Procurement and Contract Manager

Location: Sutton, Surrey, SM1

Salary: Grade PO4, FTE £46,038 to £49,077 per annum, inclusive of London Weighting Allowance

The College and Academy Trust is a family of specialist education providers for over 1500 pupils and students from nursery to further education across 14 academies and 8 college centres in London, Surrey, Sussex and Berkshire. Supporting their academies and college, they also operate learning support, such as nursing and therapy, and business support services.

Pupils and students within the College and Academy Trust family have a wide range of learning abilities and additional needs including autistic spectrum disorder; speech, language and communication difficulties; social, emotional and mental health; profound and multiple disabilities; and physical disabilities including multi-sensory impairment and complex health needs.

The College and Academy Trust is a rewarding and inspirational place to work, where everyone works together to create the best possible outcomes for students.

The Role

The Procurement & Contract Manager is primarily responsible for supporting (in conjunction with the Head of Procurement) the delivery of the procurement strategy including best practices, tools, guidance and support aligned to business and operational requirements.

Primarily, you will be responsible for formal tendering and purchasing for Estates and Facilities Management including capital works projects and expanding their Preferred Supplier List. Using your solid expertise, you will lead on various initiatives, delivering exceptional levels of customer service, adding value and driving and realising savings. As you will be part of a small team, there will be a need to “muck-in” and work on other projects / issues as become necessary from time-to-time.

You must have a forward-thinking, open style coupled with a positive personality that will allow you to engage with senior managers across the Trust. You will be working with external Contractors staff when managing or overseeing contract performance and compliance with SLAs and KPIs.

This is a hands-on role, with the ability to turn your hand to numerous tasks, as well as being able to function with the minimum of supervision.

You must:

have excellent communication skills to be able to seek solutions, as well as identifying new ways of working and continuous improvement involving key stakeholders.
be a member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply or be working towards being MCIPS qualified.
have strong public sector procurement and contract management experience ideally from the education sector (but this is not strictly necessary).
be highly competent at MS Word, Excel, and Outlook and have worked with e-Tendering platforms: The College and Academy Trust currently uses MyTender.
be able to undertake benchmarking, detailed financial & spend analysis and be experienced at completing due diligence checks.
be able to lead on end-to-end procurement processes (ITTs) and you will also have knowledge of the upcoming Procurement Act 2024.

Skills and Qualifications

Procurement and contract management experience
GCSE Maths grade A-C or equivalent & GCSE English grade A-C or equivalent
Experience of working in an educational establishment or public sector environment
Extensive experience of sourcing and tendering goods and services
Extensive experience of using eTendering platforms
Ability to undertake detailed financial analysis and due diligence checks
Able to undertake benchmarking, market review and market engagement.
Competent IT skills in particular MS Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Outlook
Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to engage at all levels.
Strong commercial acumen with significant experience of managing multiple commercial contracts.
Experience of undertaking spend analysis and ascertaining opportunities for procurement activity to release value

To Apply

If you feel you are a suitable candidate and would like to work for this reputable College and Academy Trust, please click apply to be redirected to their website to complete your application.

Closing Date: 12 noon on Friday 20th September 2024

Interview Date: Thursday 26th September 2024 via MS Teams

Please note that they reserve the right to close this advert early if a suitable candidate is found, so we would encourage interested candidates to apply early.

The College and Academy Trust are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Appointments made will be subject to an Enhanced Disclosure via the Disclosure and Barring Service.

This post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975, 2013 and 2020.