CATEGORY SPECIALIST

About The Service

Ardal is a new procurement collaboration across the four local authorities serving the people and communities of Cardiff, Monmouthshire, Torfaen and the Vale of Glamorgan. Annual spend on goods, services and works across the four authorities is over £ billion per annum. Ardals procurement team is broken down into operational teams being: Professional Services & ICT, Corporate & Transport, Social Care & Community Services, Building & Estates along with Highways, Waste & Parks.

As a result of strengthening our Category Teams, we have an exciting opportunity to join our award-winning team hosted by Cardiff Council as a Category Specialist.

The Team supports the procurement and sourcing function for various categories of spend; The Team also manages a variety of national collaborative frameworks including South East Wales Technical & Professional Services, South East & Mid Wales Collaborative Civil Engineering and Highways Construction Framework and others. The team cover a diverse area of services and welcome applications from individuals who may have experience in procuring these types of goods, services, and works, or have experience and knowledge of these industries although not essential.

Working for the Ardal Team will act as a catalyst for continual professional development for the right individuals and will offer exposure to several varied and innovative procurements with the necessary level of support.

As we look to procure goods, services and works that meet the expectations of our citizens in terms of our economic recovery post COVID -, whilst addressing the climate emergency and the requirement to deliver a balanced budget.

About the job

The roles will be for enthusiastic individuals who have excellent communication skills and can demonstrate the requirements and experience detailed in the Person Specification. The main responsibilities and requirements of the roles are but not limited to:

Support the Senior Category Manager, Category Manager and the Senior Category Specialist in the design, development and implementation of procurement category plans and sourcing strategies.

Ensuring the completeness, accuracy and timeliness of tender and contract documentation within assigned categories.

Support the delivery of target savings and value for money within the assigned commodity and less complex categories and sub categories.

Support Directorates in effectively implementing key activities within the approved strategic sourcing solutions.

Provide advice and training to the Service Areas as required on any new or existing procurement processes in order to enable them to become intelligent customer.

What we are looking for from you

We are looking to appoint self-motivated individuals who might have procurement experience gained primarily from the public sector although this is not essential. This experience could be across a broad range of spend categories. Or is looking to develop a career within public sector procurement.

Additional Information

A hybrid working environment with an ability and freedom to work on an agile basis both in the office at County Hall in Cardiff Bay and at home.

As the largest employer in Wales, Cardiff Council offers a generous and progressive package of benefits.