Category Manager - Energy

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Job Description

Organisation: Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO)

Work Location: Barnsdale Way, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 1ES

Salary: £42,498 - £46,344 per annum (pro rata for part-time)

Working Hours: 37 per week.

Contract Type: Permanent (Hybrid Working)

Closing Date: 14th March 2025

Interview Date(s): TBA

If you're looking for an exciting and challenging opportunity, ESPO is seeking to appoint a highly motivated individual to work within our Energy Procurement team. This position is ideally suited to someone who wants to continue to advance their career in a busy and supportive team.

About the Role

As a Category Manager you will be leading a small team of procurement professionals to develop and manage a portfolio of Energy related framework solutions. You will ensure that procurements are undertaken compliantly in line with Procurement Act 2023. You will undertake supplier relationship management and build strong relationships with key stakeholders, internally and externally, ensuring the successful delivery of framework solutions.

About Us

For more than 30 years, ESPO has been one of the UK's largest public sector buying organisations working with a wide variety of suppliers to deliver savings and efficiencies to our customers.

With the value of our procurement exceeding £3billion per annum, our 350 staff are committed to helping public sector customers across the UK - in education, local and central government, charities and emergency services - to deliver best value.

From consultancy services to curriculum products, school meals to cleaning services, ESPO's buyers procure a diverse spectrum of products and services across a number of category areas - Building & Facilities Management, Catalogue, Education, Energy, Environmental Services & Waste Management, Food & Catering, Highways & Vehicles, ICT, Professional Services, and Social Care & Public Health - all offering exciting opportunities for development.

About You

To apply for this post, you must have:

• A degree or equivalent qualification or demonstrable experience in this field.
• Procurement experience, ideally in the public sector.
• Some experience of the energy sector is welcomed.
• Experience of Supplier Relationship Management.
• Some experience of managing or mentoring of procurement professionals ensuring effective staff utilisation to meet deadlines and achieve targets and goals.
• Experience in influencing and building relationships with key stakeholders to ensure appropriate input into procurement strategies and outcomes.
• CIPS membership or are working towards achieving membership.
• Excellent communications skills; the role involves significant interface and liaison with a range of stakeholders.
• Competence in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and the ability to manage time effectively to meet deadlines.

We'd also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the interview process.

What we offer:

• Flexible working opportunities and access to employee benefits portal
• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays (increasing to 33 after 5 years' service), and a scheme to buy additional leave.
• Local Government Pension Scheme with a generous employer contribution
• Great office location next to Fosse Park, with free on-site parking and easy access to M1 and M69.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of ESPO. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Andrew Stanford, Procurement Service Manager

Email: a.stanford@espo.org

How to Apply

ESPO is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity, and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our customers. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the customers we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click 'Apply Now'. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Employee Service Centre: https://emss.freshdesk.com/support/home.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.

About ESPO

We're a unique organisation, owned by the public sector and sharing their values and ethos, but operating with a commercial edge. As a specialist procurement body, we pride ourselves on establishing procurement solutions that save money for the public sector. View our prospectus to find out more.

We have modern, open-plan offices with excellent transport links and a friendly workplace environment. We offer flexible working, a generous holiday entitlement, a contributory pension scheme, training (including professional CIPS qualification) and opportunities to develop your career.

ESPO is supported by wide range of roles across many different disciplines including sales, marketing, IT, procurement, finance, operations (warehouse management and transport planning) and customer services. So whether you are interested in a public-facing role or playing your part behind the scenes, ESPO could be the place for you.

To learn more about working for ESPO please visit www.espo.org.

About Us

About ESPO

We're a unique organisation, owned by the public sector and sharing their values and ethos, but operating with a commercial edge. As a specialist procurement body, we pride ourselves on establishing procurement solutions that save money for the public sector. View our prospectus to find out more.

We have modern, open-plan offices with excellent transport links and a friendly workplace environment. We offer flexible working, a generous holiday entitlement, a contributory pension scheme, training (including professional CIPS qualification) and opportunities to develop your career.

ESPO is supported by wide range of roles across many different disciplines including sales, marketing, IT, procurement, finance, operations (warehouse management and transport planning) and customer services. So whether you are interested in a public-facing role or playing your part behind the scenes, ESPO could be the place for you.

To learn more about working for ESPO please visit www.espo.org.