Band: 7 - 10

Salary: £23,398 - £37,306 p.a. (progression) - please note the successful candidate would start on Band 7 or 8 dependant on experience

37 hours per week

What is the role?

This role reports to a Senior Procurement Professional who in turn reports to the Procurement Manager. These are exciting times for public services, infrastructure and regeneration in Portsmouth. Major investment is delivering a wealth of improvements to the city that will help facilitate greater economic prosperity for its residents. In addition against a wider agenda of reducing budgets there is a clear focus on spending less and getting more value for public money.

Procurement is at the leading edge of delivering significant positive change and this role provides an exciting opportunity to start a career in a growing field. The Central Procurement department advises across all areas of the organisation and within this role you will be given the opportunity to become involved across the entire breadth of the Council's activities. Initially you will work to procurement professionals to assist them in the delivery of major procurement projects and initiatives. Over time as you gain experience you will be expected to act as the Procurement lead officer. You will also assist customers to progress their projects through the Procurement Gateway process which underpins the Corporate Procurement infrastructure. In addition you will provide customers with guidance on how to manage their contracts once they have been let.

You will be assigned a category of spend for which you will be responsible for providing support at senior level under the supervision and guidance of a Senior Procurement Professional. In this role you will advise customer departments on how to map their spend and spot opportunities for strategic sourcing to deliver savings.

You will spend up to three years attaining a core set of competencies covering Strategic awareness, Public Procurement context, Procurement processes, Relationship management, Market awareness, Finance and Programme/Project Management, this training period may however be reduced dependent on previous experience. You will be expected to work towards MCIPS during this time. All training costs will be covered.

We're looking for a person who, with the appropriate training and supervision, will have the ability to satisfy customers, to cope with change, focus on commercial outcomes, implement processes and ensure Regulations are adhered to.

Who is the person?

You need to:

1. Be qualified to Degree standard or have significant office based employment ideally with a commercial or project focus.

2. Strong communication and interpersonal skills (both written and verbal) is a must as you will be dealing with all levels of individuals within the Council

3. Have good general IT skills - must be proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook)

4. Be a solution focused problem solver - ability to focus on finding a solution rather than concentrating on the problem

5. Be well organised, with the ability to work in a pressurised environment and prioritise your workload.

6. Be a proactive, enthusiastic, self-motivated team player with the ability to be flexible and adaptable to provide effective support to the team.

Closing at 14:00 on 7th August 2017

Interview process 6th, 7th & 8th September 2017

Please note that shortlisted applicants will be asked to produce a presentation in advance of the interview process involving data analysis, options analysis and recommendations. The interview process will also involve a group assessment as well as IT based exercises.

For more details & instructions on how to apply please see the attachments.