Community Support Jobs
Full time (flexible working options available)
Fixed Term Contract – 12 months
Farringdon, London/Home-based
Closing Date: 11 September 2024
Ref 6814
We're looking for a Procurement Manager to join our team on a 12-month fixed term contract. If you're excited to join a committed, values-driven team where you'll drive impact and ensure value for money that in turn maximises impact for children, we'd love to hear from you.
About Us
Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.
About the role
As Procurement Manager, you will work closely with the Head of Procurement to drive procurement best practice across the organisation, to ensure that every pound spent enables us to achieve maximum impact for children and to mitigate operational, commercial and compliance risk. Key categories for Save the Children UK include media and marketing, technology and digital, consultancy, global travel, corporate services, property services and utilities, so this is a varied role with huge opportunity for impact!
Working with colleagues across the organisation at all levels, you will build and maintain strong relationships with a variety of stakeholder groups to raise the profile of procurement and sell the benefits of a strategic, robust approach to procurement.
Day-to-day, you'll provide guidance and leadership on procurement issues and work with the business to develop procurement business cases, ensuring that specifications and terms of reference are clear and structured to get the most out of the market, as well as support the effective implementation of procurement projects.
You'll play a key role in providing a flexible procurement service that is always in line with our organisational values of integrity, accountability, collaboration, ambition and creativity, and ensure we get optimum value from all our supplier engagements so that we use donor funds to maximise impact for children.
In this role, you will:
• Deliver value-for-money procurement solutions: managing the entire procurement cycle from understanding and challenging the need, building the business case, leading or supporting the tender process, through to contract management and review.
• Take responsibility for a variety of key service areas and categories
• Maintaining and developing strong market expertise, conducting regular price and quality benchmarking
• Evaluating supplier spend and performance data to develop category profiles and identify savings opportunities
• Managing high value and/or high-risk procurement projects
• Sourcing new commercial markets, including assessing who key potential suppliers are and what the power balance is between these and with SCUK
• Developing evaluation criteria and assessing tenders to ensure bidders meet SCUK's defined specifications and ensuring that key procurement decisions are made in an effective and accountable manner
• Negotiating agreements with a range of suppliers
• Influencing stakeholders to adopt chosen solutions
• Collaborating with SCUK teams to ensure robust and effective contract management
• Develop relationships with key suppliers (including with stakeholders at senior levels up to CEO level) to assist SCUK teams to monitor and evaluate performance to contract.
• Drive compliance with our purchase to pay solution and work closely with Finance Operations to support the development of optimal invoicing and payment processes.
• Drive understanding of and adherence to the Procurement Policy and Procedures across the business and identify opportunities for SCUK to become a more efficient and effective organisation by determining where processes can be improved or simplified.
About you
You'll be a proven self-starter, able to work independently, use initiative and manage upwards. You'll be confident prioritising between competing requirements and meeting deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
With excellent relationship building skills, you'll bring proven experience successfully identifying solutions to key and complex procurement issues and providing guidance and leadership to stakeholders.
To be successful, you'll demonstrate:
• Strong commercial management skills, including identification of value-adding opportunities and leading commercial and contract negotiations.
• Procurement experience, including management of tendering exercises across a wide range of products and services.
• Competent in analysing financial spend data, problem solving and reporting on savings, including a strong working understanding of using Excel for analysis of datasets.
• Working knowledge of contract law, specifically an understanding of varying commercial mechanisms and payment approaches including where and how to apply these.
• Knowledge of risk management.
• Working understanding of Agile project management principles within a commercial context.
• MCIPS or part qualified, or comparable qualification / qualified by experience.
• Commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission and values.
What we offer you:
Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance.
We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work.
We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day.
Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.
Ways of Working:
The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but there are likely to be times when you will be required to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter). This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team and is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building.
Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense.
Flexible Working - We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.
Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:
Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be "Free to Be Me". We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think.
We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences - of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability - help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.
Size: More than 1000
Thank you!
About MSI
MSI Reproductive Choices is a social enterprise and registered charity, and one of the world’s leading providers of sexual and reproductive healthcare. We believe that everyone should have the right to choose. From contraception to safe abortion and life-saving post-abortion care, we are committed to delivering compassionate, affordable, high-quality services for all.
We know that access to reproductive choice is life changing. For some, it can mean the ability to complete an education or start a career. For others, it means being able to look after the family they already have. For everyone, it means the freedom to decide their own future, creating a fairer, more equal world.
