Company: British Council
We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding, and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.
We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence, and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them in building networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education, and gaining internationally recognized qualifications.
Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.
Pay Band: 7/F
Contract Type: Indefinite
Location: Ethiopia-wide
Closing date: 5th July
You must have the legal right to work in (Ethiopia-wide) at the time of application. There is no relocation or sponsorship support.
British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service. This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.
About the role:
The Global Procurement function is split into clusters and this role will report to a Senior Procurement Manager. The role will support the implementation of a sourcing plan and deliver procurement projects as required within the cluster. This role will require effective stakeholder engagement within the cluster or globally whilst supporting the delivery of improvements and efficiency in procurement projects.
Main Responsibilities
Consultancy, analysis & problem-solving
- Builds an in-depth understanding of the specific operational context, opportunities, and challenges facing their internal customer(s) to ensure the provision of procedural advice and support based on informed business insight.
- Proactively seeks internal customer and other stakeholder feedback to monitor satisfaction with the standard of functional advice and business support provided, enabling improvements to be made where issues are identified.
- Applies core technical/professional knowledge, recognized best practice approaches, and insight from previous experience to resolve non-standard issues that arise in the provision of functional support to a specific organizational unit or area of corporate activity.
Service improvement
- Within their area of technical/professional expertise, identify opportunities for procedural improvements within established policies and determine the most appropriate mechanisms and processes for implementing those changes.
- Demonstrates awareness of relevant governance arrangements that relate to making system or procedural changes.
- Makes technical/professional recommendations to resolve specific or localized issues but also offers ideas that contribute to the development of wider solutions to broader business challenges and problems.
Functional expertise
- Provides proactive professional advice and support to internal customers to ensure local or unit-specific business practices within their area of functional expertise are high quality, effective, and compliant with relevant corporate policies.
- Completes an annual cycle of formally recognized Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to maintain and deepen their professional expertise.
- Uses a variety of information resources and professional networks to maintain up-to-date knowledge of developments in external policy, practice, and regulation within their professional discipline.
Commercial & Financial management
- Using agreed corporate systems and processes, plans and manages the budget for their area of activity/service provision, and conducts monthly and year-end reporting on income and expenditure, profitability, and risk.
- Shows an understanding of value for money/cost-effectiveness in the advice, recommendations, or service support provided to internal customers.
- Applies good judgment in a commercial context.
Relationship & stakeholder management
- Develop good working relationships with appropriate colleagues throughout the British Council and in the relevant functional discipline to know who to engage with to enable the effective implementation of procedural changes and improvements
- Builds a network of external suppliers/providers/contacts to support effective service provision and knowledge exchange
Leadership & management
- Plans and prioritizes own work activities to ensure effective delivery of diverse responsibilities and internal customer deliverables over a monthly to quarterly time horizon.
- May act as formal line manager to a small team of para-professionals, working within the same (or related) area of functional expertise, responsible for their annual work plans and deliverables
Minimum/essential requirements
- Extensive experience working in a similar role at a similar level managing procurement projects or procurement teams
- Experience in leading and managing effective negotiations
- In-depth understanding of procurement processes and complex competitive bidding
- Good understanding of procurement project delivery, including Supplier Relationship Management
- Good business understanding across the industry
- Understands and has used a variety of pricing models and tools.
- Understands legal and operational risks.
- Undergraduate degree holder or has relevant experience in procurement
- Qualified member of a professional body, e.g. CIPS or other relevant body or equivalent experience
- The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required
Desirable
Extensive experience with Strategic Sourcing with managing stakeholders’ teams or experience in managing procurement teams or categories.
Further information
Salary: 96,474 ETB per month
Interviews: week commencing 22nd July (tentative)
For further information about the Role profile, please contact AskHR@britishcouncil.org
A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.