Procurement Business Partner

We are currently recruiting a Procurement Business Partner to join the Procurement team here at FSCS on a permanent basis.

The Procurement Business Partner will work alongside the business as an ambassador for the role of Procurement in FSCS by:

• Leading, advising, and coordinating procurement processes within a regulated environment.
• Influencing and embedding Strategic Sourcing Planning and Supplier Relationship Management to improve decision-making. In addition, ensuring we have appropriate performance management alongside robust oversight and controls over the most strategically important and critical suppliers to FSCS.
• Using management information insights to help influence better procurement outcomes.

Key Priorities

Service Delivery

• Champion procurement as a function and its policies and procedures.
• Develop strong relationships with key stakeholders across the organisation and be recognised as a trusted business advisor.
• Be fully conversant with organisational procurement policies, standards, procedures, processes, and governance mechanisms, and be able to advise and support colleagues in their application.
• Adhere to, and hold others accountable for adhering to, procurement policies, standards, and procedures. Recognise and escalate non-compliance and other issues to the Procurement Manager where appropriate.
• Identify and assemble cross-disciplined teams and apply a structured, transparent, and strong visual project management approach to the delivery of procurement projects.
• Collaborate effectively with Legal, Risk & Resilience, Finance, Information Security, and Data Protection teams.

Strategic Sourcing

• Understand and influence stakeholders to deliver, maintain, and improve strategic sourcing plans, using relevant management information and market intelligence.
• Implement collaborative sourcing solutions and drive through benefits realisation plans.
• Use category-specific knowledge to provide commercial and procurement advice and sound judgement to identify issues and recommend appropriate solutions.
• Carry out forward planning of procurement activity, including maintaining the sourcing pipeline for new and cyclical procurement activity.
• Create and maintain critical models to ensure the delivery of robust commercial outcomes.

Tender Management

• Lead and execute the delivery of tender projects in an efficient, effective, and timely manner. Identify when project approvals are required and plan for them. Identify and resolve project issues.
• Develop and publish full and approved tender documentation.
• Develop a clear procurement approach that reflects the needs of the business and the market, and is aligned with procurement policy objectives, public procurement regulatory requirements, and plans for necessary approvals. Be able to appropriately challenge risk-averse behaviours where appropriate.
• Ensure that all pre-procurement engagement has been completed.
• Fully consider key financial and commercial issues in the development of the contracting model and implement these, as appropriate, in contract terms and conditions.
• Ensure dialogue/negotiation strategies with clear parameters are established in line with project objectives.
• Brief and train evaluators to ensure a clear understanding of the evaluation criteria. Moderate evaluation scores efficiently and fairly.

Supplier Relationship Management

• Maintain the e-sourcing application to ensure it accurately records all contracts and that all contracts are effectively managed.
• Ensure that amendments to contracts are negotiated, agreed, and documented effectively, and adhere to the Procurement Policy. Challenge and resolve contractual non-compliance issues.
• For key suppliers, work with the contract owner to ensure appropriate contract management processes are set up and supplier oversight is in place according to the standards set in the Procurement Handbook, ensuring:
  • Governance meetings are set up
  • Management information is captured and logged to track performance
  • Supplier compliance with relevant policies, procedures, and standards
  • Contract handover documents are kept up to date
  • Vendor oversight arrangements are set up, and any annual questionnaires are scheduled
  • Any contract management obligations under the Procurement Act are adhered to

Procurement-Related Management Information

• Ensure that accurate, complete, and correct management information data is supplied and validated.
• Adhere to, and hold others accountable for, procurement policies, standards, and procedures. Recognise and escalate non-compliance issues.
• Work with stakeholders to deliver, maintain, and improve procurement plans.
• Ensure sourcing pipelines are kept up to date.
• Support the Procurement Manager in risk and controls testing to provide evidence where requested.
• Provide discussion and feedback on monthly procurement-related KPI reports.
• Improve and agree Strategic Sourcing Plans.

About You

We have identified the following skills, knowledge, and experience as essential for success in this role. However, we understand that everyone’s learning journey is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all. If you feel you have many of the below strengths but don’t tick all the boxes, we’d still love to hear from you.

• MCIPS qualified or relevant equivalent supply chain experience/qualification
• Sound knowledge of Public Procurement Regulations and Public Contract Frameworks
• High level of knowledge of contract formation
• Ability to lead the end-to-end procurement process
• Broad category expertise (focus on services rather than goods) across both the public and/or private sector. It is desirable if you have experience of IT procurement
• Experience of Supplier Relationship Management
• Good experience of successfully conducting a range of dialogues/negotiations across a variety of categories
• Sound understanding of Strategic Sourcing in theory and practice
• In-depth experience of working across departmental and/or organisational boundaries in leading strategic sourcing teams/projects
• Ability to use e-procurement tools to support the sourcing process
• Knowledge and application of project management principles

Working at FSCS

At FSCS, we are purpose-driven and committed to delivering exceptional service and results for our customers.

We have invested greatly in a flexible people offering that we’re proud of, that our employees love, and that supports and promotes diversity, inclusion, and overall wellbeing. Key benefits include:

• Employer pension contributions from 9%–15%, depending on your contributions and length of service
• Life assurance, income and critical illness protection
• Private medical and dental insurance
• EAP and Virtual GP
• 26 days annual leave + bank holidays, and the option to sell 5 or buy up to 9 additional days per annum to suit your lifestyle