Today, our organisation has over 9,000 team members working in 37 countries across the world but particularly in Africa and Asia. Our success lies in the fact that MSI teams are locally led, entrepreneurial and results-driven, and are passionate about delivering high quality, client-centred care in their own communities. As a social business, we focus on sustainable delivery, efficiency, and funding models that are built to last, so that the women and girls we serve today will have a choice in the future too.
About the Department
The Legal, Safeguarding and Donor Compliance (LSDC) team is made up of 12 individuals from a range of countries including 4 based in Africa and works across MSI’s locations. It has a broad role both in the UK and in dealing with the legal and administrative complexities of providing sexual and reproductive healthcare across Africa and Asia. It runs MSI’s anti-fraud, safeguarding, data privacy and carbon reduction processes, and deals with global government and other large donor funding requirements.
The “objective” of the team is to develop and advise on effective MSI policies and processes, and provide quality advice to the organisation, so that decisions are transparent and well-informed, and decision-makers are accountable.
About the Role
This exciting opportunity requires the successful candidate to manage the administrative requirements of the team and maximize its productivity and efficiency. The role has a broad remit, with the opportunity to work with team members in more than 30 countries, enabling the most efficient yet comprehensive outcomes, ensuring informed decisions and identifying and escalating potential risks. Legal, governance or compliance experience is beneficial but not essential as the LSDC Team will offer extensive training on these matters. We are really looking for a super-efficient EA or team manager who we can involve in multiple projects and team activities across the world, however to get the best candidate we would consider someone who in their future is considering looking for a period of recognised legal training leading to the successful candidate taking the SQE.
About You
We recruit talented, dynamic people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all united by a belief in our mission and a focus on delivering measurable results. We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace, where everyone feels able to participate and contribute meaningfully. You must be open-minded, curious, resilient, and solutions-oriented, and committed to promoting equality, and safeguarding the welfare of team members and clients alike.
To perform this role, it is essential that you have the following skills:
- Very high attention to detail
- Proven critical thinking skills to think through requests and respond effectively
- Great organisation skills
- Significant coordination skills, able to coordinate global events
- Advanced demonstrable skill in using the full Microsoft Office suite, particularly Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint
- Project management skills and experience
- Demonstrable fast typing skills (60 WPM or above)
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
To perform this role, it is essential that you have the following experience:
- Strong and demonstrable experience in a Senior EA, Legal Assistant, Legal secretarial or similar administrative function, with a high degree of organization, logic and order, a proactive approach to process improvement and strong problem-solving abilities.
- Legal, governance or compliance experience is useful but not essential
Formal education/qualification
- Degree educated/company secretarial qualification/recognised legal secretarial qualification or qualified by significant experience
Personal Attributes:
We seek exceptional individuals who are aligned to MSI’s mission and entrepreneurial mindset. You must be a strong communicator, self-motivated and solutions-seeking, committed to driving social change in an environment that measures sustainable results and impact at an individual and global level. You must be able to work effectively with and across diverse teams and be comfortable with ambiguity.
Please view the job framework on our website.
Location: London Support Office (hybrid working - 2 days per week working from the office).
Full-time: 35 hours a week, Monday to Friday
Contract type: Permanent
Salary: £34,200 - £42,750 per annum for UK based candidates. Discretionary bonus + benefits.
Salary band: BG 7
Closing date: 9th September 2024 (midnight BST). Interviews may take place before this date for exceptional candidates.
For internal employees applying from an MSI country programme, the role will be positioned within the existing salary structure of the country. Local terms and conditions of the country will appl
Thank you!
PR and Communications Manager
Reporting to: Head of Communications
Responsible for: Communications Officer
Based: Our Head Office is based in London, but we have an agile working policy enabling people to work at another UK location up to 4 days/week. Permanent remote working in the UK is possible and we welcome applications from people based in other parts of the UK.
Terms: Full time (35 hours/week), permanent.
Salary: £34,424 - £45,448 per annum
About the role
The main purpose of this role is to lead on the delivery of a broad and engaging PR and communications strategy for the BSA, and several of its programmes, to raise the profile of the organisation’s work and its spokespeople.
They will create engaging content for our digital channels, as well as work on national PR campaigns, develop social media strategies and produce thought-provoking case studies.
They will work on key aspects of the British Science Week PR and events campaign and will lead the British Science Festival’s media relations work. They will also oversee the communications plans for our Policy, Partnerships and Impact programmes, including For Thought, Sciencewise, and Future Forum.
They will line manage our Communications Officer and provide support and advice to the wider communications team, especially on PR and media relations activity.
