View Vacancy - Regional Procurement Lead

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer.  We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Operations and Corporate Services)
Procurement

Main purpose of job:

To work as part of the Regional Procurement Team that sits within the FCDO Commercial Directorate; working with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders on all aspects of Procurement delivery, review, monitoring and reporting. Assist the Regional Procurement Manager in day-to-day delivery.

FCDO Commercial takes responsibility for the acquisition of all goods and services required by the organisation whether bought at home in the UK or at one of our 260 office locations around the world. We do this by directly managing high value procurement activities, creating, and implementing the policies and procedures for everything else.

The FCDO has a regional structure for Finance, Procurement and HR across the whole network, realising cost reductions and global spend savings, whilst keeping quality high by reforming the way we manage procurement across the network.

The Procurement Operating Model requires procurement expertise in the regional organisation structure. Providing expert service to our global network of locations whilst retaining the ability to deliver efficiently on behalf of several locations and maintain links with the central procurement function in the UK. Procurement is a delivery partner to the FCDO business, providing advice and expertise to the business across the procurement lifecycle though to a shared responsibility for the successful delivery of larger procurement projects.

The Regional Procurement Lead will support the Head of Procurement (Americas) and the Regional Procurement Manager in Mexico delivering procurement services across the regional network of office locations. In addition to delivering regional procurement projects, you will be responsible for ensuring that procurement processes operate smoothly and consistently within the region and build relationships with the key regional suppliers. You will be forecasting requirements for goods and services across category areas and proactively researching suppliers who help the FCDO to meet its VFM objective. You will work closely with a wide variety of internal customers; helping to identify, specify and meet their requirements. 

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?:

  • Regional Procurement Delivery (above £25K): Acting as an account manager/key contact for a grouping of posts in region, carrying out end-to-end procurement process. Tender of various procurement/contract-related goods, services or work projects, including sourcing of suppliers, input and agreement of specification, preparation of tender documentation, liaison and coordination with suppliers to clarify requirements, coordination and evaluation of bids, seeking appropriate approvals, negotiations, agreement of contracts and closure of contracts. Ensuring all processes and contracts meet legal, audit, HM Treasury and Cabinet Office requirements.
  • Identifying Regional Opportunities: To work closely with colleagues at UK’s Embassies and Consulates in the region and Procurement Category Teams in the UK to deliver Procurement activity via standardised processes, proactively seeking opportunities to buy efficiently through common procurement routes or approaches to market.
  • Supplier Relationship Management: To review, report and manage contract and framework use in the region, to act as the Supplier Relationship Manager where appropriate for regional suppliers including resolution of contractual disputes, taking appropriate action to protect the FCDO’s interest.
  • Support Regional Procurement Manager: To work closely with the Regional Procurement Manager, helping them to deliver on assigned goals and the wider regional strategy, help feed into category strategies, delivering objectives.

This role provides an excellent opportunity to learn about project management skills as well as to advance your commercial expertise. There is scope for gaining experience in a number of areas of the procurement process and there could be the opportunity to obtain relevant professional qualifications (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply – CIPS) and skills as a procurement lead. Your skills will not only have currency in the FCDO (both in the UK and overseas), but also enable you to further your career elsewhere in the public or private sector.

This is a challenging role and is suited to a dynamic, self-starter, proactive with a proven track record in procurement. We are looking for someone who is confident and can solve problems and launch themselves into new tasks with energy and enthusiasm. You will be working as a part of the Regional Procurement Hub and with a wide range of people from different backgrounds, including other government departments.

  • Minimum 2-4 years relevant experience of sourcing or buying Goods, Services and Works for an International organisation or with a regional presence 
  • Proven track record of working to deadlines and meeting targets and some experience of project management and delivery
  • Flexibility, willingness and ability to adapt to change
  • Developing as a persuasive presenter, facilitator and negotiator with the ability to influence to support the achievement of FCDO Commercial objectives
  • Able to monitor external sources of data and pro-actively share relevant information with others in and across the global procurement organisation, where relevant.
  • Excellent working knowledge of MS Office, Internet, e-mail applications etc.
  • Focuses on expected impact and results and responds positively to feedback
  • Promotes teamwork and shows conflict resolution skills
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
  • Demonstrates oral and written communication skills in both English and Spanish/Portuguese
  • Supports the team in building strong relationships with stakeholders and external actors
  • High interpersonal skills, and ability to remain calm, in control and good attitude under pressure
  • Ability to prioritize assignments and requirements, and multitask as needed
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities
  • Demonstrates skills to liaise and work with varied stakeholders especially technical experts

Graduate calibre and/or qualified by experience, ideally with relevant post-graduate or professional qualification (e.g. holds or is studying towards CIPS or CPSM).

Previous experience with Oracle Software and eProcurement systems. 

11 May 2021
Executive Officer (EO)
Full-time, Permanent
38
Latin America and Spanish speaking Caribbean
Mexico
Mexico City
British Embassy
1
MXN
$28,350
28 June 2021

Employment type: full-time employment (currently 100% remote working due to pandemic)

38 conditional working hours a week allowing employees to work flexibly in order to encourage a better work/life balance, 8:00 – 4:30 from Monday to Thursday and 8:00 – 2:00 on Fridays.

Candidates must be able to live and work in Mexico in their own right.  The successful candidate will be subject to a security clearance and professional reference checks.

Employees who are not liable to pay local income tax on their Mission salary, eg some non-local national staff and some spouses or partners of UK diplomatic staff, will have their salaries abated by an equivalent amount. 

The British Embassy Network offers a strong benefits package. This package includes generous vacation and leave time, flexible working patterns, and enriching learning and development opportunities. All staff at the British Embassy and its Consulates in Mexico are expected to work towards the UK mission statement of Building a UK/Mexico partnership, which makes the world and us more prosperous and secure, and to embody the Embassy’s agreed values of Honesty, Respect, Inclusion and Professionalism.

Qualifications required for Entry Level Salary $28,350MXN:

  • 2 years relevant experience
  • Studying towards Diploma in Procurement and Supply through The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) eqv. Level 4 or CPSM
  • Commercial Skills – Foundation Level

In addition to the above, applicants who have the following qualifications and experience, will be entitled to receive a non-consolidated* Professional Qualification Allowance, currently equal to $7,562.50MXN:

  • 3-6 years relevant experience
  • Diploma in Procurement and Supply through The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) eqv Level 4 or CPSM

Staff hired on the Entry Level Salary will have the opportunity to receive the PQA once all requirements have been met.

*non-consolidated - the PQA does not count towards pension, bonuses or eventual finiquitos if/when you leave, and will not continue if you change jobs within the embassy to one where PQA does not apply.  

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

This opportunity is closed to applications.