Global Procurement Category Manager - Digital & IT R&D
About this opportunity
Make your mark for patients
We are looking for a Global Procurement Category Manager, Digital & IT R&D who is strategic, influential, and deeply knowledgeable about digital research and development technologies to join our Procurement team at UCB, based out of Brussels, Belgium.
About the Role
As the Global Procurement Category Manager, Digital & IT R&D, you will ensure the organization secures optimal value when acquiring software and digital technology solutions supporting the full research and development lifecycle. This includes technologies related to discovery, pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory, safety, quality, and CMC activities. You will collaborate closely with R&D stakeholders to understand business needs, assess technology providers, negotiate optimal commercial terms, and proactively manage a global Digital R&D technology spend. Your strong understanding of pharmaceutical R&D processes and digital R&D technologies will enable you to make informed decisions and drive procurement excellence across multiple regions and regulatory landscapes.
Who You’ll Work With
You will report to the Head of Digital & IT Procurement and will work closely with R&D Digital Technology leadership, cross-functional internal stakeholders, and strategic Digital R&D technology suppliers. Operating within a global remit, you will build productive relationships with large R&D technology providers, partner with internal teams to support business needs across the R&D value chain, and act as a key advisor on technology sourcing, supplier relationship management, contractual negotiations, and sustainability requirements.
What You’ll Do
Manage a global Digital R&D technology spend and oversee end-to-end procurement processes across the R&D lifecycle.
Develop and implement category strategies for software supporting discovery, pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory, safety, quality, and CMC activities.
Identify opportunities to optimize Digital R&D technology spend and enhance supplier value.
Build and maintain strong relationships with R&D stakeholders and strategic technology suppliers.
Identify potential suppliers and lead supplier selection efforts for R&D technology solutions.
Manage complex RFI/RFP processes using procurement-approved tools.
Provide fact-based sourcing recommendations considering R&D technology market dynamics, supplier capabilities, and competitive trends.
Negotiate commercial terms with large R&D technology providers and ensure contractual compliance in partnership with Legal and Digital Technology.
Embed risk management, data protection, regulatory, quality, and sustainability requirements into supplier contracts where applicable.
Support continuous improvement initiatives and approve POs within defined thresholds.
Interested? For this role we’re looking for:
Minimum 8 years’ experience in strategic procurement, sourcing, supplier management, or digital technology roles, preferably with exposure to pharmaceutical R&D environments.
Previous experience working with R&D technology categories and a strong understanding of pharmaceutical R&D processes across discovery, pre-clinical, clinical, regulatory, safety, quality, and CMC domains.
Strong negotiation and supplier relationship management experience, including with large R&D technology providers.
Good understanding of digital R&D technology landscapes, software solutions, market dynamics, and supplier ecosystems.
Excellent communication, stakeholder engagement, and influencing skills in a global and cross-functional environment.
Team-oriented, collaborative mindset with commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Fluent in English.
Are you ready to ‘go beyond’ to create value and make your mark for patients? If this sounds like you, then we would love to hear from you!
About us
UCB is a global biopharmaceutical company, focusing on neurology and immunology. We are over 9.000 people in all four corners of the globe, inspired by patients and driven by science.
Why work with us?
At UCB, we don’t just complete tasks, we create value. We aren’t afraid to push forward, collaborate, and innovate to make our mark for patients. We have a caring, supportive culture where everyone feels included, respected, and has equal opportunities to do their best work. We ‘go beyond’ to create value for our patients, and always with a human focus, whether that’s on our patients, our employees, or our planet. Working for us, you will discover a place where you can grow, and have the freedom to carve your own career path to achieve your full potential.
At UCB, we’ve embraced a hybrid-first approach to work, bringing teams together in local hubs to foster collaborative curiosity. Unless expressly stated in the description or precluded by the nature of the position, roles are hybrid with 40% of your time spent in the office.
UCB is an equal opportunity employer. All employment decisions will be made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable laws.
Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us on EMEA-Reasonable_Accommodation@ucb.com. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments; we will not be able to support you through this channel.
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Procurement role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 102 comparable Manager Procurement roles across 17 biopharma companies.
Salary context
12 of 102 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 102 comparable roles
+ 19 more countries
Seniority mix
102 of 102 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
0 of 102 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
No peers with a known therapeutic area yet.
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
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Get an email when we spot other openings like this one – same job function, comparable seniority, roles you'd actually want to see.
How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.