Category Manager

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

The Category Manager will be responsible for providing a range of procurement activities, deputising for the Line Manager/Senior Manager as required and assisting in the provision of a cost effective, efficient and responsive service, ensuring customer service levels are established and maintained to a high standard on a client/service provider basis.

Main duties of the job

• To design, communicate and embed strategic sourcing and category management principles across the procurement team in both clinical and non-clinical categories.
• Be the main point of contact for specific Division(s) and liaise with colleagues across the Procurement Team to enable the client from the Division to receive appropriate support and advice.
• Lead complex procurement processes and ensure that arrangements are commercially sound and represent the best interests of the Trust.
• Assess opportunities and deliver efficiencies and savings through procurement projects as appropriate.
• Apply considerable professional judgment when leading on specific procurement activity and when advising senior managers, colleagues, staff and customers on the resolution of complex and strategic procurement issues, in accordance with procurement obligations/regulations including the Procurement Act 2023.
• Lead in identifying areas to improve quality and reduce costs on Trust wide non-pay spend.

About us

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offers a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Job responsibilities

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

Person Specification

Experience

• Proven experience of working in a management/leadership role
• Experience of facilitating change in practice to improve services
• Experience of managing/leading a team
• Project management/co-ordination
• Responsibility for a budget
• Public-private sector experience

Qualifications

• Relevant degree or equivalent qualification or significant experience of working at degree level
• Management/leadership qualification or equivalent knowledge at post graduate level
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Member Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply
• Project Management Qualification

Knowledge

• Financial procedures including budgetary management
• Business planning/annual planning
• Good understanding of change management
• Use of IT systems (e.g. Word, Excel, Outlook) - standard keyboard skills
• Understanding of the NHS and current agenda
• Demonstrable knowledge of service improvements and project management
• Risk management and governance
• NHS IT systems

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer name

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust