Job Title: Procurement Business Partner

Please note, we may look to interview before the advert close date due to the urgency of the role. The advert will close if a suitable candidate is found before the deadline.

The Challenge: Deliver compliant, proportionate procurement that secures value for money and keeps the Catapult's programmes and projects on schedule. Reporting to the Procurement Manager, you will run end-to-end procurements, advise colleagues on the right route to market, and help budget holders and requirement owners make informed commercial decisions.

The role combines hands-on delivery with practical support for the business. You will act as the first point of contact for most new procurement requests, help requirement owners use our templates and guidance with confidence, and support continual improvement of our procurement processes. You will work closely with the Procurement Administrator and with colleagues across Contracts, Legal and Quality to make sure procurement activity is joined up with due diligence, contracting and governance.

You will also act as a first point of contact for new third-party engagements, triaging requests and bringing in Contracts, Legal and Governance colleagues early where needed

Procurement Delivery

• Run end-to-end procurements, from planning and market engagement through evaluation to contract award, seeking guidance from the Procurement Manager on complex, high-value or high-risk activity

• Recommend routes to market for individual requirements, including testing framework availability and eligibility, and agree the approach with the Procurement Manager where needed

• Draft procurement documentation, including specifications, evaluation criteria, tender documents and Contract Award Reports, challenging gaps and assumptions

• Prepare and publish notices required under the Procurement Act 2023 and maintain a clear audit trail for each procurement

• Brief and support evaluation panels, including conflict of interest declarations and evaluation training

• Support the Procurement Manager on complex procurements as required

Advice and business partnering

• Act as first point of contact for most new requests to the procurement mailbox, escalating where there is complexity, uncertainty or high workload

• Help requirement owners to run lower-value activity themselves, directing them to the right templates and guidance and checking their approach is proportionate

• Guide colleagues on exceptions to the procurement policy (EPPs) and Contract Award Reports (CARs) so that submissions are complete and well-reasoned

• Review non-standard terms and conditions, identify risks and recommend changes, escalating contentious issues to the Procurement Manager or the Contracts team

• Support and coordinate due diligence for external parties, working with Contracts, Legal and Governance colleagues so that due diligence and contracting are in place before award

• Act as an early commercial point of contact for new third-party engagements, helping colleagues identify procurement, contracting, due diligence and governance requirements and bringing in the appropriate subject matter experts at the right stage

Contracts and pipeline

• Liaise with contract owners on upcoming expiries and renewals, and facilitate compliant extension, retender or closure

• Keep the procurement pipeline and contract records accurate and current

• Support supplier performance monitoring for contracts you have procured, including critical suppliers

• Monitor spend against contracts and frameworks, flagging any contract at risk of exceeding its awarded value

• Own the Qualified Parties Lists (QPLs), maintaining the central QPL data, overseeing onboarding and periodic refresh, supporting category owners to manage entry to their categories, and advising colleagues on appropriate use

• Support contract owners after award, including uploading signed contracts to the Contract Vault, recording key dates and supporting changes and variations in line with the Contracting Policy

Improvement and Capability

• Support the development of procurement policy, processes, templates, guidance and training

• Promote and embed proportionate social value and sustainability considerations in procurement activity

• Maintain procurement content on the intranet and SharePoint

• Support continual improvement in line with the Catapult's ISO 9001 quality management system

• Take part in the cross-Catapult procurement group to keep up with developments across the network

Team Support

Support the Procurement Administrator with queries and provide cover for supplier set-up, shopping cart approval and purchasing checks when needed

Ways of Working: We are a learning organisation where our ways of working are underpinned by coaching and feedback, fostering adult to adult conversations. Innovation is at the heart of everything that we do, therefore being highly adaptive and agile with a GROWTH mindset will ensure your success at the Catapult. We expect our people to be Pioneering, Agile, Collaborative and Entrepreneurial, working at PACE.

Skills & Experience required:

Essential

• Experience in a procurement or commercial role, including running tenders from start to finish

• Working knowledge of the Procurement Act 2023 and experience of public procurement processes

• Experience drafting specifications and evaluation criteria, and confidence asking probing questions to make them fit for purpose

• Confident user of Microsoft Office, including Excel, and able to pick up new systems quickly

• Confidence reading contractual documents and recognising when to seek advice

 Desirable

• Working knowledge of contract clauses and terms and conditions, and the ability to identify commercial risk

• MCIPS, or studying towards CIPS Level 5 or 6

• Experience in a technology or technically oriented organisation

• Experience of grant-funded and commercially funded work across the public and private sectors

• Experience of social value or sustainability in procurement

• Awareness of the Subsidy Control Act and its relevance to publicly funded work

Competencies & Skills required:

•  Collaboration: Builds strong working relationships with requirement owners, external parties and colleagues across Commercial & Legal, managing stakeholders’ needs proactively and bringing in the right people early.

• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication, adapting style to the audience and explaining procurement rules and commercial risk in plain language. Uses questioning to test requirements and assumptions.

• Problem-solving: An analytical approach that identifies gaps in specifications and requirements, explores alternative routes to market and focuses on what matters most, recognising when to seek advice.

• Execution: Strong planning and organisation, with close attention to detail. Plans procurements around programme timelines, monitors progress and adjusts to deliver on time and proactively improves processes and templates.

• Personal effectiveness: Works independently across competing priorities, adapts quickly when plans change, follows through on commitments and actively seeks feedback and development.

Success factors: You know you have been successful when…

• Procurement requirements & contracts are drafted & awarded compliantly, on time, representing value for money.

• Requirement owners get timely, practical advice and can run lower-value activity themselves with confidence. They understand and value our processes and support.

• Commercial and contractual risks are spotted early and escalated appropriately.

• Renewals and expiries are identified early and handled compliantly.

• New third-party engagements are identified early, triaged effectively and connected with the right commercial, legal and governance support before issues become blockers

About us & how we work: 

We strive to create a high trust, high performance and inclusive environment that enables team members to bring their whole selves to work.  This helps to create the foundations of an innovation culture. Our shared values are critical to this: 

• We care - for our people, our partners, and our planet

• We connect - and engage with people and ideas

• We learn - and grow, as people and as an industry

Underpinning this is our belief in great teams.  Our combined efforts will always deliver outcomes beyond that of any individual, providing we are honest through debate, experiment and reflect, and create shared resolutions in support of our purpose. Live these values, work to our principles, take ownership to deliver, and we are certain you will thrive with us. 

This job description set outs the skills and experience we think are needed to be able to perform in this job.  If you believe you can deliver in this role then we want to hear from you.

We offer a hybrid policy which is designed around collaboration, one 'anchor' day per week working with your direct team and another flexible day per week to be spent collaborating or working with other colleagues.

Important notice for applicants: We use tools to detect plagiarism and the use of AI or chatbots for applicant answers. If plagiarism, AI use (such as ChatGPT) or similar software are found to have been used in your application you will not be considered for this or future roles within the Satellite Applications Catapult.

At Satellite Applications Catapult, we're committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce. We welcome candidates from all corners of the globe, but due to legal and logistical considerations, we want to be transparent about the potential visa-related challenges that could arise. Our ability to offer sponsorship will depend on the level of interest for our roles and salary level. Please note, sponsorship can not be offered on this occasion.

If you need any additional support during the application process, please do reach out and connect. We also invite you to share feedback via Applied.

Please note that we offer study support (at our discretion) and on the job training will be provided.