Job description

About

The Purchasing Manager manages a team of 3 Purchasing Assistants delivering general purchasing work, supporting our Procurement Team and service areas to ensure goods and services are received in a timely and cost-effective manner and to identify opportunities for aggregation of requirements.

The Purchasing team is an integral part of the wider Procurement team at Ipswich Borough Council and is responsible for supporting service areas by providing purchasing services and administrative support.

You will be working with our service areas and Procurement Officers to manage the issue of purchase orders to suppliers and requests for quotations for a wide range of goods and services. This will be a varied and busy role ideal for someone who is looking to develop a career in Procurement. You may have studied for, or gained, some qualifications in procurement.

You must be experienced at managing a team and delivering a service against agreed standards. You will enjoy using IT systems to process information and to analyse and interpret data. Experience of financial systems or an e-tendering platform will be an advantage.

You will be collaborating with colleagues across the Council, and we are looking for team players who can manage a varied workload and respond to changing priorities. You will need to build relationships with key contract managers to understand their needs and to use your previous experience in purchasing or procurement to deliver effective, simple procurements to contribute to cost savings.

Well organised and flexible, you will be able to build relationships, work collaboratively and be able to explain solutions and provide advice. We will help you develop your knowledge of procurement and our internal governance so you can develop documents, guidance and deliver training to colleagues.

Well organised and self-motivated, you will have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel, be able to present information effectively and be able to write reports.

Hours of work are 37 per week, Monday to Friday.

This is a hybrid working role (a minimum of 1 day per week working in the office).

As well as a good salary, we offer a career average pension scheme, generous holiday and sick pay entitlements, subsidised parking for work and leisure, public transport discounts, free swimming and gym membership, cycle purchase scheme, plenty of personal and professional development opportunities, flexible working, hybrid working opportunities, Employee Assistance Programme and the opportunity to work with great colleagues.

For more information about this role please contact Elizabeth Dunachie (she/her) via email (elizabeth.dunachie@ipswich.gov.uk).

If you require any assistance or reasonable adjustments during the application or recruitment process, please let us know so that the appropriate arrangements can be put in place.

Please download the Job Description and Person Specification to find out more about this role: Job Description and Person Specification

Interviews dates to be confirmed.

Early applications are encouraged as we reserve the right to interview candidates who meet the essential criteria prior to the closing date and / or to close the opportunity to applicants once we receive sufficient applications

Please note CVs are not accepted.

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A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.