At AQA, we’re committed to advancing education and we’re committed to our people. As the largest provider of academic qualifications in the UK, we mark over seven million GCSEs and A-levels each year and it’s our people who make this happen.

Procurement Lead

Maternity Cover Fixed Term Contract– 12 months

Guildford: £46,000 - £52,000 per year

Hybrid working model mix of office and home working during the week

Are you looking to increase your Procurement knowledge and work in both an Indirect and Direct sourcing environment?

This maternity cover contract will open the doors for you to work in a number of categories across the business widening your portfolio of expertise.

You can you see ways to capitalise on opportunities and deliver quick but sound business benefits, alongside managing a team of 2 Sourcing specialists.  

This is your chance to work closely with 3 specialist Category Managers, as well as supporting, guiding and leading a team of 2 all under the guidance of the Head of the Procurement department.

Confidence in providing pragmatic and expert advice and guidance to senior managers across the business on procurement related processes and strategies is key.

What’s in it for you?

• You’ll work on a hybrid working model and one which works for you and the team alike, with the ability to pay up to 7% into your pension and employer contributions up to 11.5% , 25 days annual leave with Christmas on top rising with service, alongside a host of other wellbeing benefits including the Headspace App, Life assurance, PMI and Access to a Health Cash plan as well as a Cycle to Work schemes .

In your role as Procurement Lead you will work with the wider team where last year alone they worked on close to 300 complex contracts across the organisation. You will work across-section of sectors and suppliers including, Technology, Facilities, HR, Marketing, Events and Operations will form part of your overall responsibility.  AQA are diving into one of its main strategic aims of digitally diversifying and focusing on the future of assessment in innovative and technically minded ways.

What will you be doing?

• Supporting and taking full management responsibility for your team, you will enable a real focus on team development, growth and future succession planning as well as being pivotal in allowing everyone to focus on continuous improvements.
• Ensuring crucial coordination of workloads associated with contract reviews, contract builds, benchmarking/RFx exercises and other allocated projects.
• A key conduit with the Category Managers, the wider business and external suppliers across the coordination and management of all sourcing-related activities.
• Full responsibility for all RFx projects at all level of sourcing suppliers. You will have oversight and management after briefings from the Category Managers to go to market at pace and review and analyse all viable options.
• Provide key and proactive assistance to the Category Managers in the supplier relationship management process and take responsibility for the coordination of meetings and follow-ups. The supplier relationship management project is crucial to AQA as it ensures that suppliers match their contractual obligations, that risks to AQA are mitigated and the relationship with suppliers is enhanced to ensure we are seen as a partner of choice to companies.

     

AQA fully utilise contract management software (Jaggear/Bravo/Workday) to enable detailed reviews of contracts, to build contracts, review and formally evaluate RFIs and RFPs, to monitor individual supplier performance (accuracy, productivity, progress and compliance) and to be able to obtain relevant/key reports.

This will be something you are already familiar with and will be able to develop full and subject matter expertise in.

What next?

Apply via our website by the closing date of 23:59 Tuesday 27th February 2024

For the next step in your procurement career apply today and tell us about yourself

Every application will receive a written response

#Pro22

** Internally this role is currently known as a Procurement Support Team Lead

Recruitment Agencies

We have a preferred supplier list (PSL) in place.

Unsolicited CVs will be treated as a gift. We will not be subject to or liable under your terms and conditions for agency fees.

Full Job Description

Summary

The Senior Sourcing Specialist position is a newly created role within the Sourcing and Supply Management Team. The key responsibilities will be in providing direct support to the Category Managers as well as the coordination and management of all sourcing-related activities. The role will enable the Category Managers to enhance their focus on Business/Stakeholder liaison, Category Planning and supplier management. The Sourcing Team will benefit from a greater level of close support, guidance, training and day-to-day management. The Senior Sourcing Specialist will be key in contributing to the improvement in project delivery timescales and will provide tangible support in helping SSM to deliver the Finance vision and AQA strategy.Landscape
The role sits in the ten-person SSM team, based at Guildford, which is part of the Finance and Corporate Services division and reports directly to the Head of SSM. On a day-to-day basis, the Senior Sourcing Specialist will be responsible for liaising with the Category Managers, the two-person Sourcing Team and Procurement Administration. The Sourcing Team will report directly to the Senior Sourcing Specialist. The role will also have daily contact with other members of SSM, the wider FCS teams, with Stakeholders and other departments. In addition, the role will involve very regular contact with suppliers and AQA affiliate companies.

