Procurement Manager

The Finance and Procurement Team provides a full range of finance and procurement services to the NAO. The wider Finance team consists of some 12 people and is organised into four main areas: the financial reporting team, financial management team, central procurement team and payroll team, all managed by the Head of Finance and Procurement and overseen by the Finance Director.

The Head of Procurement manages the Central Procurement Team which consists of 4 procurement specialists. The Procurement team is responsible for providing high quality specialist procurement management and/or advice to NAO staff at all levels on all the NAO’s procurement activities and contracts, ensuring that all risks including non-compliance with current EU and UK law, government policy and best practice are fully understood. There is between £30 to 40 million of annual resource and capital expenditure which falls within the scope of procurement. These include professional services such as audit and legal services, digital services, human resources, training and development work, and other office and facilities related procurements. As the NAO is the independent auditor of government and comments on how procurement is managed in the wider public sector, it is important to ensure it practices what it preaches.

The procurement manager will manage the portfolio of procurement assigned to them and support the Head of Procurement and NAO colleagues in all procurement and contract management related workstreams.

Nationality Requirement:
• UK Nationals
• Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)

Please note, we are not able to sponsor work visas. Please contact us at hrservicedesk@nao.org.uk should you have any questions on your nationality eligibility.

Procurement
 Proactively manage own portfolio of procurement competitions, extensions and variations, including providing up to date professional and expert advice in line with NAO procurement policy, public sector procurement law and established best practice.
 Analysing the internal client’s requirements and advising them on the best approach and influencing the route to market.
 Providing guidance on process and templates, reviewing business cases, quality assuring specification of requirements i.e., they are fair and do not discriminate.
 Preparing tender documentation including the method statements, pricing schedules, evaluation criteria etc.
 Highlighting any risks and issues that may hinder the procurement process to the buying areas and Head of Procurement.
 Provide training and guidance on evaluation methodology and panel moderation sessions including consolidating evaluator responses, carrying out the commercial evaluation and finalising the scores for the tender evaluation report.
 Advertise opportunities on the e-tendering portal and managing relationship with bidders including providing information and guidance on NAO tender processes and managing clarification requests.
 Help and be involved in contract negotiations and management of commercial risks identified during the procurement process.
 Responsible for writing tender evaluation report / Regulation 84 reports, obtain sign-off from the evaluation panel, and recommend award decision to the Executive Director Strategy and Resources, on conclusion of the procurement process.
 Manage the Contract award and decline processes, including development of debrief correspondence (writing to unsuccessful suppliers, and provide feedback and further information in line with procurement regulations).
 Responsible and accountable for maintaining records and audit trail of procurement in the NAO management information system and the contract database.

Contract Management
 Identify expiring contract and initiate and undertake reprocurement processes; this includes r proactively liaising with teams to build compliant procurement plan
 Responsible for ensuring that contractual changes to terms, costs, and services due to changing business needs and priorities are properly documented and reflected in the contract management system. Support the Head of procurement relevant activities to increase contract management and commercial capabilities.
 Undertake audit of the contract management system, to ensure that the relevant NAO contract manager entered accurate details into the contract management system and that they are monitoring and recording supplier performance of their contractual obligations in the system.
 Provide reliable and relevant regular and ad hoc management reports from the contract management system as required.
 Liaise with internal customers and external suppliers where necessary, ensuring professionalism and a high standard of customer service is always maintained.
 Membership of Hubs including contributing to commercial and contract management matters on VFM studies.
Systems
• Support the delivery of continuous improvement projects including contribution to solution and testing of changes.
• Adept in using e-sourcing portals to issue tenders, issue PINs, contract notices and contract award notices.

Relationships
 Reporting to: Head of Procurement
 Internal/External relationships: Finance Director; Head of Finance and TBC; any member of NAO staff with responsibilities for buying goods or services or managing contracts. This will also involve dealing with suppliers and Framework owners such as Crown Commercial Services.
 Budgetary Resources Managed: The Procurement Team ensures good procurement and contract management practices throughout the NAO and influences value for money on all Office external expenditure; the non-salary annual resource and capital budget is between 30 - £40m.

Competencies

 MCIPS or working towards it
 Good knowledge of end-to-end procurement experience, including working within EU/UK procurement regulations OJEU/FTS, Contracts Finder and use of frameworks (direct award/mini competition)
 Proficient in the use of e-tendering portals used for majority of NAO procurements
 Articulate written communication for example must be able to assist with the preparation of specification and prepare contract and invitation to tender documentation, as well as internal briefing, minutes, recommendation papers etc.
 Strong interpersonal skills to chair evaluation and moderation panels, plus manage queries and issues raised by internal and external stakeholders
 Develop and maintain professional relationships with customers throughout the business.
 Ability to manage time and to prioritise own work effectively, often needing flexibility to deal with concurrent or conflicting timetables
 Able to monitor/scan external sources of data and intelligence and to proactively share relevant information with others where relevant