Senior Buyer

About the role

The Senior Buyer is a development role for an experienced buyer looking to move into category management. Working across HC-One’s 146 care homes, the postholder supports the Environmental Hygiene & IPC and People, Brand & Office Services categories, with combined annual spend of about £15m. Within these, the Senior Buyer takes ownership of smaller sub-categories and selected higher-value contracts, managing them from sourcing and tender through to award, mobilisation and ongoing supplier performance. Reporting to the Head of Procurement and working closely with the Senior Procurement Manager, the Senior Buyer also contributes to category strategy, supplier negotiations and spend analysis. The role offers structured exposure to category management, with the scope of ownership growing as experience develops.

About You

Category Strategy & Market Analysis

• Support the development and delivery of category strategies for Environmental Hygiene & IPC and People, Brand & Office Services, providing analysis of market conditions, cost drivers and new products or services
• Carry out spend analysis to identify consolidation opportunities, off-contract and tail spend, and savings; build preferred supplier lists and frameworks to reduce the number of suppliers used
• Maintain market intelligence on hygiene, IPC, corporate and staff services suppliers, including pricing trends and regulatory changes affecting care home operations

  Tendering & Procurement

• Lead tenders for allocated sub-categories and contracts, and support the Head of Procurement and Senior Procurement Manager on larger tenders, in line with procurement governance
• Prepare tender documentation, evaluation criteria and scoring matrices that reflect care home quality and safety requirements
• Manage evaluation and supplier selection, making sure decisions are evidenced and documented

  Contract Management & Supplier Performance

• Support negotiations with suppliers to agree contracts with Key Performance Indicators, Service Level Agreements and quality standards suited to care home operations
• Manage ongoing supplier performance and hold regular supplier reviews for owned contracts
• Resolve supplier performance issues, including quality failures in critical categories
• Carry out supplier due diligence in line with HC-One’s Modern Slavery Act obligations and keep supplier Master Service Agreement documentation up to date

  Stakeholder Collaboration & Team Support

• Build working relationships with HR, Marketing, Home Managers, Health and Safety, Operations and Finance colleagues
• Act as the procurement contact for owned sub-categories and contracts across the business
• Support the procurement admin assistant who manages some sub-categories day to day
• Support the Head of Procurement with procurement management information and savings tracking

Skills

General Skills - Care Home, General Skills - Carer, Admin Skills - ADMIN ASSISTANT, Admin Skills - CONTRACTS, Accounts Skills - FINANCE, Safeguarding - SAFETY, Care Planning - Evaluation, Care Planning - Indicators, General Skills - Collaboration, Accounts Skills - Analysis, Accounts Skills - Reporting, HEAD OF SKILLS - Strategy, HEAD OF SKILLS - Operations, HEAD OF SKILLS - Governance, Marketing & Comms Roles - Marketing, Procurement - Procurement, Procurement - Supplier