Procurement Officer

Job title: Procurement Officer

Salary: PO2 £39,863 - £42,839

Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

Location: Civic Hall, Leeds, LS1 1UR

As a Procurement Officer, you'll thrive on managing a variety of procurements and stakeholders, with a proven ability to manage and support procurement activity and confidently, clearly and effectively communicate and deliver change.

It's not just about processes, regulation, cost cutting or finding the cheapest options available. It is about analysing and understanding the organisation's needs, evaluating potential suppliers, negotiating contracts, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality goods, works and services for our customers. Effective procurement involves understanding our service needs, careful planning, market research and supplier relationship management. It focusses on identifying opportunities for innovation, promoting sustainability and ethical practices, and mitigating risks. By adopting a strategic approach, procurement can contribute to the overall success and competitiveness for Leeds City Council.

Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions .

About You As a Procurement Officer, you will bring to the role:

• CIPS Level 4 Qualifications (or equivalent) or relevant experience delivering procurement projects.
• Understanding of public sector tendering and contract management processes, with an understanding of the strategic procurement issues facing the public sector.
• Experience of effectively managing procurement contracts and supporting complex procurements to achieve objectives, including applying different strategies for solving procurement issues.
• Demonstrate drive, initiative, resilience and self-management skills as well as integrity, openness and awareness of others
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present information in varying formats, influence and negotiate to form positive relationships in a multi-discipline environment

About the role As our next Procurement Officer, you will play a vital role in helping Leeds City Council deliver high quality construction and housing related procurement activities, that make a real difference to communities across the city. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a wide range of procurements and projects that help provide homes, improve neighbourhoods and deliver sustainable outcomes for Leeds Residents.

The role is integral to our Construction & Housing team which provides expert procurement and commercial support across construction, asset and property maintenance and regeneration programmes across housing stock and all other council buildings. Working alongside colleagues from across the council as well as external suppliers and partners, you will help deliver compliant, effective and value-driven procurement solutions that support the council's strategic priorities and ambitions for the city.

What We Offer You We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:

• a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
• membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
• flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
• a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
• a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

Interview Stages The interview process will be 2 stages:

Stage 1: Following successful shortlist of your application, you will be invited to attend a virtual interview in the first instance, this interview will be an informal discussion to explore your interest in the role, relevant experience and suitability against the essential criteria.

Stage 2 : Following successful shortlisting after the stage 1 interview you will be invited to attend a face-to-face interview which will consist of the following:

• Presentation: Candidates will be required to respond in a presentational format to a scenario, this will be submitted prior to the interview, and candidates will be asked to deliver their presentation, this will then be followed by supplementary questions in relation to the presentation delivered.
• Interview: Candidates will participate in a structured interview consisting of competency and experience-based questions aligned to the requirements of the role and Job Description

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job Description Job Purpose Working as part of the team, you will live and model values and behaviours to help us to achieve our ambition to become the best city council in the country. Your role will be important in ensuring the council is more enterprising and efficient and ensuring that the authority has in place proper arrangements for the administration and delivery of procurements and supporting complex procurements. The role operates within the context of the council's Business Plan Objective to increase efficiency.

Responsibilities The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.

The post holder will be responsible for providing and leading professional advisory and management functions in respect of procurements which are of moderate complexity, risk and value, supporting complex procurements advising clients and ensuring compliance with procedures, process, current contractual arrangements and a range of statutory and regulatory undertakings, supporting a category management approach and advising members and directorates on related commercial activity.

The Procurement Officer will be able to demonstrate relevant skills and experience in the management of procurement projects and will be responsible for supporting the management and monitoring of procurements within identified categories to reduce spend and achieve efficiencies.

Specific Responsibilities Also Include

• Manage procurements of moderate complexity, risk and value, and support complex procurements within a context of budget pressures and funding restrictions, ensuring the delivery and improvement of services which meet the needs of our communities and stakeholders.
• Provide advice and guidance on procurement matters across the authority to senior officers and other stakeholders.
• Support effective joint working within the council. Provide guidance and support to colleagues, clients and immediate line reports, creating an organisational culture of shared accountabilities, learning and continuous improvement.
• Support new ways of working and partnership working with key clients both internal and external to the council, to improve corporate priority outcomes and to ensure that developments and improvements remain focused on delivering outcomes for local people.
• Promote and support positive solutions to achieve diversity and equality of opportunity in all aspects of service delivery, community engagement activity and human resource areas.
• Support effective consultation and communications with colleagues, clients, councillors, partners and other stakeholders in accordance with council policy.
• Support open, responsive and accountable government, ensuring good governance compliance with financial and procurement procedures.
• Manage all aspects of risk and be responsible for the safety of staff, clients and contractors in accordance with all statutory obligations and relevant health and safety policies
• Manage procurements of moderate complexity, risk and value, and where appropriate support procurements which are more complex and /or of higher risk and higher value, contributing to the delivery of the council's procurement category management function and commercial approach as a whole.
• Contribute to the identifying and resolving of risks and issues in specific procurements.
• Assist the Procurement Category Manager in providing advice to service departments prior to the commencement of the procurement, including procurement options appraisal, procurement plan, specification, pricing models, innovative partnership arrangements.
• Coordinate and manage the tender process to Invitation to Tender stage including contributing to the development and preparation of tender documents for signoff, setting of evaluation criteria and methodology, publishing of relevant documentation and coordinating input from legal, technical and financial specialisms.
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