Commercial and Procurement Officer

Job description

Commercial and Procurement Officer

Role Responsibility

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Commercial and Procurement Division at Kent County Council. The Division is driven by its mission to ensure the Council is delivering 'best value' for Kent residents across £1.2b of contracted spend. By 'best value', we mean much more than value for money and delivering savings. We are committed to delivering wider social, environmental, and economic benefits to Kent communities and supporting the Kent economy.

We are looking for an ambitious and motivated professional to join our Division as Commercial and Procurement Officer. As an officer, you will be responsible for providing procurement sourcing support and advice across a diverse portfolio of categories.

While the successful candidate will have the opportunity to work across the wider Corporate portfolio, the role will predominantly be within the Property and Facilities Management (FM) categories.

The Corporate portfolio comprises the following key category areas:

• Property and construction, supporting procurement and commercial activity associated with the Council's property and education estate, including construction, refurbishment, maintenance, minor works and major capital projects.

• Facilities Management, supporting the procurement and management of services required to operate and maintain the Council's estate, covering a diverse range of hard and soft FM requirements including; security, catering, cleaning and landscaping services.

• ICT, providing commercial and procurement support for KCC's ICT requirements, including hardware, software, cloud solutions, systems, applications and strategic ICT services via appropriate external frameworks such as G-Cloud, and competitive procurement where required.

• Professional Services, procuring a wide range of professional services, including financial services, banking and insurance, HR and temporary staffing, legal services, marketing and communications, pensions, employee benefits and other corporate services.

This role offers you the opportunity to obtain a nationally recognised Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) level 4 qualification, whilst gaining valuable skills and experience working within the Commercial and Procurement Division.

We also welcome applications from candidates who already hold CIPS Level 4 or a higher CIPS qualification. For successful candidates who are already professionally qualified, there may be opportunities to continue their professional development through further CIPS study, subject to business needs and funding arrangements.

More information on the CIPS level 4 qualification can be found here: Level 4 Procurement and Supply Chain Practitioner | CIPS

This is a career-graded apprenticeship role. It is expected that you will be appointed at KSF and progress to KSG following successful completion of the apprenticeship training and you have demonstrated the required level of proficiency in the role, with ongoing opportunities for continued professional development within the Division.

The focus of the role will be to support the team in providing expertise and professional advice relating to the procurement of works, goods and services, with the flexibility to work across different categories.

To join us, you will have demonstrable commercial or procurement experience within the private or public sector

You will have an excellent work ethic, a positive attitude, be organised, and able to support on multiple projects working to set timescales and deadlines. You will have excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to communicate effectively, working on verbal instructions, and build relationships with internal stakeholders and suppliers. You will have the ability to research, analyse and interpret data/information to support development of procurement plans and category strategies. In this role, each day will offer a chance to build on your experience, knowledge and skills which will help shape the future of Kent.

The Kent County Council is a fully inclusive Employer and we take our values and behaviours very seriously and are looking for employees who are equally passionate about the right values and behaviours.

This post is considered by KCC to be a customer-facing position. The Council therefore has a statutory duty under Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) to ensure that post holders have a command of spoken English/Welsh sufficient for the effective performance of the job requirements. The appropriate standards are set out in the Job Description/Person Specification.

Closing date for applications is Friday 20th November, with interviews being held in, Sessions House, Maidstone on Monday 30th November and Tuesday 1st December 2026.

Contact Details

For more information, please contact Lyndon Smith by e-mail lyndon.smith@kent.gov.uk.

About the Company

Work that works for you and us - let's talk flexibility!

KCC is committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the county's working residents, encouraging applications from people of all ages, abilities, genders, sexual orientations, ethnic backgrounds, faiths and those with caring responsibilities, and aspires to create an inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves at work.

Please note - if you are interested, please apply soon as possible as the closing date for this advert may be earlier than stated should a number of suitably qualified candidates apply.

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Salary

£32,140 - £35,035 per annum

Working conditions

Contract: Permanent Full Time

Working hours: 37 hours per week