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Category Manager (Senior Buyer)- Department for Education

Employer
Department for Education
Location
Manchester M1 2WD, Coventry CV1 2WT, Darlington DL1 5QE , Sheffield S1 2FJ , Nottingham NG1 6HJ
Salary
£36,498 + £4000 if you hold full MCIPS (£1500 if you hold foundation CIPS qualification)
Closing date
18 Feb 2022

Job Details

This post attracts a procurement allowance of £1,500 per annum for successful applicants holding the CIPS foundation qualification or £4,000 per annum for successful applicants holding the full MCIPS qualification.

Our Category Manager position provides an excellent opportunity for candidates with a background in procurement and buying, or those looking to grow their overall Category Management experience, to develop their skills across the end to end Procurement Process and develop a career as a Category Manager within the Department for Education.

Job Description:

As a Category Manager you will be delivering the best possible commercial outcomes for children, young people and the education system. The post holder will responsible for all aspects of the procurement process from market engagement and sourcing through to contract management. With market-leading guidance and development opportunities you will have real opportunities to develop and influence DfE commercial projects, some of which are valued at hundreds of millions of pounds. This a great time to join us to help shape our future success.

As a Procurement Professional, you will support one of the following key category areas. If your experience has been gained predominately in other sectors / categories we would welcome your application.

• ESFA - Education and Skills Funding Agency Category
• HEFE - Higher Education and Further Education Category
• EYSG - Early Years Schools Group Category
• Operations – Digital / IT, Professional Services and Corporate Operations
• Schools Commercial – National and Tailored Services
• CYCSG – Children’s Services, Communications and Strategy Group
• Schools Commercial, Risk Mitigation Service

Responsibilities:
Reporting to the Commercial Lead, you will be responsible for:

• Key elements of the end-to-end commercial lifecycle, which could include pre-market engagement, sourcing, contract award and contract management.
• Managing a range of commercial projects ranging in value, individually and as part of a commercial project team.
• Proactively lead, support and challenge stakeholders throughout the commercial life cycle.
• Maintaining a category pipeline to allow commercial support to start in good time to ensure a full range of commercial options can be considered.
• Understand the supply market, category, and business context to inform and deliver the commercial strategy.
• Championing commercial capability throughout the Department and across wider stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of category management.
• Contributing to the development of the category savings plan and ensuring savings are realised and tracked.
• Using an e-procurement system to effectively manage and track Procurement and end to end category management activity.
• Complying fully with public procurement law, DFE commercial procedure, policy, and assurance processes.

Essential Criteria:
• Experience within a procurement, commercial or a buying role
• Evidence of leading and securing value for money in a commercial environment.
• Experience of analysing complex information to make informed commercial decisions.
• Evidence of influencing key stakeholders towards commercial solutions whilst delivering our business strategy.
• Evidence of managing projects to deliver commercial outcomes

Desirable:
• Awareness of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, why they exist and a high-level appreciation of how they should be applied.

Desirable criteria will only be assessed in the event of a tie break situation to make an informed decision.

Benefits:
Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the Queen’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Security:
Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

People working with government assets must complete basic personnel security standard checks.

Selection process details

Application:
You will be asked to provide a CV and statement of suitability as to how you meet the below essential criteria:

• Experience within a procurement, commercial or a buying role
• Evidence of leading and securing value for money in a commercial environment.
• Experience of analysing complex information to make informed commercial decisions.
• Evidence of influencing key stakeholders towards commercial solutions whilst delivering our business strategy.
• Evidence of managing projects to deliver commercial outcomes

We will assess the CV and statement against the above criteria

A short sift may be carried out on the following key criteria in the event of a high number of applications:

• Experience within a procurement, commercial or buying role.
• Evidence of influencing key stakeholders towards commercial solutions whilst delivering our business strategy.
• Evidence of leading and securing value for money in a commercial environment.

Interview:
If you are invited to interview, experience will be assessed against the essential criteria.

Other Information:
Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK from the location options provided and not from overseas.

The government is committed to supporting apprenticeships, enabling people to learn and progress in a role whilst earning. We want to monitor the number of people who have completed apprenticeships who are now applying to progress further in their career and are asking this question to all candidates, on all vacancies. You will be asked a question as part of the application process about any previous apprenticeships you have completed. Your response to this question will not affect your application and it is not a requirement of the role to have completed a previous apprenticeship.

For this role the department would not consider sponsoring a Certificate of Sponsorship/visa. Please note we are unable to offer advice on any Visa and Immigration cases.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Department of Education of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks.DFE@education.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Company

At the Department for Education we’re responsible for providing children and young people with the lifelong learning they deserve. It’s a passion that’s fuelling positive change as we aim to build a world-class commercial directorate and enhance our workforce with fresh talent. With a commercial category spend of £6.4bn, we’re working on complex, high-value contracts that will create tangible results for schools, colleges and universities across the country. Do you have the skills and ambition that it takes to join us?

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