Procurement Support

Location - Remote Working and 2/3 days in the Office at Chichester

Hourly Rate - £11.02

Full Time - Interim Position

Reference - 7860915

Background 

As a member of the Procurement Operations team, you will provide professional advice, guidance and data insights to service users and stakeholders and high-quality support and coordination to the wider team to ensure optimal procurement outcomes. An advocate and front-line contact ensuring the Council's statutory, strategic and operational responsibilities are adhered to.

Key to the role will include development and provision of high-quality information to enable performance to be effectively measured and monitored, planning decisions to be better informed and information to be effectively utilised to meet service objectives and responsibilities of a high performing and strategic capability. The job requires concentrated mental attention over lengthy periods and prolonged concentrated sensory attention in order; to analyse statistics, word process documents, and prepare complex documents for distribution.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage development and collation of responses to Procurement team FOI (Freedom of Information) requests, undertaking in-depth complex analysis, research, and coordination through to issue within the necessary time demands.
• Responsibility for planning and coordination of Procurement Board / Commercial Panel meetings, ensuring meeting decisions and actions are captured, tracked, and progressed.
• Produce performance monitoring reports presenting summary/trend data (to include non-conformance to Standing Orders, off contract spend, Business Travel, Waivers and New Suppliers).
• Facilitate projects and initiatives, as appropriate, and manage and maintain the appropriate databases, spreadsheets, inboxes and processes.
• Manage the Procurement Inbox as lead coordinator for requests and responses.
• Produce and lead development of reports and briefings for a wide range of audiences, using the most appropriate format.
• Advise and guide in the interpretation of complicated data, information and key findings, engaging with and securing input and assurance from Procurement team members where necessary.
• Procurement system administration, managing user access, licencing and optimal user base for SAP SRM/eProcurement technology, ensuring effective and optimal procurement operations.
• Collection and processing of Procurement rebate income.
• Working with Category teams, manage the supplier approval process in relation to business requirement, ensuring the number of new suppliers created is kept to a minimum and any suppliers no longer required are removed, taking into consideration corporate contracts and agreement.
• Assisting with supplier cleansing and consolidation tasks.
• Be a champion in the knowledge of the Purchasing Policy and all related purchasing processes, providing support to individuals, meetings and workshops.
• Manage the appropriate communication of the purchasing policy and business procedures to all appropriate parties.
• Own the content of the Purchasing Intranet and Internet pages and purchasing materials i.e. guidance and correspondence, ensuring the information within them is correct, substantial, easy to understand and up to date.
• Work with Suppliers and the Payments Team to ensure all purchasing processes are adhered to, providing support to suppliers and managing appropriate correspondence.
• Provide support to the Procurement team for the reporting and analysis of purchasing data out of the SAP system, for the tender process and supplier performance review stages.
• Provide support to the P-Card (corporate purchasing VISA facility) Administrator for the monthly interfacing of VISA data to SAP and the card application process and own the account determination process through the interface process.
• Communicate with and develop good working relationships with a range of people, such as Procurement colleagues, Senior Management, contractors and clients, in order to provide specialist advice and information.
• Responsible for the care of, accuracy, confidentiality, security and maintenance of procurement related manual and/or computerised information.
• To assist with projects and/or reviews of corporate projects, challenging existing practices and generating ideas and solutions, recognising and balancing risks with reward, meeting agreed timescales.
• Remain up to date and compliant with all relevant organisational procedures, policies, and professional codes of conduct to uphold standards of best practice.

Key Skills

• Strong analytical skills in order to interpret and manipulate complex contract/tender information in relation to all data relevant to purchasing/contracts.
• Excellent IT skills for operating a wide and varied range of ICT software for the integral use of word processing, data processing, updating websites, creating and developing workflows or electronic presentations and the ability to investigate and troubleshoot system related problems and provide solutions.
• Excellent literacy and numeracy skills in order to understand complex written instructions describing tasks and to check financial information and other documents.
• Ability to present information presented clearly, concisely, accurately and in ways that promote understanding, either verbally or in written/electronic form, at meetings or at workshops.
• Ability to interpret complex information to produce a high-quality document with limited guidance. Also, the ability to organise and plan and meet set targets e.g. provision of reports.
• Developed communication and interpersonal skills to provide clear and concise advice and specialist guidance to a range of clients, including responding to calls and emails in a professional and supportive manner.
• The accurate following of set procedures to ensure correct data is maintained and published.

Qualifications and Experience

• CIPS Level 4, BTEC Higher, or equivalent qualification or experience.
• Excellent working knowledge of IT systems/procedures demonstrated by relevant NVQ level 3 or equivalent qualification or experience.
• Experience of working within office systems/practices and providing effective business support.
• Experience of using IT systems, including Microsoft Office applications, and preferably use or knowledge of relational databases such as ERP systems.
• Experience or knowledge of the purchasing document cycle from request to payment, and eProcurement would be advantageous.

If you are interested in this role, please call 020 3641 9193 for further details or email your CV to apply@instajobsuk.com