Activities
Take full responsibility and be accountable for all sourcing activities, contract reviews and other projects as agreed with the Team Category Managers
The Senior Sourcing Specialist will report directly to the Head of SSM and will be fully accountable for achieving all agreed performance objectives and other requirements.
Provide key and proactive assistance to the Category Managers in the supplier relationship management process and take responsibility for the coordination of meetings and follow-ups. The supplier relationship management project is crucial to AQA as it ensures that suppliers match their contractual obligations, that risks to AQA are mitigated and the relationship with suppliers is enhanced to ensure we are seen as a partner of choice to companies.
Work with the Category Managers in the build of individual Category Strategy documents. The Category Strategy builds will require spend data analysis, stakeholder analysis, market reviews, supplier research and trend analysis. These requirements will require the coordination of workloads with the Sourcing Team. The Category Strategies are key to meeting a prime SSM objective in ensuring that they provide comprehensive procurement planning support and guidance to Stakeholders and Department Heads. The Senior Sourcing Specialist will play a key role in coordinating the timely availability of the required data and other associated information.  
Proactively manage all benchmarking projects via the use of the RFI and/or RFP processes. Take responsibility for and be solely accountable for the completion of each benchmarking project within the agreed objectives and timescales set by the Category Managers. This involves detailed coordination between the Category Managers, the Sourcing Team, the Procurement Services Team, stakeholders and suppliers.  
Represent the Category Managers and SSM, where agreed, in Supplier, Stakeholder, Heads of Department and other teams meetings within AQA. The aim is to ensure that SSM’s reputation is enhanced, that the Team profile is raised and that the service/support provision to both colleagues and suppliers is rated as highly as possible. The Senior Sourcing Specialist role is key in ensuring that responses from colleagues and suppliers via surveys and questionnaires reflect the highest levels of support and service that SSM provide.     
Take full management responsibility for the SSM Sourcing Team. This involves the crucial coordination of the workloads associated with contract reviews, contract builds, benchmarking/RFI/RFP exercises and other allocated projects. The Sourcing Team members report directly to the Senior Sourcing Specialist, who in turn is tasked with holding weekly meetings with the individual Sourcing Team members.
Be solely accountable for the performance and personal development of the Sourcing Team. Agreed metrics are applied to the Team’s performance and on-going development which in turn form part of the Senior Sourcing Specialist’s performance objectives. The key priority is to ensure that the Sourcing Team are provided with required assistance, guidance, tools and motivation to achieve an outstanding rating in on-going personal reviews.
Have responsibility in ensuring that the Sourcing Team remain fully compliant with all relevant AQA Policies and SSM processes. Monitoring of compliance is a key on-going requirement and will be subject to both internal and external audits.
In order to coordinate and oversee spend analysis requirements, a knowledge of the suite of reports that can be generated from the Oracle finance software will need to be understood and training obtained from Procurement Services. The introduction of Workday finance suite in 2023 will require the Senior Sourcing Lead to gain a full understanding of the reports available again via training. The knowledge of key accounting systems is crucial in the coordination of spend-analysis projects, in understanding the extent of content output and the associated timescales involved in producing reports.
Develop a full understanding of SSM’s P2P contract management software (Jaggear/Bravo) to enable detailed reviews of contracts, to build contracts, review and formally evaluate RFIs and RFPs, to monitor individual performance (accuracy, productivity, progress and compliance) and to be able to obtain relevant/key reports.
Actively bring experience-based suggestions and challenges to processes and strategies
Provide key support in helping SSM achieve its prime objective of being trusted partners to AQA colleagues, providing procurement expertise in support of business objectives and requirements.

Need to Know (to be successful in this role, you will need to know):

Have a strong procurement background and qualified to at least CIPS4
Confidence in dealing with a cross-section of sectors and suppliers including Technology/IT, Facilities, HR, Marketing, Events and Operations
Ability to engage with internal stakeholders and external stakeholders influencing at all levels
Strong planning, management and leadership skills demonstrating a positive attitude to change
Strong verbal and written communication skills
Highly organised and an excellent planner
Ability to see ways to capitalise on opportunities and deliver quick but sound business benefits
Experience in providing advice and guidance to senior managers on procurement related matters, acting as an expert point of reference
Confident in balancing strategic and operational demands
Results focused and able to make pragmatic decisions whilst delivering at pace.
Self-motivated with the proven ability to achieve performance objectives and exceed expectations
Good interpersonal skills and willing to make a positive contribution to the Team, Department and company's culture
Able to motivate and support staff to achieve their targets as well as being a good role model