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 Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe is a town at the north of Lincolnshire roughly as far north as Grimsby on the east coast but 23 miles (37 km) inland. Its closest major neighbour is Hull, 16 miles (26 km) to the north east, and Leeds and Sheffield are both roughly 35 miles (57 km) to the west. The town originally comprised five villages, Ashby, Crosby, Brumby, Frodingham and Scunthorpe, but time merged them together and they officially collectively became Scunthorpe as we now know it, with a population of around 75,000.
The town has a rich industrial heritage, and played its part in the Industrial Revolution as a major centre for ironworks in the mid to late 1800s. These would eventually become steel works as the technology was honed. The usual story for most of these industrial boom towns is that that fell into decline in the twentieth century, but happily for Scunthorpe this is not the case. The largest single employer remains the steelworks, now owned by the Indian steel giant Tata. Thanks to the ongoing success of the steelworks, many engineering firms, large and small, are doing well in the area. Major local employers include BOC, Bell Waste Control, Nisa Today’s, 2 Sisters, Key Country Foods, The Sauce Company and Ericsson.
With such a vibrant industrial history and the whole spectrum of industry from heavy to light, Chief Procurement Officer jobs can appear in Scunthorpe from time to time. The town is also at the centre of a circle of major towns, cities, resorts and ports, which can potentially lead new logistics, warehousing and supply chain companies to set up there.
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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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