Tactical Buyer in Oxford

Join us at EIT: At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we’re on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you’ll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society.

Your Role: At EIT we are seeking a Tactical Buyer who will play a pivotal role in delivering a responsive, efficient, and user-focused procurement service across EIT, with an initial and primary focus on supporting the Generative Biology Institute (GBI). Working closely with scientific and operational teams, the role manages the full end‑to‑end procurement process, ensuring purchasing activity is timely, accurate, and well controlled, while minimising disruption to day‑to‑day work. Although the primary focus will be GBI, the role will also provide procurement support across other EIT programmes as required.

As a central point of contact for both internal requesters and external suppliers, the Tactical Buyer ensures clear communication, smooth execution of transactions, and strong adherence to process. The role also contributes to the ongoing improvement of procurement practices, with a focus on enhancing efficiency and the overall user experience.

Your Responsibilities:

• End-to-End Procurement Delivery
  • Manage the full procurement lifecycle from requisition through to payment
  • Create and validate requisitions and purchase orders (POs), ensuring accuracy and completeness
  • Issue POs to suppliers and manage order confirmations
  • Coordinate goods receipt and support invoice processing
  • Resolve transactional issues to ensure timely order fulfilment and payment
• Stakeholder Support (GBI-focused)
  • Act as the primary point of contact for procurement queries, particularly for GBI stakeholders
  • Provide clear, practical guidance on procurement processes and requirements
  • Ensure requests are complete and aligned to approved suppliers and processes
  • Work proactively to minimise delays and support critical scientific timelines
• Supplier & Order Management
  • Place orders and manage supplier communications through to delivery
  • Monitor order progress, confirming timelines and addressing delays where needed
  • Maintain effective working relationships with suppliers to support reliable delivery
  • Ensure alignment between supplier commitments and internal expectations
• Order Tracking & Communication
  • Track orders through to completion, maintaining clear visibility of status
  • Provide timely updates to stakeholders on progress, risks, or delays
  • Escalate issues early and coordinate resolution with relevant parties
  • Support the development of improved tracking and reporting mechanisms
• Supplier Onboarding Support
  • Assist with supplier onboarding activities, including documentation and tracking
  • Liaise with suppliers and internal teams to ensure timely completion of onboarding requirements
  • Help improve visibility and efficiency of onboarding processes
• Issue Resolution
  • Support resolution of invoice and order-related discrepancies (e.g. pricing, missing POs, receipts)
  • Work closely with Finance, suppliers, and stakeholders to resolve issues efficiently
  • Ensure issues are closed out promptly to avoid disruption to operations
• Continuous Improvement
  • Identify recurring issues and inefficiencies in procurement processes
  • Contribute to process improvements, standardisation, and better ways of working
  • Support initiatives that enhance service quality, speed, and transparency

Requirements

Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• Experience in procurement, purchasing, or supply chain operations
• Strong attention to detail and ability to manage multiple requests simultaneously
• Experience working with purchase orders, requisitions, and supplier coordination
• Strong communication skills with both internal stakeholders and external suppliers
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, service-oriented environment

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Experience in a research, laboratory, or science-led environment
• Familiarity with Oracle Fusion
• Experience supporting supplier onboarding processes
• Exposure to invoice and Accounts Payable query resolution

Benefits

We offer the following salary and benefits:

• Competitive salary + travel allowance + bonus
• Enhanced holiday pay. Our annual leave allowance is 25 days plus 8 bank holidays and an additional 3 days between Christmas and New Year. You will also have the opportunity to purchase an additional 5 days annual leave in January and July.
• Pension - Employer contribution 7.5%, minimum employee contribution 5%
• Life Assurance.
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance as standard for you, your partner and any dependents. Including hospital Cash Plan
• Employee discounts
• Electric car scheme
• Nursery Salary Sacrifice scheme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Family Planning
• Neurodiversity support including advice and assessments
• Coaching & Therapy services

Working Together – What It Involves:

You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. In certain cases, we can consider sponsorship, and this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford (or be willing to relocate).