Senior Buyer

Nationwide’s procurement function is undergoing a significant and successful transformation, ensuring we deliver the best possible outcomes for Nationwide. Our operating model combines category alignment with strong business partnering, focused on achieving business and member value.

We are seeking a Senior Buyer with proven procurement experience to help drive greater cost efficiency and deliver sustainable value through an effective and engaged supply base. This is a pivotal role for a professional who wants to make a real impact in a fast-moving, forward-thinking environment.

As a Senior Buyer, you’ll play a key role in supporting and leading sourcing activities across defined categories, ensuring compliance with policies while introducing innovative approaches to deliver value. You’ll develop and manage supplier relationships, negotiating contracts that balance cost, quality, and risk, while supporting Nationwide’s sustainability and ethical sourcing goals. Working closely with stakeholders across the business, you’ll understand requirements, influence decisions, and deliver outcomes aligned to strategic objectives.

You’ll also analyse market trends and emerging technologies, identifying opportunities to leverage innovation and mitigate risks in a rapidly changing environment, while driving continuous improvement and challenging traditional thinking.

You’ll already be a procurement professional with experience in strategic sourcing, contract negotiation, and supplier management. You understand the importance of building strong relationships, working at pace, and adapting to market changes. You’ll bring commercial acumen, resilience, and a collaborative mindset, ensuring compliance while delivering creative solutions.

This role offers the opportunity to work in a transformational procurement function, where your expertise will help shape the future of how the business engages with its supply base. If you’re passionate about delivering value, influencing change, and making a difference to Nationwide, we’d love to hear from you.

At Nationwide, we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK-wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you'll be located at our nearest regional office or hub. There will be a need to regularly connect with colleagues for collaboration and in some locations you’ll be expected to spend at least two days a week, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, in the office. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works.

Nationwide is committed to the redeployment of our employees impacted by change, as such applications for redeployment candidates will be prioritised in this recruitment process.
 
If you’re a colleague on long-term absence (for example, on parental leave) or a temporary worker, please use your personal email address to submit an application.

What you’ll be doing

In this role, you’ll take ownership of delivering procurement and supply chain strategies for your assigned spend category, ensuring alignment with business objectives. You’ll enable value creation by driving supplier performance through account plans, development initiatives, and robust governance frameworks. Managing commercial contract risk will be a key part of your remit, alongside negotiating, drafting, and overseeing contracts within your subcategory—or contributing to more complex deals in partnership with Category Sourcing Managers. You’ll also ensure the timely maintenance and execution of Nationwide’s contract pipeline, keeping everything on track to deliver maximum value and compliance.
 

About you

As a minimum requirement, you’ll have:

• Established procurement & supply chain skills
• Knowledge of and experience in procurement and supply chain management (category management, contract negotiation and management, supplier selection and management)
• Awareness of Artificial intelligence in a Procurement environment. 
• Good interpersonal skills including effective communications, relationships building and stakeholder management
• The ability to plan and prioritise effectively to deliver a demanding workload
• A working knowledge of contract law and legal knowledge relevant to category
• Great analytical skills for conducting spend analysis, cost modelling, market and supplier analysis, risk analysis and data interpretation and visualisation

Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role:

• Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind

• Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand

• Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development

• Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes

You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• 25 days holiday, pro rata

• Private medical insurance

• A highly competitive pension to help you build a strong foundation for retirement

• Access to an annual performance-related bonus

• Training and development to help you progress your career

• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme

• Life assurance to provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones in the event of your death

• Wellhub – access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness

• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year

Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society

We forge our own path at Nationwide.

As a mutual, we’re owned by our members - those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives.

If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our customers, you’re one of us.

At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. As a community, we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society.

We are purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us. 

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.

The hiring manager for this role is Sam Cotterell, and the main recruitment contact is Nathan Richens.