Job Description

About the team

Join our high-performing Procurement team at Hertfordshire County Council, where you'll play a key role in delivering strategic and technical procurement expertise, and tender management services across our departments.



You will be part of a team which acts as the Council's strategic centre of excellence for procurement, providing advice on procurement and commissioning activities for all departments, technical support for above UK threshold tenders, and advice on national frameworks and quotation procedures.



You will be working closely with colleagues in the Commercial Law team, and Finance



The team provides best practice advice, training, templates, and manages procurement systems.



Our team has a significant track record of implementing successful contracts offering value for money outcomes while delivering quality services.

About the role

Reporting to the Head of Procurement:

Management Information & Reporting

You will develop and deliver accurate, timely management information reports on procurement activity, supporting informed decision-making across a variety of audiences. You will provide essential data for ad hoc projects, such as third-party contract spend reviews and responses to procurement-related freedom of information requests.

Compliance

You will monitor and review the publication process for Procurement Act 2023 notices, ensuring optimal use of technology and resources. You will publish pipelines of forthcoming procurements for both external audiences and internal reviews.

Systems & Process Improvement

You will lead the delivery and ongoing enhancement of the Council's eTendering system (currently InTend), driving continuous improvement and system innovation. You will ensure provision of succinct guidance materials to empower effective use of procurement systems across HCC.

Supplier & Stakeholder Engagement

You will liaise with prospective suppliers to resolve any eTendering technical issues promptly to ensure a positive supplier experience. You will collaborate with district and borough council procurement officers to foster a coordinated approach to procurement activities across Hertfordshire, including participation in the Supply Hertfordshire forum. You will contribute to any transition activity as part of the Local Government Reorganisation project in collaboration with district and borough colleagues.

Financial Risk & Supplier Monitoring

You will support the provision of financial risk assessments of tenderers' economic and financial standing in a tender evaluation process, through liaison with the relevant finance officers. You will monitor the ongoing economic and financial standing of contracted suppliers, with a focus on key partners.

Team Leadership & Support

You will provide line management and support to a procurement officer within the Information Delivery area, collaboratively working to deliver these objectives. You may on occasion be asked to support the wider Strategic Procurement Group in its other activities, particularly in periods of high work volume and/or resource shortage.

About you

Essential

Qualifications

Educated to degree/HND level (or equivalent); or have 2 'A' levels (or equivalent) combined with at least 2 years relevant work experience

Interpersonal & Communication skills

Ability to influence senior managers internally and externally on projects. Ability to resolve complaints and queries effectively

IT skills

Familiarity with standard IT packages, especially Microsoft Office 365. Ability to use specialist systems supporting procurement and contract activity e.g. Spend Analysis, e-Tendering system, Enterprise Resource Planning and Supplier Financial Risk Assessment Experience of the production of reports and data analysis.

Organisational & Team Management skills

Ability to supervise and motivate team members, identifying priorities, delegating work effectively and ensuring performance. Commitment to working in a collaborative way Demonstrable commitment to staff development

Procurement skills and knowledge

Ability to provide professional advice and leadership to service managers, particularly but not exclusively in relation to procurement systems.

Analytical Skills

Ability to make balanced judgements based on all available information about procurement and contract proposals and options. Provide effective challenge to services about procurement and contract proposals ensuring maximum benefit to the public purse. Ability to interpret financial monitoring reports e.g. from Dun and Bradstreet and escalate to Finance colleagues where necessary.

Commercial awareness

Ability to understand business needs in order to assess, evaluate and recommend options. Ability to demonstrate awareness of wider implications (for example, political, managerial or equal opportunities) of advice/options in relation to procurement.

Problems & Decisions

Ability to provide a resolution based, excellent customer service approach to day-to-day issues arising in the procurement environment. Complex challenges and queries from a variety of sources, internal and external, constructive and adversarial will be encountered.

Desirable

Experience of designing and delivering presentations and/or training Up to date knowledge of local, national and international legislation and rules pertaining to public procurement Experience of running Public Sector procurement exercises

We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role.

How to apply

As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences.

Additional information

Disability Confident

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post.



Job Reference: HCC28934