Senior Purchasing Specialist – Indirect Procurement

Michael Page
A fantastic opportunity to join BWPC as a Senior Purchasing Specialist
Offers agile/hybrid working approach
About Our Client

The team at Bristol and Weston NHS Purchasing Consortium (BWPC) delivers procurement services to the two large acute NHS Trusts in Bristol, North Bristol NHS Trust & University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust. This includes the development and delivery of their procurement strategies, offering procurement advice and delivering cost savings through sustainable procurement on an annual spend of circa £600m.

BWPC are proud to feature amongst their clients two of the largest NHS Acute Trusts in the UK, with a combined total of over 2,300 patient beds, 21,000 staff and offering a wider range of goods and services. BWPC’s future vision is to grow the portfolio of their clients to support other health and social care providers in the region. BWPC are already supporting regional procurement activities, working to ensure our local health and welfare providers are able to deliver whole system cost reductions, whilst ensuring an optimised service delivery.

The team at BWPC work closely with both clinical and non-clinical facing colleagues and strive to develop collaborative working partnerships to help all stakeholders deliver great patient care through robust procurement of good and services and works. Collaborative working with both trusts and other organisations brings economies of scale, sharing of data and best practice to maximise value and efficiencies for our clients.

Job Description

The Indirect category team is the largest spend category within BWPC. Its remit primarily focuses on Soft and Hard FM, Estates/Capital Estates and Financial Services requirements, in addition to all Workforce related demand including, but not limited to Agency, Recruitment, Training etc.

Reporting to the Category Manager, the Senior Purchasing Specialist is a key member of the team and integral to the success and the delivery of the overall Category Strategy and associated pipelines.

In addition to typically managing complex, high value procurements through to contract finalisation, this Senior Purchasing Specialist shall act as a deputy for the Category Manager when required, in both internal and external meetings, as well as resolving ad hoc queries that may arise, while also managing and supporting more junior members of the team.

The key focus for the next 12-24 months, shall be to significantly improve the compliance requirements under their remit of responsibility, while developing collaborative relationships with key stakeholders to drive the delivery of both improvements and savings.

Additionally, there is a requirement to support the development of the more junior members of the category team, where the sharing of knowledge and procurement experience shall support the development of the team as a whole.

The Successful Applicant
Record of realising sustainable financial savings and cost reduction together with evidence of leading complex procurements which result in tangible business change
Proven negotiation and influencing skills, both with external supply base and internally with key client stakeholders.
A strategic thinker with effective planning skills with the ability to translate procurement strategy into deliverable operational results.
Have experience in analysing data to proactively search and identify opportunities and be able to interpret and present the opportunity to influence decision makers and gain buy-in.
Have knowledge of PCR 2015 and demonstration of proactiveness in keeping up with the latest legislation for public sector procurement.
Experience in drafting, negotiating and managing contracts (including processing contract amendments) throughout the whole contract lifecycle, monitoring both supplier and trust performance.
The successful applicant will be able to coach and mentor more junior members of the team to help develop the procurement skill within the category, which shall include line manage 1-2 junior members of the team.
Be comfortable speaking and feeding back to the wider BWPC team and management at internal meetings.
Competent in identifying suitable reporting metrics, setting up reporting schedule & presenting reporting outcomes meaningfully.
What’s on Offer

The NHS offer a generous range of benefits to employees:

Salary between £43,742-£50,056
Competitive pension scheme.
27 days annual leave minimum plus bank holidays.
Agile / Hybrid working approach – Based out of our Southmead office (indicative requirement to be on site 1-2 days per week)
There is a relocation package on offer to successful candidates
North Bristol NHS Trust who host Bristol and Weston NHS Purchasing Consortium have a strong wellbeing culture. Staff are encouraged to ensure that you are looking after your own wellbeing as well as that of your colleagues. This is strongly reflected in BWPC.
Staff extracurricular activities – Southmead charity events.
Access to the NHS Childcare Salary Sacrifice Scheme.
Access to many NHS discount opportunities.
Cycle to work scheme.

We will aiming to run interviews via Teams, with follow up face to face meetings at Southmead Hospital, Bristol in January.