Senior Buyer

Working at the helm of an exciting procurement transformation and reporting/aligned to a Head of Category, you’ll provide procurement and sourcing expertise and execution capacity to support effective management of Serco’s spend and supply base for a range of categories that could include: Hard FM & Engineering, IT, Customer & Professional Services or Soft FM.

The Senior Buyer mandates form part of a number of roles Procurement Heads is recruiting on behalf of Serco and is part of its ongoing procurement evolution; Serco’s Chief Procurement Officer Gavin Boswell said:

“Procurement at Serco has come a long way over the past 5 years. We already contribute to business success by helping grow both the top and bottom line through supporting new business development and delivering cost efficiencies while protecting Serco from risk, delivering on sustainability, and driving operational excellence. And building on a platform of success, we’re now embarking on the next exciting phase in our Procurement evolution by investing in building capabilities and developing talent to increase internal collaboration and drive more strategic relationships with key suppliers. Our ambition is to deliver Procurement with impact on people, place, planet and profit, and so helping Serco to impact a better future.”

The role will see you aligned to one of Serco’s offices in either Hook, London or Solihull (location dependent) and the working pattern is very agile with most employees typically going into the office 2-8x/month.

As Senior Buyer your key responsibilities will be:

• Planning and managing delivery of procurement projects (>£250k) ensuring compliance to Sourcing & Category Management processes and governance
• Supporting Category Managers in the delivery of large, complex procurement projects (>£1m)
• Directing, overseeing and supporting Buyers in the delivery of procurement projects
• Reviewing and analysing business purchase needs to determine the best procurement strategy to meet requirements in line with any relevant category strategies
• Driving compliance to the use of existing preferred suppliers wherever preferred suppliers are able to meet the purchase need and provide value for money
• Conducting market analysis to identify and source potential suppliers, ensuring appropriate qualification and due diligence is completed
• Participating in global category communities of practice to share category insights and best practices globally
• Maximising competitive sourcing opportunities wherever possible
• Obtaining stakeholder input to the development of statements of works/requirements
• Collaborating with Category Managers to ensure alignment with category strategy during the sourcing of suppliers
• Determining and developing the RFx approach for supplier selection
• Developing RFx documentation and RFx evaluation models prior to RFx publication
• Publishing the RFx to bidders and managing the RFx process (bidder questions, bidder submissions, evaluation & shortlisting)
• Providing RFx event support to Category Managers including advice and support in the creation and management of sourcing events
• Negotiating and agreeing best pricing and terms and conditions with selected suppliers using the Legal Empowerment toolkit and with support from Group/BU Legal as required
• Leading the drafting of contracts based on standard templates and with reference to the Legal Empowerment toolkit, consulting Group/BU Legal as required
• Managing contract approval and signature processes in line with delegated authorities and standard operating procedures
• Working with the Procurement Buying Support Team to ensure that supplier, contract and catalogue data is correctly set-up and maintained
• Producing Procurement governance documents, representing projects at PLRT and ensure pipeline tracking is kept up to date
• Reporting savings in line with established Procurement savings methodologies
• Maintaining a strong understanding and knowledge of the Legal Empowerment toolkit for Procurement and any relevant legal and regulatory developments
• Proactively developing, building and maintaining productive working relationships with key business partners and suppliers
• Managing all processes in line with the SMS, Procurement Operating Model, Key Performance Indicators and SLAs/OLAs

Skills and experience:

• Has the Leadership Behaviours & Capabilities stated as most critical to this role
• Graduate calibre with Bachelor’s degree preferably in Business (or other related degree) or CIPS qualified or working towards CIPS qualification
• At least 4 years’ experience working in Procurement
• Enthusiastic and quick learner with an aspiration to build a career in Procurement
• A self-starter able to identify and deliver improvements and enhanced value
• Able to work collaboratively with colleagues and independently as required
• Working knowledge of category management, strategic sourcing and contract management
• Working knowledge and practical experience of using eSourcing systems to run sourcing events (preferable)
• Organised with ability to multi-task, prioritise and manage workload effectively and efficiently to produce quality deliverables within required timescales
• Able to work at a fast pace and maintain attention to detail
• Possesses strong communication skills
• Demonstrates resilience and an ability to remain calm under pressure
• Good desktop computing skills, particularly MS Excel and MS PowerPoint and the ability to learn Serco applications such as SMART, Power BI  

Benefits of the Senior Buyer role include:

• £44-52,000
• 6% matched pension
• Life assurance
• 25 days annual leave