Junior Commercial Business Partner

Job ref: 192903

TPR grade: Grade 10

**About us**:
More than half the UK working population rely on The Pensions Regulator (TPR) to regulate their retirement savings. With a career at TPR, you’ll be joining an organisation that will impact on millions of lives for decades to come.

Everyone at TPR plays an important role in helping to keep more than £2trn of savings safe. We’re committed to bringing people into TPR who are ready to make a difference and put UK savers at the heart of what we do.

It is important to us that TPR remains a great place to work. We do all we can to help our people reach their full potential with learning, secondment, and development opportunities. We put our 900+ employees first, supporting flexible working and offer a diverse, lively, and inclusive environment. This includes our Disability Network, Family Network, LGBT+ Network (Proud), Minority Ethnic (ME) Network and Women’s Network, which offer spaces to connect.

Our new corporate strategy outlines a bold and challenging vision of how pensions regulation should evolve to keep pace with a change in the scale and nature of the industry. We are at the start of that journey. Join us to find out what part you can play.

**Role**:
We’re looking for procurement and contract management support within assigned business areas, including management of governance and support in providing standard process advice.
- Acting as the procurement primary point of contact, partnering contract and service owners within the assigned business area - ensuring they are receiving effective procurement support and proactive advice spanning the complete lifecycle in all business decisions and future commercial outlook.
- Help identify, develop and implement new, alternative and innovative solutions in line with business change.
- Help design, implement and ensure full assurance in respect of contract management and risk assessment handovers to the business Support in the negotiation of complex requests and analysing the market and finding opportunities to achieve value for money.

**Responsibilities**:
You will:

- work with a basic level of autonomy and proactively, with guidance and oversight from more senior colleagues. Make actions count by prioritising and planning effectively
- scope, prioritise and plan all procurement activities required to meet business outcomes - beginning to identify outputs, dependencies, resource estimates, partners, risks, and timescales with support from more senior colleagues
- support budget holders and partners in achieving best value from the public purse by ensuring clear and open competitions are run in line with EU and UK procurement legislation, seeking support from more senior colleagues as required
- ensure business area aligns with TPR, DWP and Cabinet Office governance policies and all relevant spending controls
- support the delivery of continuous improvement initiatives relating to process and policy

**Essential and desirable criteria**:
**Essential**:

- **Professional Membership/Experience**: achieved, studying towards, or willing to study towards CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply) Level 4 with procurement awareness gained from experience of related work from either private or public sector.
- **Commercial Knowledge**: basic understanding of value for money, procurement standard process and contract management.
- **Leadership**: Ability to lead on low value/low risk procurements supporting the development and delivery of the most appropriate procurement strategies and solutions - supporting a collaborative team approach.
- **Communication**: ability to explain problems and issues in a concise and understandable way.
- **Procurement Strategies**:basic knowledge and understanding of public sector frameworks and a general awareness of new avenues of supply.

**Person specification**:

- Proactive and flexible.
- Ability to prioritise and use initiative.
- Problem solving and analytical skill.
- Communication skills at all levels.
- Attention to detail and accuracy.

**Salary and benefits**:
As well as a salary between £31,684 and £36,084, we offer:

- Civil Service Pension arrangements, which are recognised as some of the best in the pensions world
- discretionary bonus arrangements
- access to performance related pay progression
- 25 days annual leave provision
- flexible working arrangements
- development opportunities
- enhanced parental leave arrangements
- a free employee assistance programme
- an excellent office location in Brighton

**How to apply**:

- a covering letter with details of how your skills and experience meet the role requirements
- a copy of your CV
- details of your notice period

We are an inclusive employer and offer equal opportunities regardless of an individual’s age, disability, gender identity, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

Please be aware, as we are transitioning into a