Key responsibilities
The main responsibilities of this role are to:
- Deliver the BSA’s corporate communications strategy, by developing integrated, multi-channel communications plans and activities;
- Manage a programme of profile-raising PR and media relations for the BSA and its spokespeople;
- Develop the PR and communications plan for British Science Week, including leading on the stakeholder launch event;
- Lead on the PR and media relations plan for the British Science Festival, by liaising with the researchers and academics involved;
- Deliver the communications plans for our Policy, Partnership and Impact programmes, including our annual thought leadership summit, For Thought, the BSA’s work on Sciencewise, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diversity and Inclusion in Science, and Future Forum;
- Oversee the use of our corporate brand, our corporate tone of voice and lead on the content creation of our owned social and digital corporate channels;
- Play an active role in evaluating the success of our communications campaigns;
- Line manage the Communications Officer, offering support and guidance as necessary, and ensuring their Learning and Development needs are met;
- Collaborate with colleagues across the organisation on content & ideas for the various programmes we run.
About you
The PR and Communications Manager role will suit someone who has a passion for showcasing the impact of an organisation with stakeholder audiences.
We are looking for someone who is proactive and creative, with an eye for detail. You should be a compelling storyteller, with experience in developing engaging content in various media.
Ideally, you will have a background in media relations or PR, but if not, a sound understanding of the UK media landscape is essential.
You do not need a background in science to apply for this role – we are looking for someone who wants to communicate messages and deliver excellent content.
You will have the opportunity to work with a range of stakeholders in this role, including some of the BSA’s beneficiaries, our partners and sponsors, the press and media, as well as contractors. You need to feel comfortable meeting and talking to new people.
You will occasionally work at events, so a professional manner is a must, and a willingness to travel to other parts of the UK from time to time.
The closing date for applications is 23.59 on Sunday 15 September 2024.
Interviews are due to take place w/c 30 September 2024.
You will be informed as soon as possible after the application deadline whether you have been selected for interview.
Interested?
If you would like to find out more, please click the apply button. You will be directed to our website to complete your application for this position.
As part of the British Science Association’s commitment to being a Disability Confident employer, all disabled* applicants who meet the ‘essential criteria’ for this vacancy will be offered an interview under our guaranteed interview scheme.
If you wish to apply under the guaranteed interview scheme, you will be asked to indicate this when you submit your application by selecting ‘yes’ in the relevant box when asked during the application process. Applicants do not need to state any further information or declare their disability at the application stage.
Whether you are applying under the scheme or not, if you are successful in being shortlisted, we will ask candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions to let us know if they need any adjustments during the recruitment process.
While we try to ensure that everyone finishes work on time, and can vary their working hours in line with our agile working policy, from time to time the job entails working extended hours and occasional weekends, for which no overtime payments are made. The BSA operates a time off in lieu policy for weekend working and some other out-of-hours instances.
Only applicants who have a legal right to work within the UK will be considered. You will be asked to bring along proof of nationality and/or proof of ability to work in the UK.
You will also be asked to declare any previous convictions in line with your rights under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) order 1975.
This is a description of the job as it is presently constituted. It is the practice of the Association to examine job descriptions from time to time and to update them to ensure they relate to the job as then being performed, or to incorporate whatever changes are reasonably required, in discussion with the postholder.
A copy of our Privacy Notice is available on the vacancies page of our website.
*The Disability Confident scheme’s definition of disability is in line with the Equalities Act 2010: “a physical or mental condition which has a long-term and substantial effect on your daily life”.
Further information about our Disability Confident commitments can be found on the Disability Confident page of our website.
Our commitment to EDI
For the BSA's vision to come to fruition, we need to help science become part of culture, including those who are currently least engaged. We need to be able to engage with people in groups that are poorly represented in science, and that’s why equality, diversity & inclusion (EDI) needs to be central to our activities.
The BSA has established three objectives for our work with EDI:
- Develop our staff and internal systems to ensure the BSA reflects the society we want to see, and develops inclusive culture and policies;
- Change our programmes to increase their relevance to audiences who are traditionally under-represented in science engagement activities, and empower people to run science engagement activities for their networks and communities;
- Influence other organisations and individuals in the science engagement to sector to develop and improve their EDI practices in capability and audience development to reach new audiences.
We recognise that in many settings, at the BSA and beyond, EDI can be seen as an add-on or ‘fix’ to the regular work. Our aim is for EDI to be the heart of everything we do.
No agencies please.
Thank you!
This is a new role, and an exciting time to join our well-regarded and high performing team.
You will have a strong background in advocacy and strategic communications at a senior level, with related skills and abilities, and have a good understanding of human rights in the UK, including our everyday rights.
Please read the application pack, and submit a CV together with an application form, detailing how you meet the person specification.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.