While the organisation had a strong team of traditional procurement specialists, it was becoming increasingly reliant on commercial, legal and contracts teams to manage complex supplier agreements attached to a significant new programme of work.

This reliance created internal friction, slowed decision-making and placed additional pressure on departments whose focus should have remained elsewhere.
The client recognised that what was needed was not more procurement capacity, but procurement professionals with deep complex contracts capability — individuals comfortable operating at the intersection of procurement, contracts, and supplier performance management.

The requirement was for several Subcontracts Managers on a permanent basis.

These were not typical procurement roles.

The individuals needed to:

• Be supplier-facing while possessing strong contracts negotiation and management expertise
• Understand warranties, indemnities, NDAs, Ts & Cs and contractual flow-downs
• Be capable of managing supplier performance against contractual KPIs
• Operate confidently in a highly regulated defence manufacturing environment
• Work closely with US stakeholders on a niche avionics programme
  In essence, the client needed contracts professionals embedded within procurement.

To date half the team of Subcontracts Managers placed during this phase of the programme, both delivered exclusively by Arguile.
Given the requirement for full-time, on-site presence, the client chose to pause the remaining hires while they reviewed how the new structure operated in practice and considered the best approach for completing the team.

The key outcome was that the client successfully embedded complex contracts capability directly into its procurement function for the first time, reducing reliance on legal and commercial departments and strengthening internal ownership of supplier agreements.