Job description Posted 06 April 2020

Project Manager (Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures, Procurement)
GSK House
6-7 Month Contract
Rate : up to £600 per day (via Umbrella PAYE)


We are currently seeking a Senior Project Manager for Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures (MA&D) in the Global Procurement’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) Project Management & Innovation team based at GSK House, London.

In this role the successful applicant will be accountable for leading the Procurement Integration workstream globally for GSK’s largest joint venture currently underway. This will include work spanning the whole of Global Procurement and partnering with category experts in all areas of the business. The successful candidate must be able to exhibit high levels of learning agility, as well as be able to deliver results in extremely challenging circumstances with very tight timelines all while operating under strict confidentiality.


Your Responsibilities

  • Be accountable for all Procurement integration planning and execution activities to ensure all workstream milestones are completed safely, on time and with minimal commercial impact to GSK.
  • Drive governance of working team including leading meetings, tracking and reporting progress, highlighting risks and escalations, and communicating status to various leadership teams.
  • Oversee Procurement workstream activities related to P2P, Travel & Expense operations, Contingent Worker operations, Fleet operations, etc. to prepare to operate under a Transition Services agreement or to fully integrate activities into GSK, depending on each market’s schedule and strategy.
  • Work closely with and serve as the Procurement representative to the Integration Management Office.
  • The ability to work across boundaries is also necessary as a large part of the role is identifying and managing dependencies with other workstreams. The ability to influence without authority and work with very senior stakeholders at CET-1 level is required.
  • Manage the team operational budget by working alongside the Finance team, Procurement workstream and regional leads, and the Procurement administrator to ensure expenses are properly recorded and the budget remains on track.
  • Risk assessment and a strategic mindset is needed to look across the deal to identify and mitigate any risks to global procurement at GSK. Where appropriate, Procurement category managers must be involved, and existing supplier relationships leveraged, to address such risks.
  • Respect for different cultures and the ability to flex approach to different regions is required as a significant part of the role will be managing people in various markets across the globe to deliver regional procurement activities.
  • Good line management is critical role as the candidate must be able to motivate and monitor the external procurement team members working under them.
  • The applicant must have an analytical mind-set and be a confident team player who takes ownership and leads by example. There is also a requirement for a pragmatic results driven / execution focused skillset. Good communication skills, both verbal and written is also needed alongside strong influencing skills. The applicant must be able to take initiative, be tenacious and enthusiastic and have a strong gravitas to be able to get things done in extremely short timelines.


Basic Qualifications

  • Qualified to Degree level
  • Procurement expertise coupled with MA&D leadership experience (or Integration/Separation leadership experience) is a must
  • Strong track record of senior stakeholder management and influencing; ability to influence without express authority; ability to build strong relationships.
  • Experience managing suppliers (including performance management), developing new potential suppliers and partnering with supply base for mutual benefit
  • Very strong communication and presentation skills; ability to appropriately represent GSK externally.
  • Demonstrated skills in project management leadership and budget management
  • Financial acumen and demonstrated analytical skills


Preferred Qualifications

  • Further academic qualification, for example MBA, CIPS, MCIPS
  • Deal experience (buy side or sell side)
  • Line management experience, ideally with a global team


NOTE: GSK are no longer engaging with PSC's due to the upcoming IR35 legislations. All contractors will only be engage via PAYE or Umbrella PAYE.

Additional information about the process

All profiles will be reviewed against the required skills and experience. Due to the high number of applications, we will only be able to respond to successful applicants in the first instance. We thank you for your interest and the time taken to apply.