Commercial Practitioner - Category Manager

About the job

Summary

Our Category Manager position provides an excellent opportunity for candidates with a background in procurement and buying, or those looking to grow their overall Category Management experience, to develop their skills across the end to end Procurement Process and develop a career as a Category Manager within the Department for Education.

Job description

As a Category Manager you will be delivering the best possible commercial outcomes for children, young people and the education system influencing a budget of over £22 billion.

Working as a Category Manager you could be responsible for any aspect or all of the process from market engagement and sourcing through to contract management. Under the guidance of a Category Manager Commercial Lead you will have real opportunities to develop and influence DfE commercial projects.

You will be joining us at an exciting time as we introduce Category Management and invest our resources into growing new teams. It's a great time to join us to help shape our future success.

As a Procurement Professional, you will support one of the following key category areas. If your experience has been gained predominately in other sectors / categories we would welcome your application.

• ESFA - Education and Skills Funding Agency Category
• SCMD - Social Care, Mobility, and Disadvantage Category
• HEFE - Higher Education and Further Education Category
• EYSG - Early Years Schools Group Category
• Operations - Digital / IT, Professional Services and Corporate Operations
• Schools Commercial - National and Tailored Services

This post may also attract a procurement allowance of £1,500 per annum for successful applicants holding the CIPS foundation qualification or £4,000 per annum for successful applicants holding the full MCIPS qualification.

Responsibilities
Reporting to the Commercial Lead, you will be responsible for:

• Key elements of the end-to-end commercial lifecycle, which could include pre-market engagement, sourcing, contract award and contract management.
• Managing a range of commercial projects ranging in value, individually and as part of a commercial project team.
• Proactively lead, support and challenge stakeholders throughout thecommercial life cycle.
• Maintaining a category pipeline to allow commercial support to start in good time to ensure a full range of commercial options can be considered.
• Understand the supply market, category, and business context to inform and deliver the commercial strategy.
• Championing commercial capability throughout the Department and across wider stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of category management.
• Contributing to the development of the category savings plan and ensuring savings are realised and tracked.
• Using an e-procurement system to effectively manage and track Procurement and end to end category management activity.
• Complying fully with public procurement law, DFE commercial procedure, policy, and assurance processes.

Essential:

• Evidence of leading and securing value for money in a commercial environment.
• Experience of analysing complex information to make informed commercial decisions.
• Evidence of influencing key stakeholders towards commercial solutions whilst delivering our business strategy.
• Evidence of applying effective communication skills to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Experience of successfully supporting the delivery of commercial strategies.
• Evidence of managing projects to deliver commercial outcomes

Desirable:

• Ideally MCIPS preferred although not essential.

Alternatively,

• Experience within a procurement and/or commercial or buying role.
• Expected to work towards a MCIPS qualification upon commencing post.
• A track record in achieving strong results through building capability of yourself and others within the commercial function.
• Experience of successfully managing risk, mitigations and trade-offs.

For further Information regarding the Post, Application Process and associated Terms and Conditions, Click Apply and refer to the attached Candidate Pack