Category Manager Recruitment

The best Category Managers are rare. They must combine analytical rigour with commercial creativity, understand their supply market in depth, and build the internal relationships needed to execute category strategy effectively. In complex organisations, they often operate as mini-CPOs for their spend areas — balancing cost, quality, risk and innovation. Adderleys recruits Category Managers and Category Directors across both direct and indirect spend portfolios. We work with organisations that are building category management from scratch, and with those who need to upgrade capability within an established function. In both cases, we focus on candidates with genuine delivery track records — not just theoretical frameworks.

A high-calibre Category Manager can transform the commercial relationship with a supplier base worth hundreds of millions — delivering savings, reducing risk, and unlocking innovation that generic procurement cannot reach.

We recruit Category Managers across all major spend categories: IT and technology, professional services, marketing, facilities, raw materials, logistics, HR services, and energy. We also recruit specialists in tail spend management and category analytics.