Category Specialist - IT

Description:

Category Specialist - IT

Reference Number - 79082

This Category Specialist - IT will report to the Procurement Category Lead (IT) and will work within the Commercial Services directorate based in our London, Crawley or Bury St Edmunds office. You will be a permanent employee.

You will attract a salary depending on your experience and a bonus of 7.5%. This role can also offer blended working after probationary period (6 months) - 3 days in the office and 2 remote

Close Date: 09/06/2024

We also provide the following additional benefits

Annual Leave
Personal Pension Plan - Personal contribution rates of 4% or 5% (UK Power Networks will make a corresponding contribution of 8% or 10%)
Tenancy Loan Deposit scheme
Tax efficient benefits: cycle to work scheme
Season ticket loan
Occupational Health support
Switched On - scheme providing discount on hundreds of retailers products.
Discounted access to sports and social clubs
Employee Assistance Programme.Job Purpose:

UK Power Networks is looking for a procurement professional. You will support the Indirect Procurement Category Lead (IT), you will be a professional member of a CIPS Platinum accredited procurement team with an important role to play in delivering a world class procurement service.

This is a new role within an established team of category specialists. Initially, the main focus of this role will be to support the procurement requirements of UK Power Networks Cyber Security team, but there is scope for this to develop and change over time depending on our requirements.

You will use professional experience alongside industry best practice to accomplish positive outcomes, supporting the business to achieve its Vision to be: an Employer of Choice, a Respected & Trusted Corporate Citizen, Sustainably Cost-efficient and, Ensuring the Net Zero Transition for All.

We are looking for:

Dynamic approach to procurement to challenge and influence senior partners.
Operate independently whilst complying with corporate and regulatory governance requirements and legislation.
Identify opportunities for cost reduction and performance improvement within the category.

End-to-end tender experience and partner engagement skills are important alongside a commercial acumen, a continuous improvement mind set. Experience of IT procurement is preferred but not essential.

Dimensions:

Annual Budget: Circa £50 million of procurement portfolio spend per annum

Staff: No direct staff but may have responsibility for managing Commercial

Graduates as and when placed in the Procurement Function

Principal Accountabilities:

To safely engage and work throughout our business and beyond in a manner that embraces our values and aspirations. Manage compliance to all business, governance and legislative policies.

Category Management

Provide category and strategic sourcing expertise including running end-to-end tenders.
To work with the cyber security team to deliver a pipeline of procurement activities to help UKPN to align with the NCSC enhanced profile Cyber Assessment Framework.
Engage with partners to establish clear needs, apply forward thinking skills to set near and long term category strategies. Implement strategic and complex sourcing activities utilising multiple market approach tools; RFX, e-sourcing
Utilise varied and complex data sets to identify new opportunities to guide benefits throughout the contracts lifecycle
Evaluate and apply the concept of total cost of ownership (TCO) and supplier and contract switching costs to support decision making options
Maximise the effectiveness of category management by allowing the optimisation of the UK Power Networks vendor database based upon value and risk mitigation
You will manage innovation and knowledge management for the cyber security category portfolio

Commercial Negotiation

You can apply commercial and legal concepts to successful negotiation and contract development.
Establish structured negotiation strategies with clarity of desired outcomes, leveraging partner input and support
Develop negotiation strategies and work with stakeholder to meet their requirements.
Identify and secure saving opportunities

Supplier Relationship Management

Identify important suppliers and create appropriate engagement plans to mitigate Supply Chain risks
Demonstrate a collaborative approach with supply base and develop integrated plans to guide appropriate value for business and customer requirements
Build appropriate supplier performance measurements (KPIs) into contractual frameworks.

Systems and Analytics

Understand the reporting from different ERP systems such as SAP, Power BI etc
Understand how to analyse large data sets and extract information for strategic decision making
Responsible for accurate administration for in-category activities and ensures that all related data is up to date

SKILLS, QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPEREINCE:

Bachelor's degree required; supply chain, finance, business, operations, construction management or engineering.
Experience in strategic sourcing, contract negotiations and vendor management. Preferably including exposure to IT & Cyber Security, but not essential.
Work with other teams to support and important goals for your stakeholder.
Willingness to knowledge-share in areas of expertise within the team.
An equivalent combination of education and extensive subject matter expertise along with procurement experience may be accepted as a satisfactory substitute for the specific education requirements listed above
Either have or working towards MCIPS, plus any other relevant professional certifications nice to have.

Health & Safety Responsibilities

Managers and supervisors carry both legal and company responsibilities for ensuring the health and safety of their employees, those under their control and those who might be affected by the work undertaken, i.e. public, visitors and employees of other organisations. This includes briefing individuals working for them and ensuring there is the necessary understanding, competence and application of requirements to work safely and without harming the environment.

Employees will ensure they understand the health and safety risks involved in their work activities and their responsibility to apply the controls needed to manage those risks to acceptable levels. Similarly where work activities can have an adverse impact upon the environment, and where there are legal requirements, employees will understand those impacts and the controls they must ensure are applied.

If in doubt ask!

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace