Chief Procurement Officer jobs
Maintaining the efficiency of the procurement efforts of the employer’s key operations will be the responsibility of the chief procurement officer. She or he will need to keep in constant touch with the suppliers to ensure they are aware of future needs and also to keep costs as low as possible. Because procurement is so closely tied to profitability, the chief procurement officer will also need to be constantly surveying the market to find out whether savings could be made by switching suppliers, or indeed to decide whether a close client relationship is worth paying extra for if it brings efficiencies in other ways.
The procurement officer will need to have a keen sense of the market in which his or her employer operates, in order to gauge good costs and spot trends that could lead to prices rising or falling. Good intelligence will allow better planning to take place at board level, and the longer in advance they are made aware of such changes, the better will be their decisions.
The job will probably also involve a good deal of negotiation with suppliers to drive down prices, but a sensitivity towards their own requirements will be required; in some markets, suppliers themselves have a lot of bargaining power.
Good chief procurement officers can make a huge difference to the company’s expenditure, and therefore particularly skilled and experienced operatives can be remunerated extremely well.
The skills required
For such a senior procurement role, the entry requirements will be strict. Typically, experience of working in a procurement environment should be several years, but ten or fifteen would not be an unusual request. Management skills will be required, as the chief procurement officer will be overseeing a whole team, especially in larger companies. And finally, experience in the type of goods being supplied to the employer will be hugely advantageous to potential candidates.
An ability to work independently of senior management and make critical decisions without constantly referring them to the board will be highly valued. Chief procurement officers will be judged on their experience and results, and as long as they are delivering and maximising profits, their personal stock will be forever on the up.
Chief Procurement Officer Jobs in Chester
Chester is a city on the eastern tip of Cheshire, so far to the east in fact that parts of the city are actually in Wales. The city’s old football stadium actually straddled the border so that one of its goals was in Wales, the other in England. The new ground, the Deva Stadium, is entirely in Wales – but has an English car park! The name Deva comes from Chester’s Roman name. The city still ahs most of its Roman walls and there are Roman excavations in the city, but the architectural style inside the city is much more modern: Tudor, Victorian and Medieval.
The majority of the city, and all of the walled area, is situated in a natural semi-moat formed by the River Dee. Although pleasure trips go along the Dee, it isn’t navigable in and out of the city, but throughout history canals, railways and roads have connected the city with Cheshire, the Wirral Peninsula, North Wales and Wrexham. Chester is at the end of the M56 and M53 which enter its north side, and southwards it is connected by major A-roads.
Despite its somewhat gentrified appearance and affluent populace, Chester does have a relatively strong industrial heritage, although the main sources of income and employment nowadays are retail, tourism, education and government. However, the economically active population with a huge demand for goods and services does mean that Chester has a thriving logistics, supply chain and procurement sector. For this reason, it is a good place to find Chief Procurement Officer work.
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Cast UK’s procurement opportunities
Cast UK were founded by specialists in the logistics, supply chain and procurement trade, and our consultants are also drawn from these backgrounds, so we know what employers and candidates are looking for.
If you’re looking for a job in procurement, whether you’re relocating for personal reasons or are simply looking for more job fulfilment, there could well be an employer who’s looking for the skills you have, so please get in touch with Cast UK. At any given time, we have jobs all over the UK, so wherever you live, or plan to live, we are well placed to find work that suits your skills. Employers often approach us to find managerial and executive candidates, so if you’re in logistics, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
To find out more about how Cast UK can help you recruit a Chief Procurement Officer for your business or find you a job as a Chief Procurement Officer then contact one of our consultant team on 0333 121 3345.
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