Procurement Specialist

About the Role:

We are seeking a highly skilled Procurement Manager to join our dynamic Global Procurement team at the British Council. As a key member of our team, you will be responsible for executing sourcing plans and driving procurement projects within your assigned cluster.

Main Responsibilities:

• Builds an in-depth understanding of the specific operational context, opportunities, and challenges facing internal customers to ensure the provision of procedural advice and support based on informed business insight.
• Pro-actively seeks internal customer and other stakeholder feedback to monitor satisfaction with the standard of functional advice and business support provided, enabling improvements to be made where issues are identified.
• Applies core technical/professional knowledge, recognised best practice approaches, and insight from previous experience to resolve non-standard issues which arise in the provision of functional support to a specific organisational unit or area of corporate activity.
• Within their area of technical/professional expertise, identifies opportunities for procedural improvements within established policies and determines the most appropriate mechanisms and processes for implementing those changes.
• Demonstrates awareness of relevant governance arrangements that relate to making system or procedural changes.
• Makes technical/professional recommendations to resolve specific or localised issues but also offers ideas which contribute to the development of wider solutions to broader business challenges and problems.
• Provides pro-active professional advice and support to internal customers to ensure local or unit-specific business practices within their area of functional expertise are high quality, effective, and compliant with relevant corporate policies.
• Completes an annual cycle of formally recognised Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to maintain and deepen their professional expertise.
• Uses a variety of information resources and professional networks to maintain up-to-date knowledge of developments in external policy, practice, and regulation within their professional discipline.
• Using agreed corporate systems and processes, plans and manages the budget for their area of activity/service provision, and conducts monthly and year-end reporting on income and expenditure, profitability, and risk.
• Shows an understanding of value for money/cost effectiveness in the advice, recommendations, or service support provided to internal customers.
• Applies good judgment in a commercial context.
• Develops good working relationships with appropriate colleagues throughout the British Council and in the relevant functional discipline to know who to engage with to enable effective implementation of procedural changes and improvements.
• Builds a network of with external suppliers/providers/contacts to support effective service provision and knowledge exchange.
• Plans and prioritises own work activities to ensure effective delivery of diverse responsibilities and internal customer deliverables over a monthly to quarterly time horizon.
• May act as formal line manager to a small team of para-professionals, working within the same (or related) area of functional expertise, responsible for their annual work plans and deliverables.

Minimum/essential requirements:

• Extensive experience of working in a similar role at a similar level managing procurement projects or procurement teams.
• Experience in leading and managing effective negotiations.
• In-depth understanding of procurement processes and complex competitive bidding.
• Good understanding of procurement project delivery, including Supplier Relationship Management.
• Good business understanding across industry.
• Understands and has used a variety of pricing models and tools.
• Understands legal and operational risks.
• Undergraduate degree holder or has relevant experience in procurement.
• Qualified member of a professions body, e.g. CIPS or other relevant body or equivalent experience.
• The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English at level B2 is required.