Trainee Category Specialist/Category Specialist

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; England; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting for a Trainee Category Specialist/Category Specialist to join the group Procurement function. The role covers UHN sites, with travel between locations and progression from Trainee to Category Specialist as competencies are achieved.

Base salary is negotiable and dependent on experience. You will join a large, supportive team to deliver a first-class procurement service across the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire group, with

Qualifications

• Experience in category management and procurement advisory.
• Ability to manage high-value procurements and contract negotiations.
• Knowledge of UK procurement regulations and governance.

Responsibilities

• Provide procurement advisory and planning across the designated category area.
• Develop and manage category management strategy to deliver commercial benefit and reduce risk.
• Develop KPIs to evidence value for money and non-pay savings while ensuring robust contracts.
• Manage complex and high-value procurements and contract negotiations across the Group.

Skills

Category management

Procurement advisory

Contract negotiations

Stakeholder collaboration

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for Trainee Category Specialist/Category Specialist (dependent upon experience) to join our Category Management Teams across our group Procurement function. Working across the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN), which encompasses Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Northampton General NHS Trust, you will be an integral part of our Strategic Estates category area, delivering a first class procurement service across UHN.

This is a great opportunity for a procurement professional who wants to further develop their career, to join the Procurement team at UHN and really make a difference. Base can be discussed, but noting the requirement will be to travel between sites when required.

You will be joining a large, friendly and supportive team which offers great opportunities for career progression.

We are recruiting to either band 6 Trainee Category Specialist, or band 7 Category Specialist, dependent upon experience. The Trainee Category Specialist role offers a guaranteed progression to the Category Specialist, once competencies have been achieved.

• To provide a comprehensive, proactive, efficient and responsive procurement advisory and planning service across the designated specialist category area.
• Assisting in the development and managing a category management strategy that provides commercial benefit and reduces risk consistent with alignment to the Group Strategies, abiding by Trust specific SFI’s, SO’s, UK legislation.
• Assisting in the development of KPI’s that evidence value for money through generating non-pay savings in accordance with cost efficiency targets whilst awarding robust compliant contracts.
• This post holds responsibility for ensuring rigorous control in the approach to procuring goods and Services. Managing and undertaking complex and high value procurements and associated contract negotiations on behalf of the Group and working collaboratively with Procurement colleagues across the Northamptonshire ICB as appropriate.

We recognise that AI tools can support application writing; however, candidates are asked to keep their use to a minimum. Responses should reflect your own experience, skills and knowledge, as over-reliance on AI-generated content may result in generic answers that do not accurately represent your abilities.

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) brings together Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. As a group, we are committed to improving services for our communities through collaboration, modernising care delivery and striving for excellence. Working together enables us to share expertise, strengthen services and create greater opportunities, and there may be a requirement to work across sites depending on service needs.

Our Excellence Values are Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Integrity and Courage. UHN welcomes applications from all backgrounds and is committed to an inclusive working environment.

We are proud signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant and hold the Gold Award under the Employer Recognition Scheme. Candidates who identify as members of the Armed Forces community and meet the essential criteria will be guaranteed an interview.

For further details / informal visits contact: Name: Tanya Lane Job title: Head of Procurement - UHN Email address: [e-mail] Telephone number: 07966 145569