Procurement and Contracts Manager

You will support the vital work of Tate by using your proven ability and experience in public procurement to tender and manage key contracts and support the wider work of the Procurement team in building Tate’s commercial focus and knowledge. You will also use your commercial awareness, stakeholder management and communication skills by leading on procurement processes for a wide range of contracts, and providing balanced, supportive and helpful advice to those managing contracts on behalf of Tate. Using your proactive, professional, and approachable style, you will also contribute to a revamped procurement policy, process and training programme.

The Procurement team works to ensure that Tate obtains best value for money in its purchasing activities and complies with its duties in line with the upcoming Procurement Act 2023. We provide advice on a wide range of topics to colleagues at every single level of the organisation, manage simple and complex tenders from concept to completion, create and update policy and procedure, develop and deliver training and manage many critical internal contracts – so we are a small but busy team! We do all of this in a friendly, approachable, and flexible manner that demonstrates Tate’s values of being Open in our advice giving, Bold in taking decisions and being imaginative in our solutions, Rigorous in ensuring that we are legally compliant, but also in our dealings with suppliers and Kind by giving advice freely and bringing people along with us.

You will gain a wealth of experience dealing with complex and demanding stakeholders, while procuring an incredibly varied range of goods and services. You will also attain a valuable understanding of procurement in the arts and cultural sector.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Manage a portfolio of major contracts across our Estates, Capital and Audiences teams.
• Working closely with the relevant departments, provide contract management support to several of Tate’s most important contracts e.g. Security + Temporary Visitor Assistants, Facilities Management, Cleaning.
• Using the Tate contracts register and other data sources, monitor expenditure and contracting to identify suppliers and contracts that require your intervention e.g. re-tendering, negotiation, contract management.
• Consider, strive for, and attempt to achieve ‘Value for Money’ in all procurement processes, whether these are resource savings or cost savings.
• Provide advice to colleagues on procurement best practice e.g. specification drafting, tender writing and contractual forms, and review documentation for its suitability.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of Tate’s procurement policies and procedures, with the new Procurement Bill and Tate’s commitment to reducing carbon footprint in mind.
• Develop and provide training to internal stakeholders on Procurement best practice.
• Lead the procurement process for tender exercises from commencement to completion, based on a category management plan.
• Deputise for the Head of Procurement from time to time e.g. by representing Procurement at meetings with internal stakeholders and external stakeholders such as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

What you will bring to the team:

• An in-depth knowledge of Public Sector tendering and procurement, and interest in public procurement policy.
• MCIPS qualified or working towards or equivalent work experience.
• The ability to independently work to deadlines, in an environment where these are often determined by internal stakeholders, while managing your own time.
• An advanced level of commercial awareness which you will use to provide clear, concise and friendly advice to Tate colleagues.
• Extensive experience of tendering complex service requirements, and ideally recent experience of tendering any of Estates, Facilities, Capital or Security.
• Rigorous attention to detail.
• Excellent verbal and written communications, including an ability to distil complex topics into plain English.
• Able to build constructive working relationships with colleagues of all levels, with experience of selling the benefits of Procurement amongst a wide range of stakeholder viewpoints.
• A track record of understanding and mitigating the legal and financial risks relating to Procurement and Contracting, gained from recent experience.
• A proactive, problem-solving attitude, with an inclination to independently develop and propose new ideas that would benefit the team.
• An interest in and commitment to the work of Tate.
• Experience of creating an inclusive and respectful culture within a team and applying the principles of diversity and inclusion in building and maintaining relationships with colleagues and external stakeholders.