Category Manager | Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 0FJ

An Exciting Opportunity…

Brent is a tremendously vibrant London borough where the iconic arch of Wembley Stadium dominates the skyline. Spanning both inner and outer London, it is a borough of huge contrasts in terms of its economic, environmental, ethnic and social make up. Brent’s diversity is evident to all who visit our borough and our long history of ethnic and cultural diversity has created a place that is truly unique and valued by those who live and work here.

The council is pursuing a far-reaching transformation agenda that better meets the needs of our community so it is an exciting time to join us.

The Post

We currently have two fantastic opportunities for Category Managers aligned to the following categories of spend.

Environmental and FM Services covering a variety of areas across Highways, Public Realm Hard and Soft FM and Corporate Services covering areas like Finance, HR, Legal, IT, Fleet, Travel etc.

Reporting to the Head of Procurement, you will have the autonomy to make your mark within your Category of expertise aligning yourself with the Procurement Strategy and Council priorities. There will be line management responsibilities so it would great for you to bring that experience and knowledge to share within the team. Whichever your specialism, you’ll be helping to provide great value outcomes for over 300,000 people.

The Person

Acting in partnership with your key stakeholders you’ll manage complex, high to medium value procurement projects that are key to delivering good quality public services. In brief, you’ll be a key strategic advisor, confident and clear thinking, providing expert support and making sure projects achieve the best possible outcomes.

You will have expert knowledge of procurement – ideally in the public sector It’s all about using the tools and techniques of strategic sourcing to achieve business goals. Through sound market analysis and strategy formulation, you’ll improve the quality of services being delivered, whilst always ensuring value for money.

You should also have specialist knowledge of one of the areas mentioned above, plus a track record of managing complex, high-value projects with multiple stakeholders.

A quick learner with the ability to hit the ground running. Adept at devising strategies, including innovative commercial arrangements or new service delivery models, you’ll understand the end-to-end procurement process and have plenty of experience leading multi-disciplined teams. With commercial acumen and great people skills, this could be your opportunity to stretch your talents to the full.

You will be given the opportunity to showcase you strategic thinking and strategy deliver by leading a team to implement one of the key pillars of the Procurement Strategy and being recognised by senior leaders across the council as the Procurement lead for that pillar.

If you believe you have the skills and experience to help the team and support the Council we would love to hear from you.

Closing date: 24 July 2024 (23:59)

Additional Information

If you are interested in applying for this job, please start by clicking the "Apply Now" button below. You must provide a supporting statement as part of your application that clearly shows how you meet the criteria on the Person Specification. We will accept a CV in support of your application, however, you should still provide a supporting statement.

Brent Council values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this and therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community. We positively encourage all applicants to self-identify their characteristics in the diversity survey section in the application.

We are committed to safer recruitment and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Applicants should be aware that posts working with children, young people and vulnerable adults are subject to an Enhanced DBS check as well as other employment clearances.

The information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas and your data protection rights, can be found here.

Brent has a positive approach to flexible working.

As a disability confident employer Brent welcomes applications from people with all disabilities, including “non-visible” disabilities and mental health conditions. We will interview any disabled applicant who meets the essential criteria. If you require reasonable adjustments to be made to any part of the recruitment process due to your disability, please contact us on recruitment@brent.gov.uk

Vacancy Location