Procurement Specialist for Operations and Community Services - 7 Forces

Dependant on applicants location, they can be based anywhere across the 7 Forces

The 7 Force Procurement Team is a new shared service supporting the seven police forces across the East of England (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk). This collaboration is responsible for third party spend of approximately £230m per annum, making the 7 Force Collaboration the second largest police procurement collective after the Metropolitan Police.

The 7 Force Commercial Services Function are looking for a Procurement Specialist to lead and deliver on ‘Tactical Acquisition’ & ‘Tactical Profit’ procurements within the Operations & Community Services Category team across the 7 Police Forces, and all strategic Contract Management & Supplier Relationship activity, within the allocated category, with a view to securing better value for money from contractual arrangements and ensuring the contracted benefits are delivered.

The post holder must have the ability to interact with all senior level management and represent the 7 Forces as a collective or individually, where necessary.

They must have the gravitas to influence external bodies such as the Home Office, Crown Commercial Services, Police Digital Service and BlueLight Commercial and participate, as appropriate, on nationally led initiatives, providing opinion, guidance and shaping future offerings.

The post holder must also be able to interact with budget holders and operational contract owners in the 7 Forces, ensuring the procurement pipeline accurately reflects business need priorities.

The post holder will be ideally educated to CIPS Level 5 in-line with the CIPS structure guidance or be able to clearly evidence equivalent levels of experience, technical knowledge and expertise by having worked as a Procurement professional for a complex, public-sector organisation.

The post holder for this role will be employed by 7 Forces Commercial Services, but the base location of the post holder could be within any of the seven police forces listed above (i.e. local to you) and is therefore open to candidates across all regions.