7 Forces Commercial Services Category Specialist (Eastern Region)

The 7 Force Procurement Team is a new shared service supporting the seven police forces across the East of England (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk). This collaboration is responsible for third party spend of approximately £230m per annum, making the 7Force Collaboration the second largest police procurement collective after the Metropolitan Police. The 7 Force Commercial Services Function are looking for a Category Specialist to develop and deliver all allocated sub-category related procurement activities including category plans, market research, shaping & development, procurement strategy creation, the identification of new contract opportunities, the tendering process and initial implementation of procurement contracts across the 7 Forces. The post holder must have the ability to interact with all senior level management and represent the 7 Forces as a collective or individually, where necessary. They must have the gravitas to influence external bodies such as the Home Office, Crown Commercial Services, Police Digital Service and BlueLight Commercial and participate, as appropriate, on nationally led initiatives, providing opinion, guidance and shaping future offerings. The post holder must also be able to interact with budget holders and operational contract owners in the 7 Forces, ensuring the procurement pipeline accurately reflects business need priorities. The post holder will be ideally educated to CIPS Level 5 in-line with the CIPS structure guidance or be able to clearly evidence equivalent levels of experience, technical knowledge and expertise by having worked as a Procurement professional for a complex, public-sector organisation. In your application we will be looking for you to demonstrate the essential and desirable criteria set out in the full job description. Travel will be required across all seven forces. For an informal initial discussion about the role please contact Louise.Larter@suffolk.police.uk, in the first instance. The postholder for this role will be employed by 7 Forces Commercial Services, but the base location of the postholder could be within any of the seven police forces listed above (i.e. local to you) and is therefore open to candidates across all regions. The Vetting level required for this post is Management MV and Security Clearance. Candidates will be required to undertake the appropriate level security vetting checks, which will include the requirement to have lived in the UK for five years (MV) from the date of your application. Essex Police offer incremental increases within this salary band, therefore the salary for this position will rise to a maximum of £56,931.00. Kent Police and Essex Police have separate salary grading systems therefore the salary for this position will be dependent on which home office force you are appointed to. This will be discussed with the successful applicant before a final offer is made. Your application for this role will be shortlisted on the content you provide within the "reason for application" question, within the application form itself. CV's, covering letters or attachments are not included in the shortlist. Within your "reason for application" answer, please refer to any experience, skills, and abilities you feel you have that will make you suitable for this role, based on the role criteria stated in the job advert or job description. Please provide as much detail as possible as insufficient content may mean you do not meet the shortlisting criteria, however please note this question is limited to 9000 characters and this system will count spaces and blank lines as characters. This count may differ from the Microsoft Word word count function therefore you may wish to use a different online character counter to check the characters used. All of our posts require a level of vetting and security clearance. During the recruitment process you will be sent vetting information forms to complete. Kent Police and Essex Police welcomes applications regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, sex, or employment status. Please let us know if you require extra support at any stage of the application process, or for further information regarding this position, please email us at recruitment.business.services@ecis.police.uk stating 'Application Support and Adjustments' in the title of your email. Alternatively, you can call us on . Where appropriate we will make adjustments to the selection process, working arrangements and/or the working environment provided it is reasonable in all the circumstances to do so. This post is open to:

• British Citizens
• Members of a European Economic Area (EEA) state who hold settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme.
• Commonwealth citizens or foreign nationals (who are not British citizens or European Economic Area (EEA) state members) who have leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom for an indefinite period that is free from restrictions.
All applicants (except those who have been serving abroad with the British Armed Forces) must have lived in the UK continuously for the past three years. Essex Police and Kent Police are an equal opportunities employer. Communications may be recorded for monitoring purposes. Essex Police is a Disability Confident Leader, we:
• have subjected our Disability Confident self-assessment to external challenge and validation
• are taking an active leadership role in encouraging and helping other employers on their journey to becoming Disability Confident.
Diversity, Equality and Inclusion are central to the values of our organisation. At Essex Police we value and embrace the unique experiences, identities and abilities that each of us bring to our roles. We strive to empower everyone to bring their authentic self openly and safely to work. Through the dedicated commitment of our support networks, DE&I team and wider HR departments, we are on a journey to embed our DE&I commitments, ensuring Essex Police is an employer of choice; where everyone feels included. Essex Police and Kent Police are an equal opportunities employer. Communications may be recorded for monitoring purposes.