Assistant Category Specialist

**Job details**

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**Responsible to**

Procurement Business Partner

**Location**

Kedleston Road, Derby Campus

**Closing date**

Monday 27 April 2026

**Salary**

£28,636 to £30,394 per annum (for exceptional performers, there is scope for further progression up to £34,953 per annum)

**Job grade**

ATOS 5

**Reference**

0077-26

**Contract type**

Permanent

**Post type**

Full-time

**Adaptive working type**

Hybrid

This role will be based on site, primarily in the named location with the opportunity to work remotely available in line with our Adaptive Working Framework.

**About the University**

We have one simple promise – to make a positive impact. Through our ground-breaking research, teaching excellence and commitment to sustainable living, we are changing lives for the better.

The University of Derby is a modern university with a modern outlook. Everything we do is driven by delivering excellence and opportunities for our students, our staff and our region.

We have some of the best university facilities in the UK and achieve outstanding results for our teaching and research and have been awarded Gold in the prestigious Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) 2023 – making it one of the top universities in the country recognised for its outstanding student experience and student outcomes.

Financially strong and seriously ambitious we offer our employees an inclusive culture that centres itself around staff wellbeing, where you can be confident you will receive all the help and encouragement you need to build a rewarding career with lots of opportunities to enhance your skills.

**About the College/Department**

The Finance and Procurement teams plays a crucial role in enabling the University to deliver on its strategic aims. This involves managing and maximising the University’s financial resources while providing expert financial advice and support to the wider University community. Our responsibilities encompass a wide range of essential functions, including providing strategic business partnering, delivering value from supplier relationships, managing effective working capital and cashflow and providing key financial support for our students. Additionally, we oversee all aspects of payroll and pensions management, and deliver comprehensive support for financial systems, tax compliance, and audit needs. Through these activities, we provide assurance to the University community around the financial health and efficiency of the University, supporting its mission and operation.

**About the role**

This role sits in the University’s centralised core Procurement team within Finance, which collectively supports a devolved purchasing activity at the Kedleston Road, Derby main campus and across two other campuses at Buxton and Chesterfield.

The Assistant Category Specialist role will work as part of the category led strategic procurement function, supporting the procurement categories with a high annual spend, and supporting a robust, fit for purpose category management approach that embraces our core values, drives sustainable business practice and delivers best value to the University and our partners.

The Assistant Category Specialist will conduct supply and market analysis, support and deliver tender activities, manage a small portfolio of preferred suppliers including supplier onboarding, resolving and escalated supplier issues to delivering category savings, input and support category sourcing strategies, projects, contract management for other areas on an ad hoc basis and play an active role in communicating departmental strategies and best practices.

**About You**

You’ll be a central contributor to a collaborative, forward thinking team committed to excellence and the University’s core values. With a strong focus on sustainability, you’ll help deliver key environmental initiatives and contribute to the University’s Flexible Framework goals.

We are seeking a motivated procurement professional with a Level 5 CIPS qualification - or the willingness to work towards this qualification - to join our team and help drive excellence across our procurement activities. You will bring experience of working within organisational policies and public procurement environments, along with confidence using E-Tendering systems to deliver compliant, value driven outcomes. Skilled at collaborating with staff at all levels, you will have an understanding of the legal aspects of purchasing and the public sector tendering process to ensure transparency, fairness, and robust governance. If you are ready to contribute your expertise to a dynamic, supportive team and help shape best practice procurement, we’d love to hear from you.

**Principal accountabilities**

Manage and lead compliant tender/sourcing activities.

Work with stakeholders to consolidate requirements to develop clear, detailed specifications and provide recommendations/procurement strategies for assigned portfolio and to assist Procurement Business Partners on opportunities for consolidation for other ad hoc areas.

Define evaluation criteria, set up and run eSourcing and eAuction events where appropriate and with guidance from other Procurement Business Partner and provide input to contract negotiations and supplier risk plans

Prepare, analyse, and evaluate tenders for goods and services as directed by the Procurement Business Partner, ensuring transparency and fairness in compliance to the University’s Purchasing Policy and Procedures.

Support other team members in high value more complex tendering exercises through the delivery of tender activities, including public procurement process and mini competitions (for professional development purposes).

Manage a small assigned portfolio of preferred suppliers, which will include leading of supplier review meetings

Provide detailed analysis on the performance of contracts and suppliers by gathering data on and analysing key metrics, summarising these and providing concise reports that highlight any deviations and recommend courses of action to rectify. This will involve gathering feedback data from both end-users within the University as well as from suppliers.

Responsible for populating central systems such as a central contract database with data received at the conclusion of sourcing projects.

Identify, implement, and evaluate continuous improvement opportunities both internally and externally.

Drive sustainability initiatives with the University’s suppliers, set targets and feedback on the delivery of those targets.

Be fully involved in the Flexible Framework Sustainable Procurement achievement.

Support the Procurement Business Partner to set up and run regular category forum meetings to bring together stakeholders across the University for category specific user groups.

Conduct product/service benchmarking and market analysis.

Assist in the training and development of Buyers in respect of the general procurement of goods and services, the University’s Purchasing Policy and Procedures and the effective use of general procurement systems, processes and practices.

Play a key role in the effective communication of the departmental strategy, policies, systems and procedures.

Responsible for resolving escalated issues relating to the performance of suppliers or central Procurement. This will involve working with stakeholders to understand the root cause of the issues and discuss and agree resolution actions.

