South East Consortium - Who Are We?
We're a not-for-profit central purchasing body working in the public sector. We create frameworks and dynamic purchasing models for use by our customers. We're a membership organisation that provides options and solutions for public bodies that are looking to procure their contracts in a compliant and efficient way, mainly focusing on the housing sector, however we work with other public bodies too, such as blue light services and the education sector.
Our relationship centric approach makes us unique as we put the customer at the heart of everything we do. We make sure we're easy to do business with, solution focussed and we add value each and every time a customer works with us. That's why we have grown to 57 member organisations that work with us, and we're also used by other customers on a non-membership basis. We have lots of repeat business, we act differently to our competitors - we're supportive, transparent, credible and we always act with integrity.
What we do in the Operations Team
We provide solutions for our customer's procurement and technical needs throughout all stages of their projects. Public procurement is legislated and for projects that are over the Government set thresholds for works, services and goods procurement can be lengthy, a drain on our customers' resources and expensive. That's why we offer more efficient routes to market that are quicker, easier but most important of all, compliant with the legislation.
There are four key areas of the operations team here at SEC:
1. Technical Team: Our technical team offer expertise, advice and services to help prepare our customers for their upcoming project. They create specifications, cost models, provide advice on asset management, leasehold consultation, review pricing that's received from tenders, offer market intelligence on trends and patterns and market conditions and they offer training on contract management, schedule of rates plus lots more.
2. Procurement Products: Our offer is based upon providing ease, options and value and one of our unique selling points is that we'll always make sure we're compliant and so are our customers.
3. Procurement Projects: Our customers benefit from our frameworks and dynamic models as they can then complete a mini competition or direct selection with our selected suppliers that have been tested for suitability and quality. A direct selection process can be completed in as little as 3 weeks and a mini tender can be completed within 12 weeks - which saves them a lot of time and money overall.
4. Procurement Strategy: Our vast network includes lots of different stakeholders from different organisations meaning we collaborate with them and seek different ways to grow and improve our offer.
Why Work for SEC?
Would you like to be part of an ambitious organisation truly looking to make a difference to the sector?
Your roles are about leading the procurement core of our business. Managing relationships with our existing members, supporting the enquiries of new customers and engaging with industry stakeholders to make sure our offer and services remain relevant and market leading. The workload will be diverse with varied client stakeholder teams, meaning no 2 days are the same.
These roles will be varied, with some work in our office in Sittingbourne in Kent, with home working days and is likely to include travel to client offices and industry events.
We operate on a customer first culture, meaning it is critical we operate as a high performing team. We take our work seriously, but we take our working relationships more so, to create an environment of openness, all opinions count and developed with quarterly team building activities and staff away days.
We offer a comprehensive suite of benefits including:
1. Generous Holiday Allowance - starting at 27 days, rising by 1 day per year to a maximum of 30.
2. Birthday Leave - An additional day off for your birthday!
3. Reward Perkz - we use the Perkz scheme to reward our staff and enable them to get exclusive discounts and savings.
4. Vitality Private Healthcare - upon successful completion of probation, staff are enrolled into our private healthcare scheme.
5. Pension - our pension scheme is offered to all employees and has some great benefits.
6. Hybrid working arrangements.
Recruitment Opportunity Details
1. Senior Procurement Manager - Projects
£65,000-£70,000 + bonus + £1800 car allowance
2. Senior Procurement Manager - Products
£65,000-£70,000 + bonus + £1800 car allowance
3. Senior Procurement Manager - Strategy
£65,000-£70,000 + bonus + £1800 car allowance
How to Apply
To apply for any of these roles, please send a copy of your CV and a personal statement demonstrating how you meet the person specification provided in the Job Description for the role you're applying for to the link provided.
The closing date for applications will be 12 noon on 4th April 2025. SEC reserve the right to close this opportunity earlier if we receive a high volume of applications.
Please note, the interview process will be in two stages once a shortlist of applicants has been made. The first stage will be an informal meeting via MS Teams and then selected candidates will be invited for a formal interview at our offices - B1092, Galley Drive, Kent Science Park, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 8GA #J-18808-Ljbffr