Regional Procurement Assistant

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)

**Main purpose of job**:
Based in Mexico City and reporting to the Regional Procurement Manager, the jobholder will work as part of the Regional Procurement Team that sits within the FCDO Commercial Directorate with responsibility for supporting procurement activities across the regional network including Embassies, High Commissions and posts, ensuring compliance to FCDO global policy and UK procurement regulations.

To work as part of the Procurement team; interacting with customers, review, monitoring and reporting. Assist the Regional Procurement Team in day-to-day transactional delivery.

FCDO Commercial takes responsibility for the acquisition of all goods and services required by the organisation whether bought at home in the UK or at one of our 260 office locations around the world. We do this by directly managing high value procurement activities, creating, and implementing the policies and procedures for everything else.

The FCDO has a regional structure for Finance, Procurement and HR across the whole network, realising cost reductions and global spend savings, whilst keeping quality high by reforming the way we manage procurement across the network.

The Procurement Operating Model requires procurement expertise in the regional organisation structure. Providing expert service to our global network of locations whilst retaining the ability to deliver efficiently on behalf of several locations and maintain links with the central procurement function in the UK. Procurement is a delivery partner to the FCDO business, providing advice and expertise to the business across the procurement lifecycle though to a shared responsibility for the successful delivery of larger procurement projects.

The Regional Procurement Assistant will support the Regional Procurement Team in Mexico delivering transactional activities that support the procurement services across the regional network of office locations. In addition, you will be responsible for assisting in the pre-stages of procurement processes by helping with supplier identification locally or in the region for the different services requested, ensuring that documents and online projects are ready for the Procurement Leads to publish the tender and perform additional activities to support the procurement process.

**Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?**:

- Processing new supplier set-ups and assisting in supplier optimisation projects: To review and submit stakeholders supplier set-up requests, acting as the first point of contact of this process to ensure information received is according to the guidance.
- Ensuring correct update of suppliers database document (Approved Suppliers List)
- Assisting in preparation of the invitation to tender package documents and creation of tender projects in the e-procurement platform.
- Preparation of spend reports and market analysis;
- Providing customer support and guidance to the clients within the network for low value requests (below £25K);
- Any other administrative activity as deemed by procurement manager.
- Regional Procurement Delivery (below £25K) for Micro missions: Acting as an account manager/key contact for a grouping of posts in region, carrying out end-to-end procurement process. RFQ/RFP process of various procurement/contract-related goods, services or work projects, including sourcing of suppliers, input and agreement of specification, preparation of tender documentation, liaison and coordination with suppliers to clarify requirements, coordination and evaluation of bids, seeking appropriate approvals, negotiations, agreement of contracts and closure of contracts. Ensuring all processes and contracts meet legal, audit, HM Treasury and Cabinet Office requirements.
- Assisting stakeholders with CAPEX purchases: To liaise with stakeholders at the beginning of each Fiscal Year in order to start the purchase of CAPEX items (vehicles, generators, furniture, etc.) following a more straightforward process, ensuring that purchases are aligned with UK procurement regulations and audit requirements.
- Identifying Potential Suppliers in the Region: To assists the Regional Procurement Team in performing a market research where needed to identify potential suppliers that could be invited to the tender processes for the different opportunities available.
- Support Regional Procurement Leads and Manager: To work closely with the Regional Procurement Team, helping them to create the set of documents for each tender process, having the information updated in the corresponding folders as well as creating the Project in the e-procurement platform. Make sure that the project tracker is up to date according to the procurement stage of each project.

The jobholder will be self-starter, proactive, requiring emotional intelligence with a solution orientated mind-set.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience
- Strong interperson