of findings in reports, forecasts, trends, and recommendations to the team and senior management

Ideal:

• 5–8 years’ experience in IT category procurement (hardware and/or IT services).
• Proven experience in strategic sourcing and contract negotiations.
• Strong understanding of IT hardware supply markets and service models.
• Advanced Excel and procurement analytics capability.
• Experience working with SAP, Ariba and procurement systems.
• Proven experience designing, reviewing, or optimising procurement processes within enterprise environments.
• Strong technical understanding of SAP procurement processes and how systems, approvals, and governance frameworks integrate across the procure/supply-to-pay lifecycle.
• Experience in the budgeting process and managing compliance to budget
• Experience in the management of supplier relationships

Qualification

Minimum

• A relevant tertiary qualification

Ideal

• Bachelor’s degree in supply chain, Procurement, Business, or related field.

Key Responsibilities

Category Strategy & Execution

• Define and deliver the IT hardware and related services category strategy aligned to business goals.
• Drive cost optimisation, consolidation, and value creation.
• Lead end-to-end sourcing events (RFI/RFP/RFQ).

• Use market analysis and benchmarking to guide sourcing decisions.

• Run structured procurement processes aligned to the chosen strategy.

Process Optimisation & Procurement Enablement

• Implement procurement processes that speed up IT hardware buying while maintaining governance and compliance.
• Remove process inefficiencies across the hardware procurement lifecycle.
•  Optimise workflows in SAP/Ariba (or similar) to improve efficiency.
• Review approval frameworks and controls to remove unnecessary delays.
• Prepare governance papers and documentation to secure approvals for improvements.
• Partner with IT, Finance and governance to balance speed, risk and integrity, and deliver faster hardware purchasing.

Supplier & Contract Management

• Build and manage strategic supplier relationships.
• Negotiate contracts, SLAs, pricing and commercial terms.
• Track supplier performance and drive continuous improvement.
• Ensure contracts meet procurement governance and compliance requirements.

Commercial & Business Support

• Partner with IT and stakeholders to define demand and requirements.
• Advise on hardware procurement, licensing, maintenance and support.
• Support project-based procurement initiatives.
• Improve spend visibility and compliance across the category.
• Lead build vs buy assessments for IT hardware and related services.
• Perform TCO analysis across in-house, vendor and managed service options, covering CapEx/OpEx, lifecycle cost, scalability and risk.

Financial & ROI Accountability

• Deliver annual savings and value targets aligned to the category strategy.
• Drive measurable ROI through strategic sourcing, commercial renegotiations, demand optimisation, TCO reduction and contract consolidation.
• Track and report savings using the agreed procurement methodology.
• Validate savings with Finance and reflect them in forecasts and budgets.
• Balance cost reduction with service quality, risk and business continuity.

Risk & Governance

• Identify, assess and mitigate category and supplier risks.
• Ensure compliance with procurement policies and relevant regulatory requirements.

Knowledge

Min:

• Minimum of 4-7 years of experience in procurement (not buying), driving cost savings and improving terms and conditions

Ideal:

•  
• Ability to operate at both strategic and operational levels
• Process design and optimisation capability
•  

Skills

Conditions of Employment