Procurement Manager in London

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.

Contract Type: Indefinite

Location: London, Manchester, Cardiff, Belfast, and Edinburgh (All offices in the UK)

Closing date: 25th July 2024 at 23:59

Benefits:

• 32 days annual leave, in addition to public holidays.
• 3 days volunteering leave.
• Career average defined benefit pension scheme.

You must have the legal right to work in the UK at the time of application. There is no relocation or sponsorship support.

British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service. This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.

About the role:

Join our dynamic Global Procurement team, where you'll be part of clusters led by experienced Senior Procurement Managers. Your role involves executing sourcing plans and driving procurement projects within your assigned cluster. Effective stakeholder engagement, whether local or global, will be key as you contribute to enhancing procurement processes and efficiency.

Main Responsibilities:

• Builds an in-depth understanding of the specific operational context, opportunities and challenges facing their internal customer(s) to ensure the provision of procedural advice and support based on informed business insight.
• Pro-actively seeks internal customer and other stakeholder feedback to monitor satisfaction with the standard of functional advice and business support provided, enabling improvements to be made where issues are identified.
• Applies core technical/professional knowledge, recognised best practice approaches and insight from previous experience to resolve non-standard issues which arise in the provision of functional support to a specific organisational unit or area of corporate activity.
• Within their area of technical/professional expertise, identifies opportunities for procedural improvements within established policies and determines the most appropriate mechanisms and processes for implementing those changes.
• Demonstrates awareness of relevant governance arrangements that relate to making system or procedural changes.
• Makes technical/professional recommendations to resolve specific or localised issues but also offers ideas which contribute to the development of wider solutions to broader business challenges and problems.
• Provides pro-active professional advice and support to internal customers to ensure local or unit-specific business practices within their area of functional expertise are high quality, effective and compliant with relevant corporate policies.
• Completes an annual cycle of formally recognised Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to maintain and deepen their professional expertise.
• Uses a variety of information resources and professional networks to maintain up-to-date knowledge of developments in external policy, practice, and regulation within their professional discipline.
• Using agreed corporate systems and processes, plans and manages the budget for their area of activity/service provision, and conducts monthly and year-end reporting on income and expenditure, profitability, and risk.
• Shows an understanding of value for money/cost effectiveness in the advice, recommendations or service support provided to internal customers.
• Applies good judgment in a commercial context.
• Develops good working relationships with appropriate colleagues throughout the British Council and in the relevant functional discipline to know who to engage with to enable effective implementation of procedural changes and improvements.
• Builds a network of with external suppliers/providers/contacts to support effective service provision and knowledge exchange.
• Plans and prioritises own work activities to ensure effective delivery of diverse responsibilities and internal customer deliverables over a monthly to quarterly time horizon.
• May act as formal line manager to a small team of para-professionals, working within the same (or related) area of functional expertise, responsible for their annual work plans and deliverables.

Minimum/essential requirements:

• Extensive experience of working in a similar role at a similar level managing procurement projects or procurement teams.
• Experience in leading and managing effective negotiations.
• In-depth understanding of procurement processes and complex competitive bidding.
• Good understanding of procurement project delivery, including Supplier Relationship Management.
• Good business understanding across industry.
• Understands and has used a variety of pricing models and tools.
• Understands legal and operational risks.
• Undergraduate degree holder or has relevant experience in procurement.
• Qualified member of a professions body, e.g. CIPS or other relevant body or equivalent experience.
• The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English at level B2 is required (if invited to interview, this will be entirely in English with an interview panel).

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.