Responsible for the delivery of savings within their category.

Be an active member of the Procurement Team eg. Attend and participate in meetings, forums and staff development events and disseminate information from those meetings.

Participate fully in the Development and Performance Review system and demonstrate the University’s core values.

Ensure all work undertaken is recorded and processed in accordance with University financial procedures, procurement regulations and Purchasing Policy, including maintenance of archive materials, in a timely manner.

Support the procurement team with Supplier on boarding and assist Suppliers with any queries.

**Person specification**

### **Essential Criteria**

#### **Qualifications**

• GCSE (grade C or higher) in Mathematics and English language. Educated to A level or equivalent qualification / experience.
• Level 5 CIPS (Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply) qualification or willingness to work towards

#### **Experience**

• Experience of using IT and web based systems
• Evidence of working to organisational procedures and EU procurement regulations
• Supporting categories, involving cross functional teams
• Experience in use of purchasing e-tendering /sourcing systems

#### **Skills, knowledge & abilities**

• Knowledge of the legal aspects of purchasing and the public sector tendering process
• Effective communication skills, both written and oral, including negotiation, tact and diplomacy
• Good presentation, training and coaching skills
• Highly competent/computer literate with a number of Microsoft Office applications and relevant software packages
• Enquiring mind capable of assimilating and interpreting a wide range of information.
• Self-motivated, able to work alone and as part of a team
• Capable of influencing and working with staff at all levels
• Knowledge of trends and best practices in procurement
• A degree of tenacity in resolving and conflict between local stakeholders

#### **Business requirements**

• Willing to travel and work at other sites or locations as necessary
• Undertake Continuous Professional Development (CIPS)
• Pass and renew annually the CIPS Ethical Procurement and Supply Module (on-line)
• Willingness to provide support at University events from time to time e.g., Graduation, Clearing and Open Days, (some of these events occur outside of normal working hours, such as evenings and weekends).

### **Desirable Criteria**

#### **Qualifications**

• Customer Care / Business Administration qualifications
• Prepared to work towards MCIPS full qualification

#### **Experience**

• Experience of working in an educational business environment

#### **Skills, knowledge and abilities**

• Good commercial awareness
• Able to use initiative, be persuasive and have a positive influence on others
• An understanding of EU Procurement Regulations Knowledge of contracts and contract law

**Benefits**

• Generous annual leave entitlement of 38 days inclusive of bank holidays and concessionary days (pro rata)
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Suite of holistic wellbeing benefits and support including family-friendly policies, generous sick pay provision and comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme
• Access to a variety of staff discounts at high street retailers
• Discounted onsite gym
• Cycle to Work scheme
• A flexible working environment
• A commitment to personal and professional development

**Key contact**

For further information and informal enquiries regarding the role, please contact Graham Caborn, Procurement Business Partner via G.Caborn@derby.ac.uk

For enquiries regarding your application and for sponsorship eligibility, please contact the recruitment team via recruitment@derby.ac.uk.

**Important information**

#### **Visa Sponsorship Eligibility**

The University is unable to sponsor the employment of international workers under the Skilled Worker route for this role; however, applications are welcome from candidates who are able to demonstrate an alternative right to work in the UK.

#### **Equity, diversity and inclusion**

The University of Derby is committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion, regardless of age, disability, trans status, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief (or none), sex and sexual orientation.

We are Disability Confident Employers, demonstrating our commitment to disability inclusion, and invite applicants to highlight adjustments they may require to ensure equitable participation in our recruitment processes.

Further, we are committed to ensuring an environment which is trans and non-binary-inclusive for all our staff, students, partners, and visitors, and continuously review our policies, guidance and training.

When applying to join the University, you can choose your preferred title, including the gender-neutral title 'Mx'. We also ask our candidates if they would like to share their preferred pronouns. This is voluntary but demonstrates our commitment to inclusivity for trans and non-binary candidates. Once employed, you can add pronouns and preferred names onto our system.

The University of Derby undertakes anonymised shortlisting during the staff recruitment process. This means that, when shortlisting, panel members will not be able to see an applicant’s name and will see an applicant number instead. This demonstrates the practical steps we are taking to remove barriers to recruitment by minimising the possible impact of our unconscious bias.

However you identify, we actively celebrate the knowledge, experience and talents each person brings. Our students come from a wide range of backgrounds; therefore we are particularly interested to hear from applicants who will help our leaders and teams be more reflective of our student population.

Read more about equity, diversity and inclusion at the University of Derby.

#### **Environmental Sustainability**

At the University of Derby, we are passionate about embedding sustainability into everything that we do. We aim to bring environmental sustainability into all aspects of the University, including teaching, research and operational activities. In line with the University's strategic framework, we expect all our staff to embed sustainability into their working practices and support the University's objective to reach net zero carbon by 2050.

**Don’t miss your chance – join the team and make a difference today!**

**How to apply**

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You can apply by submitting an online application. Once you have signed in or registered with us you will be able to begin your application. If you are creating an account for the first time, please ensure you provide an email address that you access regularly as this will be our main means of contacting you regarding your application.

**The University reserves the right to close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.**

If you require any assistance, including the provision of any documentation in an alternative format, please contact the Recruitment team at recruitment@derby.ac.uk.

Please note all applications must be submitted online by Midnight GMT on the closing date of the vacancy.