About Us:

East West Railway Company (EWR Co) was set up by the Secretary of State for Transport in 2017 to accelerate the delivery of the East West Rail infrastructure and passenger services, bringing faster journey times and easing pressure on local roads. EWR was set up to do things differently and aims to innovate, positively disrupt, and challenge the status-quo, leading to quicker and more cost-effective project delivery and an improved experience for our passengers and the community.

EWR Co is a private limited company in which all shares are owned by the Secretary of State for Transport. It acts as an arms-length body to Government and has explicit responsibility for delivering, in stages, a new railway service between Oxford and Cambridge. Phase one of the project, to construct the railway to Bletchley, is about to enter its construction phase whilst phases two and three, which will extend the service to Bedford and Cambridge respectively, remain in their planning stages.

Job Summary:

The successful candidate will join a category management team split into defined categories and will be the lead on the Engineering category, providing strategic and pre-award support across all category stakeholders within East West Rail.
They will support the Head of Category Management and Head of Procurement in ensuring that robust processes are in place over the Commercial affairs of East West Rail, and that procurement projects are successfully delivered to support the Company's aims and objectives.

They will support the management and coordination of the Engineering category through commercial activities, such as category strategies and procurement ranging from low value to high value and complex.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Engage with internal stakeholders to build close, trusted relationships and to ensure a complete understanding on upcoming requirements in IT & Professional Services category space

• Analyse the procurement pipeline to identify category workload and synergies that can be built into a maintained category management plan

• Lead on producing the strategic approach to delivering procurement requirements, to ensure optimum results in terms of benefits, compliance and value for money

• Monitor relevant supplier markets and identify opportunities resulting from market innovation /or market shifts

• Support and influence business strategy at the defining requirements stage, and lead on all resulting commercial activities, including market engagement, development of tender documentation, drafting contracts, supplier feedback and other standard activities

• Create and update a category strategy, building a business case for efficiency initiatives that can be implemented across East West Rail to improve any commercial aspects of the business. In doing this, the Procurement team add value to EWR Co outside of tendering.

• Ensure that risks are identified and that mitigation actions are defined and managed

• Act as a role model for EWR Co's vision and values, behaving in ways that are in alignment with EWR Co's ways of working, encouraging and supporting others

• Promote equality in the workplace and adopt appropriate behaviour when interacting with colleagues


Experience and Skills:

• At least 5 years' experience in procurement / category management, ideally within a regulated business and / or within the UK rail industry

• Experience in managing large value engineering / construction procurements via NEC contracts

• Knowledge of procurement processes, including relevant regulatory requirements (e.g. OJEU / FTS and Public Contracts Regulations)

• Public sector procurement experience is an advantage, including knowledge and understanding of Crown Commercial Service frameworks

• Strong financial and commercial acumen

• Excellent communication, relationship management and presentation skills

• Demonstrable negotiation and conflict resolution skills

• Strong ability to engage and manage stakeholders

• Experience in driving innovation and change

• UK rail industry and/or capital programme knowledge and experience is an advantage

• Prior management or leadership experience is an advantage

• Ability to work autonomously

• Strong people skills and ability to work effectively as part of a team

Excellent benefits package inlcuding - 36 days paid holiday, life assurance, Employee Assistance Programme, up to 20% bonus, also 12% Employee pension