Procurement Specialist - Salford - Trinity Bridge House

About the job

Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you’re seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.

We don’t think of ourselves simply as an administrator of taxes: in terms of revenues collected, HMRC is larger than the world’s biggest multinational corporation. Every additional £1 we secure - whether through commercial savings or counter evasion measures, for example - is another £1 that can be spent on essential public services.

The importance of HMRC and its role in enabling essential public services has been reflected in the recent Spending Review settlement of approximately £7 billion per annum for each of the next three financial years, making this an exciting time to join the Department.

In joining the commercial team at HMRC you will be enabling a programme of radical transformation across HMRC, including Estates and IT, which will create the UK’s future tax administration. This includes transforming one of the largest and most complex IT landscapes in financial services.

Join HMRC's Commercial Directorate. HMRC's Commercial Directorate covers the whole procurement lifecycle. We are split into Pre Award (Category and Sourcing) and Commercial Contract Management and we have roles in a number of our teams.

Broadly our categories are:

• IT Applications and Infrastructure
• People & Professional Services
• Corporate Services and Property

We also have a new team - Central Commercial Activity. They will deliver centralised activity of typically simpler procurements to drive improved demand management, effective and efficient ways of working and opportunities to support improved learning and development of talent.

We are recruiting for multiple Procurement Specialist roles (Senior Executive Officer) across HMRC's Commercial Directorate. Our current vacancies are in Pre Award IT Applications and Infrastructure teams, Corporate Services & Property (CS&P), People & Professional Services (P&PS), Corporate Services, and IT Contract Management and Central Commercial Activity Team.

These roles offer a unique opportunity to shape and deliver high-value, complex commercial strategies that support HMRC's transformation agenda and ensure value for money across a £2.5bn portfolio of annual external spend.

Your specific responsibilities will depend on which team you join but all include collaborating with internal stakeholders, implementing procurement or contract management strategies and delivering either end-to-end procurements for a range of goods and services across high-profile third-party spend areas or managing the contracts within those portfolios.

Key Responsibilities:

Pre Award:

• Maintain and proactively manage a pipeline of contracts within the assigned category portfolio, ensuring timely renewals, sourcing activities, and alignment with strategic objectives.
• Work closely with business stakeholders in designing fit for purpose and market-facing specifications and award criteria so that HMRC can optimise the value in the competitive marketplace.
• Work closely with the supplier market and HMRC business areas to create effective category strategies.
• Apply knowledge and expertise of relevant commercial approaches and routes to market.
• Develop contractual documentation to support the customer’s requirements, including performance management regimes.
• Manage the procurement process, including the evaluation and moderation of bids and support commercial governance where required.
• Use HMRC's e-sourcing tool to build and run sourcing events.
• Ensure statements of work are drafted and executed in compliance with regulations and best practice through assurance activities to maximise cost-effectiveness.
• Operate as a business partner with stakeholders to support building requirements that suppliers can understand and respond to effectively.
• Lead, manage and motivate team members.

Contract Management:

• Create and deliver Contract Management Strategies that fulfil business requirements and deliver value for money.
• Provide advice in the development and amendment to Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators and track performance against contractual obligations.
• Actively manage complex contracts, ensuring performance standards are achieved, reducing risk and maximising benefit realisation. Leading or supporting in-life negotiations.
• Support business stakeholders delivering benefits and savings to central government, including open book contract management.
• Advise business stakeholders on the impact of commercial/contract commitments and acting as an escalation route for them on supplier performance issues, engaging legal advice as necessary.
• Support business stakeholders to develop and maintain successful, long term, strategic relationships with our suppliers.
• Lead, manage and motivate team members.

Central Commercial Activity Team:

• Maintain and proactively manage a pipeline of contracts within the agreed portfolio, ensuring timely renewals and sourcing activities to align with strategic objectives across all categories.
• Delivering a high volume and 'at pace' pipeline of typically lower value and lower risk procurements mainly through framework call offs and mini competitions to operationalise and optimise delivery and drive innovation in our demand management of the pipeline.
• Work closely with business stakeholders and pre award in designing fit for purpose and market-facing specifications and award criteria so that HMRC can optimise the value in the competitive marketplace.
• Manage the procurement process, including the evaluation and moderation of bids and support commercial governance where required.
• Use HMRC's e-sourcing tool to build and run sourcing events.
• Work collaboratively as a team member, managing surge capacity, flexing across categories and providing leadership as required across the wider Commercial Activity Team.

Person specification:

We are looking for commercial professionals who are capable of working in a challenging and complex environment. Ideally, you’ll be experienced in delivering the end-to-end procurement and/or contract management processes within a public sector or regulated environment, have strong project management skills and a proactive, solutions-focused mindset. You will have high-level analytical and problem-solving skills, and strong written and verbal communication skills.

Essential Criteria:

• Experience in category, sourcing or contract management roles, with a track record of delivering procurements on time and to business needs and/or managing a range of contracts which deliver critical goods and services to business customers.
• Strong skills in drafting and reviewing contractual requirements and specifications.
• Experience developing and reviewing commercial terms, with a focus on stakeholder support and supplier engagement.
• Confident communicator with the ability to influence and build relationships across internal teams, suppliers, and senior stakeholders.
• Flexible and collaborative, with experience managing competing priorities and working across teams.
• Knowledge of relevant procurement legislation (e.g. PCR 2015, Procurement Act 2023), and appropriate qualifications:
• CIPS Level 4 (minimum) and working towards Level 5/6 or MCIPS/equivalent or significant relevant experience.

Benefits:

Alongside your salary of £45,544, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £13,194 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs. We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days. Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues' Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary. Family friendly policies. Personal support. Coaching and development.