Procurement Officer Passenger Transport
Permanent, Full Time
£28,203 to £33,180 per annum
Location: Chelmsford
Closing Date: Sunday 11th August 2024 at 11.59pm
Please note the working style for this role is an Anywhere Worker but we will require you to attend the office in Chelmsford on average 1 day a week around business need.
We are currently looking to recruit for a Procurement Officer to join our award-winning Procurement Service with this role focused on Passenger Transport.
Job Purpose
Procurement Services at Essex County Council involves the buying and contract managing of all of the council's goods, services and works. This includes everything from contract managing the highways, to assessing submissions for the next foster care home, to planning for the future of our property strategy. The teams are split based on their category, with each team being responsible for the category planning, sourcing and contract management for their respective area.
We are excited to announce that we are currently recruiting for a Procurement Officer in the Passenger Transport team, which is responsible for Home to School Transport, Local Bus Services and the Sustainable Transport Strategy. The Passenger Transport team is unique in terms of the variety of opportunities available due to the range of responsibilities. You will have the chance that exist across the team. The Passenger Transport Team is a great place to develop your procurement skills across the three main stages of the Procurement lifecycle: category planning, sourcing and contract management.
This role will offer a wide range of experience supporting the Procurement function in various aspects, including managing supplier queries, supporting market engagement events, providing contract administration, as well as working on low-risk sourcing and contract management activities. You will conduct research and market analysis supporting Procurement Managers in the creation of Category Plans.
This is a great role for someone who has good commercial and analytical skills that would like to move into Procurement as a profession. You will gain extensive knowledge and have the opportunity to progress your career in a supportive environment with a culture of continuous improvement. You will be able to work towards a level 4 qualification from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply after successful probation.
Accountabilities
- Manage responses to supplier queries, co-ordinating the support to market engagement events and providing contract administration.
- Lead on the delivery and development of contract and supplier amendment and update processes including, contract novation's, price uplifts and onboarding new suppliers to ECC, liaising with internal and external stakeholders as appropriate.
- Manage contracts to ensure that performance standards are achieved and any contractual, commercial or market risks are identified, and appropriate mitigations put in place.
- Deal effectively with supplier correspondence, ensuring that messaging is conducted in a fair, transparent and auditable manner.
- Lead the delivery of low risk sourcing processes, ensuring compliance with the Authority's Procurement Policy and Procedures.
- Lead the development, planning and delivery of improvement projects, ensuring effective stakeholder management and compliance with existing contractual requirements.
- Adopt a continuous improvement approach to systems and processes to support the development of best practice for wider department benefit.
- Plan and implement a risk-based programme of contract compliance audits in conjunction with specialist areas of the organisation such as Internal Audit, Corporate Health and Safety, Corporate Risk and Information Governance.
- Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.
- Opportunity to support in the contract management of ECC's transport contracts, and develop over time to manage your own contracts.
The Experience You Will Bring
Essential:
- Educated to 'A' Level standard and/or qualification by experience of working in a commercial environment.
- Experience of running low value procurements with a working knowledge of public sector procurement law; and/or experience managing low value contracts, monitoring and improving performance and mitigating risks
- Proficient in the use of Microsoft Suite platforms, with particular emphasis on Microsoft Excel.
- You will work in collaboration with other service areas within the Council, using influencing and other soft skills to provide accurate procurement advice and guidance to stakeholders.
Desirable:
- Strong communication; verbal, written and presentation skills.
- Strong customer focus with a drive to provide a valued service.
- A positive attitude: a 'can do' approach, good work ethic and willingness to learn
- Interest in pursuing a career in procurement and either studying for or wishing to study for CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply) accreditation.