Assistant Buyer

This post offers an excellent on-the-job training opportunity in our customer focused, proactive Integrated North Staffordshire and Black Country Procurement Group which is responsible for purchasing a comprehensive range of goods and services and delivering an enhanced materials management services to wards and theatres.

Undertake operational procurement buying activities relating to the processing of requisitions, placing of purchasing orders with suppliers in a responsive and effective manner, obtaining quotations, ensuring Trust standardisation protocols are followed. Provide customer liaison service and helpdesk support.. Undertake administrative and maintenance tasks relating to buying activities and procurement systems and deliver on-going cost efficiencies and benefits to the Trust

Liaises with Procurement and Supply Chain staff, Trust requisitioners, budget holders, suppliers, Trust Managers, Collaborative Procurement Hubs and Accounts Payable.

University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust is one of the largest and most modern in the country. Based across two sites, Royal Stoke in Stoke-on-Trent and County Hospital in Stafford, we are proud to serve around three million people and we're highly regarded for our facilities, teaching and research. We are the specialist center for major trauma for the North Midlands and North Wales.

All of our employees make a valuable contribution regardless of role here at UHNM and we are proud of our wide range of development packages aimed at ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their true potential.

UHNM create and encourage a culture of inclusion, providing equal opportunities for career development that are fair and transparent. We are committed to being a diverse and inclusive employer and foster a culture in which all staff feel valued and respected. In return we ask all of our employees to make a commitment to the values, co-created by or staff, patients and carers, and that unite us as a Trust.

At University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust we know that investing in, supporting and developing our staff has a direct impact on the quality of care that we deliver. Our employees are as important as our patients and the population that we serve.
- Provide customer liaison and helpdesk services, managing telephone enquiries, providing advice and resolving queries and problems.
- Obtaining verbal pricing and obtaining competitive quotations from Suppliers which requires negotiation and influencing skills.
- Contribute to the Department’s savings targets and ensure a monthly savings return is submitted to the Supply Chain Manager.
- To be responsible for a range of low value contracts including the conduct of competitive quotation exercises, under supervision of the Supply Chain Manager.
- Ensure all Operations contract renewals are dealt with efficiently and effectively.
- To interpret and action electronic requisitions and the placement of orders so as to ensure that goods and services are ordered in an efficient and timely manner.
- To conduct buying activity in accordance with Trust procedures, Standing Orders, Standing Financial Instructions, Professional Codes of Practice and their relevant regulations.
- To develop positive relations with user departments and to ensure that a high standard of customer service is provided.
- To maintain and develop a sound knowledge of products and suppliers and to actively promote the use of current or new suppliers to service users where these meet their needs and represent “best value”
- Research alternative products and highlight standardisation opportunities.
- To identify areas of high spend including repetitive low value orders and to bring these to the attention of the Supply Chain Manager and Strategic Procurement Teams, providing information on product usage and trends for potential contracting or catalogue ordering.
- To liaise proactively with the Trust’s Receipts & Distribution team to identify and resolve delivery queries effectively and to agree delivery arrangements for individual orders which maximise efficiency and minimise delivery problems and queries.
- To liaise proactively with the Trust’s Creditor Payments Team to identify and resolve invoice queries and to agree payment arrangements for individual orders which maximise efficiency and minimise invoice problems and queries.
- To liaise proactively with suppliers to agree prices and delivery dates and to resolve queries.
- To obtain reports from procurement systems as required including the manipulation of reports into Excel or other appropriate format.
- Support the Supply Chain Manager in the training and development of other team members within the Procurement Operations team
- Responsible for researching alternative products when necessary.