On behalf of EANI, we are looking for a Category Manager (Inside IR35) for a 6 months contract (potential extension) based in Antrim or any other EANI office with attendance 2-3 days per week (Flexible) EA was established on 1 April 2015 under the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014. EA is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department of Education (DE) and the Department for the Economy (DfE), responsible for ensuring that efficient and effective primary and secondary education and educational services are available to meet the needs of children and young people, and for ensuring the provision of efficient and effective youth services. We are seeking a proactive and commercially focused Category Manager to support the Senior Category Manager and Head of Procurement in delivering a compliant, professional and value-driven procurement service. The postholder will lead the development and implementation of category strategies, manage contract performance, and ensure procurement activity delivers maximum value for the organisation. You will take ownership of a procurement category, lead stakeholder engagement, drive cost savings and continuous improvement, and embed best-practice procurement in line with PCR 2015, PA 2023 NIPPP and Procurement Guidance Notes (PGNs). This role requires strong commercial judgement, excellent communication skills, and the ability to influence at every level. As a Category Manager, your main responsibilities will be: * Develop and deliver category strategies aligned to business needs, emerging trends and value-for-money objectives. * Lead contract and supplier performance management, ensuring KPIs are met and improvement opportunities identified. * Build and manage effective stakeholder and "intelligent customer" networks across the organisation. * Drive market engagement, benchmarking, and best-practice adoption to support innovative procurement solutions. * Ensure all procurement activity complies with PCR 2015, PA23 NIPPP, PGNs and the organisation's Quality Management System. * Manage and support the category team to deliver tenders, frameworks and contracts on time and to high commercial standards. * Provide expert commercial advice, lead procurement pipelines, and contribute to planning, reporting and governance. * Champion continuous improvement, category innovation, efficiency and collaborative working with other CoPEs. Essential: * Public sector Procurement experience. * CCS Frameworks * Experience in staff management or supervision. * Experience managing the full procurement and contract management lifecycle. * Strong supplier engagment skills * Experience delivering public procurements compliant with PCR 2015 ,PA2023, NIPPP, and PPNs. * MCIPS qualified or working towards Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas. DE&I Commitment EANI guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance. Armed Forces Covenant / Commitment EANI guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance. In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different". Skills: [Commercial and Procurement]