Cheshire West and Chester Council is a place where everyone can Thrive – through our core values of Teamwork, Honesty, Respect, Innovation, Value for Money and Empowerment. You will be joining a fast paced procurement team at an exciting and important time in driving standards and best practice within our Business Partnering approach to procurement. You will play an important role in the delivery of a forward thinking, flexible, creative, commercial and collaborative procurement team, which aims to exemplify excellent procurement practice. The Senior Procurement Officer/ ICT Category Lead is a pivotal role and involves leading procurement activities, providing specialist commercial advice, and ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and best practices. You will manage the end-to-end procurement of ICT contracts, including high-value and complex projects, and representing the specialised procurement requirements of ICT with the Councils Digital, Data and Technology and Legal teams, also play a central role in delivering continuous improvement across commercial activities. Key responsibilities Include: leading and advising on procurement strategies, market analysis, and route-to-market decisions drafting tender documentation and contracts managing tender evaluations, moderations, and supplier feedback supporting contract mobilisation, performance monitoring, change control, and risk management developing relationships with suppliers, SMEs, and voluntary sector organisations ensuring compliance with procurement regulations including The Procurement Act 2023, Public Contact Regulations 2015 ,Public Services Social Value Act, 2012 and the Council’s own Contract Procedure Rules The successful candidate with have a broad experience of procurement within a Local Government/Public Sector environment and a thorough understanding of Local Government/Public Sector procurement regulations. You will be passionate about delivering sustainability and championing social value whilst achieving a successful balance between innovation and meeting corporate policies and regulatory requirements. You will be experienced in using a procurement portal for tenders. We are looking for individuals who are CIPS fully qualified and have strong experience within procurement roles. You will be able to demonstrate knowledge of Procurement legislation and be conversant with procurement methodologies, techniques and proficient in completing research and market analysis. You will be technically competent with experience in delivering complex projects working with a range of stakeholders internal and external to the council. You will work with suppliers to develop strategies to ensure the Council is receiving the most efficient service terms and conditions while maintaining value and cost efficiency benefits. Ideally you will be experienced in end-to-end public sector ICT procurement and competent in using G-Cloud, CCS and other public ICT frameworks. Your time will be spent working from home, other sites and the office to enable you to balance your home and work life. Determination and enthusiasm will be key, and you will be working with a range of stakeholders so relationship building will be important. We are incredibly proud to be Investors in People ‘Gold’ status, which illustrates that we care about our people and are ambitious to do even more for them. We truly are an amazing place to work! If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you! For an informal discussion on this post, please contact Elaine Roberts-Smith @ elaine.roberts-smith@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk To find out more information about what it is like to work for Cheshire West and Chester Council including our rewards and benefits please see www.cwcrecruitment.co.uk No candidate will meet every single requirement - if your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you can bring value to the role, we'd love to learn more about you! Cheshire West and Chester Council are committed to equality and diversity in employment. Please see the Equality Policy for more information. Cheshire West and Chester Council have adopted a Local Living Wage for our employees which means that all employees will receive a minimum of £12.60 per hour for all contracted hours. For any technical enquiries please email Sourcingteam@ecwip.co.uk and quote job reference number in all correspondence.