Senior Commercial and Procurement Officer in Kent

3 x 1-year fixed term posts available. Kent County Council's Commercial and Procurement Division is driven by its mission to ensure the Council is delivering "best value" for residents across £1.2b of annual contracted spend. By "best value", we mean much more than value for money and delivering savings; we are committed to delivering wider social, environmental, and economic benefits to Kent communities, and supporting the Kent economy.

We are looking for ambitious and motivated professionals to join our division as Senior Commercial and Procurement Officers in the People category, which covers Adult Social Care; Children's and Young Persons; Integrated Health including Public Health and Families; and Communities and Education services, at a particularly exciting time. The People category accounts for over £850m spend under management. Commercial and procurement staff within the team work to support commissioning colleagues operating in a dynamic, challenging market, where no two days are the same. We are currently undertaking a challenging programme of procurements, establishing frameworks for key services, with a combined lifetime value of over £5b.

Role Responsibility

As a Senior Commercial Officer, you will be responsible for providing professional commercial and procurement expertise, advice and guidance, using a risk-based approach, to assist stakeholders to plan, develop, source, and manage procurement arrangements, to effectively meet organisational and business objectives. You will be key to ensuring the major procurements within the programme of work are delivered successfully. As such, you will be expected to attend the office in Maidstone at least one day per week, with extra days dependent on project requirements. You will be supporting the procuring and subsequent letting of all category contracts in compliance with the Procurement Act 2023, the Healthcare Service (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023 and the Council's Spending the Councils Money policy.

Qualifications

To join us, you will have achieved CIPS level 5, or be able to demonstrate a commitment to work towards this level, and have previous commercial or procurement experience either in the private or public sector. You will have an excellent work ethic, be organised, and be able to manage multiple projects. You will demonstrate strong procurement knowledge to support clients in delivering their commercial pipeline. You will have excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to communicate effectively and build relationships with internal stakeholders and suppliers. You will have the ability to research, analyse and interpret data/information to support the development of procurement plans and category strategies. In this role, each day will offer a chance to build on your experience and skills which will help shape the future of Kent.

Employment Information

Kent County Council is a fully inclusive employer, and we take our values and behaviours very seriously; we are looking for employees who are equally passionate about the right values and behaviours. The Council has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Contact Details

For further information regarding this role, please contact: Alan Luke - 03000 412315 / alan.luke@kent.gov.uk

About the Company

KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, faiths and those with caring responsibilities, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.