Senior Procurement Specialist (Education Support)

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

This is a fixed term post of up to 24 months.

With over 2500 schools in Scotland, buying for schools can be time consuming and complicated. Scotland Excel is seeking a senior procurement specialist to work alongside our school communities to build knowledge, confidence, and capability, and to ensure they have the skills required to achieve best value as a result. 

Main responsibilities for this role:

Support schools to be more ‘commercial’, helping to save them money.

Support school staff to feel more confident when playing the ‘buyer role’ and help them to achieve the best value possible. 

Build a support network for school staff within council areas.

Ensure end users and wider councils are satisfied that Scotland Excel frameworks meet their requirements, and that they can get the best value using a framework.

Support better communications between Scotland Excel and the School Community. Long term these two-way communications would allow stronger UIGs for development of future frameworks which would increase overall utilisation of our contracts.

Assist councils to achieve better control over purchasing by schools – strengthening the Scotland Excel relationship with councils and leading to overall cost savings for members.

For further details on job description and person specifications for this role please visit our website.

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 website.

How to apply

To be considered for this post, we require:

• a covering letter explaining why you meet the requirements for this role. This can be attached or written in the comments box.

• a tailored CV (no more than 3 pages).

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.

This 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.