Senior Procurement - Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom - AQA Recruiting

Description

At AQA, we're committed to advancing education and we're committed to our people.

As the largest provider of academic qualifications in the UK, we mark over seven million GCSEs and A-levels each year and it's our people who make this happen.

Maternity Cover Fixed Term Contract– 12 months
Hybrid working model mix of office and home working during the week
Are you looking to increase your Procurement knowledge and work in both an Indirect and Direct sourcing environment?

This maternity cover contract will open the doors for you to work in a number of categories across the business widening your portfolio of expertise.

This is your chance to work closely with 3 specialist Category Managers, as well as supporting, guiding and leading a team of 2 all under the guidance of the Head of the Procurement department.

Confidence in providing pragmatic and expert advice and guidance to senior managers across the business on procurement related processes and strategies is key.

You'll work on a hybrid working model and one which works for you and the team alike, with the ability to pay up to 7% into your pension and employer contributions up to 11.5% , 25 days annual leave with Christmas on top rising with service, alongside a host of other wellbeing benefits including the Headspace App, Life assurance, PMI and Access to a Health Cash plan as well as a Cycle to Work schemes .

In your role as Procurement Lead you will work with the wider team where last year alone they worked on close to 300 complex contracts across the organisation.

You will work across-section of sectors and suppliers including, Technology, Facilities, HR, Marketing, Events and Operations will form part of your overall responsibility.

Supporting and taking full management responsibility for your team, you will enable a real focus on team development, growth and future succession planning as well as being pivotal in allowing everyone to focus on continuous improvements.

Ensuring crucial coordination of workloads associated with contract reviews, contract builds, benchmarking/RFx exercises and other allocated projects.

A key conduit with the Category Managers, the wider business and external suppliers across the coordination and management of all sourcing-related activities.

Full responsibility for all RFx projects at all level of sourcing suppliers.

You will have oversight and management after briefings from the Category Managers to go to market at pace and review and analyse all viable options.

Provide key and proactive assistance to the Category Managers in the supplier relationship management process and take responsibility for the coordination of meetings and follow-ups.

The supplier relationship management project is crucial to AQA as it ensures that suppliers match their contractual obligations, that risks to AQA are mitigated and the relationship with suppliers is enhanced to ensure we are seen as a partner of choice to companies.

AQA fully utilise contract management software (Jaggear/Bravo/Workday) to enable detailed reviews of contracts, to build contracts, review and formally evaluate RFIs and RFPs, to monitor individual supplier performance (accuracy, productivity, progress and compliance) and to be able to obtain relevant/key reports.

For the next step in your procurement career apply today and tell us about yourself
Internally this role is currently known as a Procurement Support Team Lead
The Senior Sourcing Specialist position is a newly created role within the Sourcing and Supply Management Team.

The key responsibilities will be in providing direct support to the Category Managers as well as the coordination and management of all sourcing-related activities.

The role will enable the Category Managers to enhance their focus on Business/Stakeholder liaison, Category Planning and supplier management. The Sourcing Team will benefit from a greater level of close support, guidance, training and day-to-day management.

The Senior Sourcing Specialist will be key in contributing to the improvement in project delivery timescales and will provide tangible support in helping SSM to deliver the Finance vision and AQA strategy.

As the largest provider of academic qualifications in the UK, we mark over seven million GCSEs and A-levels each year and it's our people who make this happen.

Procurement Lead
Maternity Cover Fixed Term Contract– 12 months
Hybrid working model mix of office and home working during the week
Are you looking to increase your Procurement knowledge and work in both an Indirect and Direct sourcing environment?

This maternity cover contract will open the doors for you to work in a number of categories across the business widening your portfolio of expertise.

This is your chance to work closely with 3 specialist Category Managers, as well as supporting, guiding and leading a team of 2 all under the guidance of the Head of the Procurement department.

Confidence in providing pragmatic and expert advice and guidance to senior managers across the business on procurement related processes and strategies is key.

You'll work on a hybrid working model and one which works for you and the team alike, with the ability to pay up to 7% into your pension and employer contributions up to 11.5% , 25 days annual leave with Christmas on top rising with service, alongside a host of other wellbeing benefits including the Headspace App, Life assurance, PMI and Access to a Health Cash plan as well as a Cycle to Work schemes .

In your role as Procurement Lead you will work with the wider team where last year alone they worked on close to 300 complex contracts across the organisation.

You will work across-section of sectors and suppliers including, Technology, Facilities, HR, Marketing, Events and Operations will form part of your overall responsibility.

Supporting and taking full management responsibility for your team, you will enable a real focus on team development, growth and future succession planning as well as being pivotal in allowing everyone to focus on continuous improvements.

Ensuring crucial coordination of workloads associated with contract reviews, contract builds, benchmarking/RFx exercises and other allocated projects.

A key conduit with the Category Managers, the wider business and external suppliers across the coordination and management of all sourcing-related activities.

Full responsibility for all RFx projects at all level of sourcing suppliers.

You will have oversight and management after briefings from the Category Managers to go to market at pace and review and analyse all viable options.

Provide key and proactive assistance to the Category Managers in the supplier relationship management process and take responsibility for the coordination of meetings and follow-ups.

The supplier relationship management project is crucial to AQA as it ensures that suppliers match their contractual obligations, that risks to AQA are mitigated and the relationship with suppliers is enhanced to ensure we are seen as a partner of choice to companies.

