Product Management Assistant

This role is office based in either Normanton. The Product Management Assistant will be required to travel to other Group locations to work alongside colleagues and for external meetings as appropriate. The role will gain experience across the department to give the successful candidate the opportunities within the Product Management and Buying departments. Role Objective This is an entry level role, which will give the successful candidate an opportunity to experience the 3 key pillars of a Buying department, moving through Product Management, Purchasing and Process. The role will support the Product Managers to ensure the Group has a well-constructed, competitive range of products for the different sales channels. The Product Management Assistant will also work alongside the Purchasing Managers to support key buying and negotiating activities that are required both with existing contracts, new contracts and non contract business. Additionally, the successful candidate will assist the Process Manager to identify ways to streamline departmental processes and more efficient ways of working. Key Learning Objectives

• Ensure due diligence is performed on all new suppliers in accordance with Responsible Procurement policy and coordinating with the Compliance Manager on new products.
• Help to implement the process of bringing new products to market including internal communication with the relevant departments, key areas being inventory, operations, and marketing.
• Input data to Product Manager for reporting on supplier performance and manage communication with suppliers on issues and improvement plans where required.
• Support the Product Manager with challenging suppliers and negotiate solutions to poor performance.
• Support the Purchasing Manager in selecting key category related suppliers/brands to interrogate and test market pricing.
• Work on key projects and monitor and review competitor activity - e.g. in Green/CSR offers.
• Request, record and present findings from Product Pricing requests in a clear and concise manner to allow easy assessment of the financial benefits of each proposal.
• Prepare information to assist in the management of the supplier. Including supplier assessment in accordance with the responsible procurement policy, sales and purchase analysis, service performance and terms improvement opportunities.
• Investigate and where applicable resolve vendor & product specification queries.
• Working with Group Inventory to manage supplier delivery arrangements to the UK and Ireland.
• Engage with the Product, Purchasing, Product Marketing, CSR, and Inventory teams to understand priorities and deliver appropriate support.
• Support the Product Management team where relevant to build publications.
• Support the Compliance Manger in collating documentation related to UK and EU legislation on current and new SKUs.
• Report business critical Buying information throughout the business.
• Build strong relationships and rapport with key personnel, interfacing at different levels with key supplier contacts.
  
  Time management is critical in this job role, so the ability to focus and drive to meet goals, deadlines and manage their workload is key.
• Developed communication skills and a high level of professionalism to work with supplier contacts.
• Ability to manage critical business data in a confidential manner.
Other Qualifications or Experience
• Attention to detail.
• Strong numeracy skills, the ability to manipulate and present data.
• Ability to successfully deliver multiple projects simultaneously.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Experienced in the use of Microsoft Office packages, including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint., Disability Confident
About Disability Confident A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.