Procurement Assistant

Procurement Assistant

Full Time

Permanent

Salary - between £24,750 and £30,937 depending on experience

Location – Based at Washington/Hybrid working

We’ve a great opportunity to join our Procurement team as a Procurement Assistant. Reporting into the Procurement Manager – Operations and Systems, you’ll be providing systems, reporting and operational support to the procurement team and wider business.

You will be responsible for reporting on compliance, KPI’s, spend, etc. and analysing data on the reports.  You will liaise with our stakeholders to resolve any queries or issues arising from the reports.

You will also provide administrative support on our contract procurement systems, maintaining user information, processing payment requests, and dealing with queries on the system.

You’ll be supporting business wide P2P compliance through assisting business users with queries on the iProcurement system, maintaining user records, and coding of invoice queries for the sourcing team, as well as processing of service invoices (producing pivot table, issuing to business owners for positive sign off, preparing spreadsheet for upload, and dealing with queries).   You will also manage the new supplier applications.

You’ll be looking to introduce and maintain best practice procurement tools, processes and procedures within the procurement function, along with maintaining procurement policy and processes covering all procurement activities, ensuring compliance to regulations and NWL procurement policy.

We’re looking for you to get involved in supporting the implementation/update of procurement technology systems and data, as well as maintaining performance metrics for the procurement function. 

About you

We’re looking for you to have proven experience of interpreting data (typically Excel) and development/production of regular reports to support business activity, so being proficient in Excel is a must for this role.  We’re looking for you to have proven skills and experience in strong data analysis and problem-solving skills too.

You’ll have proven experience of communicating issues, including non-compliance, to business stakeholders at all levels and offering guidance and advice to them too; good verbal and written communication skills are essential.  You’ll be great at manging and prioritising workload in a busy, demanding environment, and will have organisational and administrative experience.  We’re also looking for you to have proven experience of typical P2P measures (KPIs) and systems and it would be great if you had experience of implementing or upgrading corporate financial systems.

We’re looking for you to have a basic understanding of how savings delivery and value add is achieved, along with a proven awareness of procurement operations and procurement techniques.

Here at Northumbrian Water/Essex & Suffolk Water, we embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, and encourage all colleagues to bring their most authentic self to work.

Our colleague network groups include our Rainbow Support Network (LGBTQIA+), REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage), WiSTEM (Women in STEM) and Thisability (disability and neurodiversity) networks. They provide a safe space for colleagues from diverse backgrounds, welcoming all colleagues regardless of their personal characteristics to participate in valuable conversation that improves our organisational awareness, understanding and inclusivity.

We encourage and welcome all applications, as we strive to be an equal opportunity employer, committed to having diverse communities represented within all our teams, structures, and organisation. 

Please note this role may require a DBS to be completed prior to employment

NWG are an inclusive employer who support the rehabilitation of offenders, we will not, however consider candidates who have certain unspent convictions to ensure our commitment to fostering a safe and secure working environment for all OR colleagues, suppliers, customers and third parties.

About us

Here are NWG we strive to make Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) a Great Place to Work, for all. We embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity and encourage you to bring your full self to work. As an equal opportunity employer we’re committed to having a diverse community represented across our business.

We’re aware that not everyone will have every skill listed in the job description, however if you have some of the skills listed, we'd encourage you to apply

NWG at a glance:

Our purpose at NWG is caring for the essential needs of our communities and environment, now and for generations to come.

We do this by providing reliable and affordable water and wastewater services for our customers.

We make a positive difference by operating efficiently and investing prudently, to maintain a sustainable and resilient business.

Our vision is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services. To support us in achieving our vision, we have five core values which are the guiding principles, defining who we are, what we do and how we do it.

Our benefits

We’re a Great Place to Work because of the amazing people who work for us, and to say thank you we offer a range of benefits to colleagues. Our ‘Tap Into’ benefits include:

• Generous holiday entitlement starting at 23 days, plus bank holidays and additional time off on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. There’s also the option to buy or sell holidays.
• Company pension scheme, where we’ll double match your contributions up to an employer contribution of 10%.
• Free access to local attractions.
• A fantastic discount scheme, with savings on days out, shopping, travel and more.
• Award winning ‘Living Well’ wellbeing support, including access to a digital GP service for you and your family members.
• Support with sustainable travel – through salary sacrifice cars and a cycle to work scheme.
• Financial wellbeing support – access our community savings scheme, financial education and low cost loans through Salary Finance. We also provide 4 x Life Assurance and an Income Protection Scheme.
• Support with your development – we offer a range of development opportunities, can support you through an interest free qualification loan and we’ll even pay for any relevant professional body subscription.