AQA fully utilise contract management software (Jaggear/Bravo/Workday) to enable detailed reviews of contracts, to build contracts, review and formally evaluate RFIs and RFPs, to monitor individual supplier performance (accuracy, productivity, progress and compliance) and to be able to obtain relevant/key reports.

For the next step in your procurement career apply today and tell us about yourself
Internally this role is currently known as a Procurement Support Team Lead
The Senior Sourcing Specialist position is a newly created role within the Sourcing and Supply Management Team.

The key responsibilities will be in providing direct support to the Category Managers as well as the coordination and management of all sourcing-related activities.

The role will enable the Category Managers to enhance their focus on Business/Stakeholder liaison, Category Planning and supplier management. The Sourcing Team will benefit from a greater level of close support, guidance, training and day-to-day management.

The Senior Sourcing Specialist will be key in contributing to the improvement in project delivery timescales and will provide tangible support in helping SSM to deliver the Finance vision and AQA strategy.

On a day-to-day basis, the Senior Sourcing Specialist will be responsible for liaising with the Category Managers, the two-person Sourcing Team and Procurement Administration.

The Sourcing Team will report directly to the Senior Sourcing Specialist. Take full responsibility and be accountable for all sourcing activities, contract reviews and other projects as agreed with the Team Category Managers

The Senior Sourcing Specialist will report directly to the Head of SSM and will be fully accountable for achieving all agreed performance objectives and other requirements.

Provide key and proactive assistance to the Category Managers in the supplier relationship management process and take responsibility for the coordination of meetings and follow-ups.

The supplier relationship management project is crucial to AQA as it ensures that suppliers match their contractual obligations, that risks to AQA are mitigated and the relationship with suppliers is enhanced to ensure we are seen as a partner of choice to companies.

The Category Strategy builds will require spend data analysis, stakeholder analysis, market reviews, supplier research and trend analysis.

The Category Strategies are key to meeting a prime SSM objective in ensuring that they provide comprehensive procurement planning support and guidance to Stakeholders and Department Heads.

The Senior Sourcing Specialist will play a key role in coordinating the timely availability of the required data and other associated information.

Proactively manage all benchmarking projects via the use of the RFI and/or RFP processes.

Take responsibility for and be solely accountable for the completion of each benchmarking project within the agreed objectives and timescales set by the Category Managers.

This involves detailed coordination between the Category Managers, the Sourcing Team, the Procurement Services Team, stakeholders and suppliers.

The Senior Sourcing Specialist role is key in ensuring that responses from colleagues and suppliers via surveys and questionnaires reflect the highest levels of support and service that SSM provide.

Take full management responsibility for the SSM Sourcing Team.

This involves the crucial coordination of the workloads associated with contract reviews, contract builds, benchmarking/RFI/RFP exercises and other allocated projects.

The Sourcing Team members report directly to the Senior Sourcing Specialist, who in turn is tasked with holding weekly meetings with the individual Sourcing Team members.

Be solely accountable for the performance and personal development of the Sourcing Team.

Agreed metrics are applied to the Team's performance and on-going development which in turn form part of the Senior Sourcing Specialist's performance objectives.

Have responsibility in ensuring that the Sourcing Team remain fully compliant with all relevant AQA Policies and SSM processes. Monitoring of compliance is a key on-going requirement and will be subject to both internal and external audits.

In order to coordinate and oversee spend analysis requirements, a knowledge of the suite of reports that can be generated from the Oracle finance software will need to be understood and training obtained from Procurement Services.

The introduction of Workday finance suite in 2023 will require the Senior Sourcing Lead to gain a full understanding of the reports available again via training.

The knowledge of key accounting systems is crucial in the coordination of spend-analysis projects, in understanding the extent of content output and the associated timescales involved in producing reports.

Develop a full understanding of SSM's P2P contract management software (Jaggear/Bravo) to enable detailed reviews of contracts, to build contracts, review and formally evaluate RFIs and RFPs, to monitor individual performance (accuracy, productivity, progress and compliance) and to be able to obtain relevant/key reports.

Provide key support in helping SSM achieve its prime objective of being trusted partners to AQA colleagues, providing procurement expertise in support of business objectives and requirements.

Have a strong procurement background and qualified to at least CIPS4
Confidence in dealing with a cross-section of sectors and suppliers including Technology/IT, Facilities, HR, Marketing, Events and Operations
Strong planning, management and leadership skills demonstrating a positive attitude to change
Experience in providing advice and guidance to senior managers on procurement related matters, acting as an expert point of reference
Self-motivated with the proven ability to achieve performance objectives and exceed expectations
Good interpersonal skills and willing to make a positive contribution to the Team, Department and company's culture

AQA is an independent charity that sets and marks over half of all GCSEs and A-levels in the UK every year.

Our purpose is to advance education by helping students and teachers to realise their potential.

To help drive these ambitions, AQA invests in the development of its people by offering a range of professional development and learning opportunities leading to over 50% of our permanent roles being filled internally.

Please note that Faye will not be able to assist you with enquiries regarding Temporary vacancies or non-recruitment enquiries.

If you have query regarding Temporary vacancies, please contact:

Hybrid Working
We're operating a hybrid working model. This allows for our colleagues to work from two days a week in one of our offices across England.

AQA is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, disability status, citizenship, or any other aspect which makes people unique.

Please note that due to the confidential nature of our work, we are unable to employ people for our temporary roles who are currently a candidate for Key Stage 4 and 5 public examinations.

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