Principal Procurement Specialist (Flexible Procurement)

Scotland Excel is an award-winning Centre of Procurement Expertise providing a wide range of procurement, commissioning, consultancy, and learning and development services for our members.

Since 2008, we have helped to establish procurement as an effective driver for local and national economic growth and wellbeing. Our £2bn portfolio of collaborative contracts supports the delivery of savings, social value, community benefits, fair work practices and environmental policy, and covers a wide range of public services including construction, roads, transport, environment, corporate and education.

Scotland Excel also develops and manages arrangements which support the commissioning of care services for children and adults. Our national care contracts are developed in partnership with care professionals, including care providers, to support person-centred outcomes embedded within national policy.  

We also provide procurement and consultancy services to help our members get the most from their procurement resources, ranging from ad-hoc tendering support through to transformation programmes and strategic procurement partnerships.  

The Scotland Excel Academy offers applied learning programmes leading to accredited qualifications in procurement, leadership and management, coaching and mentoring, project management and business analysis, as well as short courses and workshops.

Scotland Excel is a non-profit organisation working with members from across the public sector including local authorities, health and social care partnerships, housing associations, and other public and third sector organisations.

About the Role

Scotland Excel is continuing to experience a growing demand for our expertise as a centre of excellence for public sector procurement from local authorities across Scotland and other organisations in the public domain. To meet the demands of our clients we wish to expand our flexible procurement team.

As a result, we are seeking to recruit two Principal Procurement Specialists within our Flexible Procurement team on a 24 month Fixed Term basis. 

Applicants should be aware of the unique working environment of the Flexible Procurement team. Whereas the core business of Scotland Excel is collaborative at the national level for the 32 Scottish local authorities (councils) and our member organisations. This team works at on behalf of our member organisations delivering local contracts for use by individual public bodies. As such this is a client facing position with a focus on customer relations and client satisfaction. The individual we seek will be well versed in public sector procurement regulations and be capable of understanding financial/standing orders of our member organisations and adapting to our clients’ ways of working across various categories. This team is called upon to manage tendering activities for goods, works and services in the areas such as IT, construction, facilities management, HR/finance, social care, consultancy and environmental.

The role reports into the Category Manager of the Flexible Procurement Service but comes with line management responsibilities, giving the successful applicants the chance to be a central part in shaping and growing the team in the coming years.

For more a more detailed job description and person specification please see the Work for Us page on our website.

In return, you will have the opportunity to progress your career in a leading procurement organisation, with an excellent track record of supporting team members career aspiration, operating across a diverse range of category areas. You will work with like-minded colleagues who get real satisfaction from supporting the delivery of essential public services and bringing social, economic and environmental benefits to our communities.

What we can offer you

As well as a competitive salary, you will have access to all the benefits of working for a public sector organisation including flexible working options such as a 9-day fortnight, hybrid working, a defined benefits pension scheme, generous holiday allowance, a staff benefit scheme and a range of other initiatives which reflect our commitment to creating a positive work-life balance for all our employees.

Full details of the benefits of working at Scotland Excel can be found on our What We Offer page of our website.

The fixed term post may also be available as a secondment opportunity for existing local government/public sector employees, subject to the agreement of your employer.

How to apply

To be considered for this post we require the following: 

• a tailored CV (up to 3 pages),
• a covering letter explaining why you meet the requirements for this role (please enter this in the comments box when sending your CV or attach as a separate document).

We welcome applications from candidates with disabilities and guarantee an interview to those candidates who meet the essential requirements for the position. If you have a disability and wish to be considered for interview on the above basis, you must make us aware of it in your covering letter.