Join our Procurement Team

Manager with colleague smiling

Our Procurement Team work with teams across the Council to ensure that our contracts provide a positive impact on the lives of our customers across the borough.

Procurement is not just about compliance - although this is still important. Procurement is the whole process of purchasing from third parties and in-house providers and covers goods, services and works. Our Procurement team support the whole contract life-cycle - from the initial creation and definition of our business needs, to the effective management of markets, through to the end of the useful life of an asset/the end of a services contract.

Here at Solihull Council, we value our team. We are a group of commercially minded, environmentally focused, open, honest and transparent people with a continued focus on improvement.

We have a positive, supportive team culture, recognising our individual strengths, skills, experience and support each other so we continue to develop, learn and grow. I appreciate that changing organisations/roles can be unsettling. I hope that by learning a little more about us as a team, you feel we are one to join!

Charlotte Kings, Head of Procurement, Solihull Council

Want to apply for our opportunities within Procurement?

You can see our current opportunities on WM Jobs.

Apply at WM Jobs

If we don’t have any current vacancies within Procurement or Category Management, please sign up for Job Alerts with keywords ‘category’ or ‘procurement’ to be notified by email when new opportunities arise.

Your career path in procurement

Joining our busy team offers a great opportunity to build a long-term career within a procurement environment in local government.

With a clear career path from Apprentice through to Head of Service, you can progress your career and apply for internal opportunities as you develop your skills, experience and move up within our pay grade structure.

Solihull Council support our procurement staff to obtain chartered member status with the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply to progress their professional career both academically and in practice.

We recruit our apprentices through the Councils apprenticeship scheme. We will provide you with the learning opportunities and work experience to complete your apprenticeship in procurement, working under the supervision of a Strategic Procurement Business Partner.

Under the supervision of a Strategic Procurement Business Partner, our Assistant Category Managers lead on lower value procurement projects or framework agreements and are involved in:

  • the delivery of the Council’s efficiency targets
  • developing procurement
  • commercial and contractual expertise
  • supporting our strategy to deliver year on year savings

Our Category Managers play an important role in:

  • the development and delivery of our sourcing and supply strategy
  • assisting in the management at all stages of the procurement process - including user needs analysis, market research, sourcing activity, structuring tenders, market engagement, tender evaluation and moderation
  • negotiation
  • all contractual matters

Our Strategic Procurement Business Partners act as Procurement Account Manager for their directorate and support the Leadership Team in delivering the departments strategy in all their procurement activities.

They are the principal lead for identifying and managing continuous improvement for procurement activity within the directorate they support, leading a team of Category Managers to ensure value for money is delivered through wise use of public money whilst maximising the benefit for our local community and economy. 

As deputy for the Head of Procurement, our Procurement Business Manager is responsible for the operational delivery of all strategic procurement activity and creation of our continuous improvement plans. This includes:

  • line management responsibility for all Strategic Procurement Business Partners
  • horizon scanning to identify areas of best practice and opportunities for improvement that build into our continuous improvement plans

Future plans

Staff members talking

To enable our strategic operational procurement team to focus on commercial activity, we are in the process of developing a Governance and Systems team to support our team of procurement professionals ensuring our policies, systems and processes are in place, effectively maintained and continuously improved.

Testimonials

Karen, Category Manager

“This isn’t a team that focuses on just following procurement processes, there is a much wider view in terms of development and building relationships within procurement. We are encouraged to learn, to challenge and to understand how to grow as individuals and as a team.

I’m proud that I took the step to change my career pathway.  After being in the same role for nearly 17 years, it took a big leap of faith to make the move. However, I’ve taken the challenge and whilst there is a lot to learn within this area, I’ve already been receiving excellent feedback from stakeholders on my performance.

Since being employed with Solihull Council, I have been given a lot of opportunities to develop my academic profile. I have gained my ILM3, NVQ level 3 Business Administration, Prince 2 (Foundation and Practitioner) and APM PFQ.”

Sunny, Category Manager

“Having recently joined from another local authority, the procurement department at Solihull Council is like no other. I have really enjoyed learning a new category and being able to participate in group activities, sharing ideas to help further develop myself.

This fantastic training, guidance and team environment has made my journey to date enjoyable. This has helped me to work with stakeholders from all over the Council to adhere to procurement processes and achieve Council requirements and needs.”

Stacie, Strategic Procurement Business Partner

“I was apprehensive about joining a larger procurement service. But the managers have a very warm presence and this is reflected through the group. I was immediately welcomed and introduced, through short chats, to each member of the team, which helped my understanding of the various categories and experience levels but also gave me personal insights.

The culture of the team is strongly focused on support and development. Whenever necessary, we update processes so we can ensure consistency through our work, but these changes are based on consultation and discussion with the whole team. There are multiple avenues for people to offer or request advice through meetings, Microsoft Teams chats and time spent in the office. The team celebrates achievements but also recognises and manages any challenges.”