Regional Procurement Analyst - MENA

Role purpose: 

Working with the MarketPlace Team -, contribute to spend category, supplier data consolidation and analysis across the region in order to ensure smooth flow of data and decision making

build recommendations and implement change programmes for British Council across the 16 countries of MENA.

About us:

The British Council is the UK’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

Geopolitical/ SBU/ Function Overview:

The British Council MENA launched a centralized procurement function in June 2016 called MarketPlace. MarketPlace serves 17 countries across MENA and is operated out of three hubs Sharjah, Cairo and Rabat, managed by two MarketPlace managers and headed up by the Regional Head of Procurement. 

The main objectives of the project are to deliver improved levels of compliance with corporate procurement policy, including reduced risk of fraud, deliver efficiencies by aggregating spend categories together resulting in tendering large regional contracts. The post holder will lead on the tendering process and be familiar with the EU procurement legislations and provide expert guidance on a number of high value high risk contacts for both in country contracts and the large multi country contracts crossing multiple jurisdictions.  

The vision is to establish a globally aligned Procurement function, equipped with the necessary skills and tools alongside a clear remit to deliver better value for money. This enhanced Procurement function will provide proactive, expert procurement support, allowing the business to focus on their core skills and deliver value in their specialist area.

Procurement will be developing a greater level of engagement with the business units and establishing a strong business partnering approach.

Main opportunities/ Challenges for the role:

This is a new role to the British Council. Its purpose is to support the MarketPlace Team in managing its Information management system and analysis of Procurement data for tendering support and business cases and in country activities. 

The Post holder will work with the full MarketPlace team of 27 staff across the Mena and external stakeholders compiling information for senior management decisions.

compliance to procurement policies and procedures.

Main Accountabilities:

The post holder will provide procurement and analytical expertise to the MarketPlace team that will include which  are not limited to :

• managing the regional contract database, 
• managing the Regional PSL Lists,
• ensuring the Procurement intranet site is maintained,
• Managing the benefit tracking data for MENA 
• Managing the Marketplace SharePoint site and access
• Ensuring data is captured and stored appropriately (chasing missing data)
• Leading on noncompliance reporting and producing quarterly reports
• Capturing Procurement audit actions and following up on until completion and timely responses

Data mining – analytics:

1. Consolidate information from the existing systems (SAP, SIMFONI…), from suppliers and from the teams in country.

2. Apply analytical tools and techniques to interpret this information to support procurement planning and decision making

Regional sourcing initiatives:

1. Support internal data analysis and consolidation of reporting from suppliers and supplier market analysis/industry analysis

2. Support the creation of various business cases

Efficiency:

1. Support the implementation of solutions to reduce administrative workload around the PO process: a. Department purchasing cards

a. Support the Concur system roll out to manage card transactions allocation

b. Lodged card for travel

c. Variation allowance between PO and invoice

c. Support Supplier master data clean-up and PO delivery process automation

Compliance:

1. Assist the Head of Procurement -MENA in creating processes and tools to anticipate EU tenders’ requirements in partnership with the teams in countries across all SBUs

2. Bring support if needed on EU tenders for MENA, using In-tend.

3. Follow up to ensure constant alignment to the British Council’s procurement procedures and policies.

Key relationships:

Internal:

• Senior Procurement Managers
• Regional Head of Procurement
• MarketPlace Staff
• Compliance teams
• Internal Audit teams
• Country directors or other Senior regional Managers
• Shared service centre teams (SAP)
• In country teams (SBU coordinators, operational teams)
• Strategic Business Unit (SBU) teams
• Global procurement Colleagues

External:

Key suppliers 

Role requirements:

Passport requirements/ Right to work in country: yes (Assessment stage: shortlisting)

Direct contact or managing staff working with children? No

Person specification:

Language requirements (Assessment stage: shortlisting)

• Fluency in written and spoken and English (Level B2). (Minimum / essential)
• Fluency in written and spoken Arabic and French (Desirable)

Qualifications (Assessment stage: shortlisting)

• University Degree in relevant field (Minimum / essential)
• Recognized purchasing qualification, ex: CIPS (Desirable)

Role Specific Knowledge & Experience (Assessment stage: shortlisting & Interview)

• 3 years’ work experience in a relevant analytical role (Minimum / essential) 
• Operational use of P2P within SAP  (Desirable)

Role Specific Skills (Minimum / essential)  (Assessment stage: shortlisting & Interview)

• Managing large data sets on shared locations – ie SharePoint or cloud computing or similar

• Advance use of Excel databases 

British Council Core Skills (Assessment stage: shortlisting & Interview)

• Managing Projects - Level 2

Examines project data and performance, reporting on progress and recommending corrective action as needed

• Planning and Organizing - Level 2

Organizes own work over week and months, or plans ahead for other, taking account of priorities and the impact on other people

• Communicating and Influencing – Level 2

Displays good listening, writing and speaking skills, setting out logical arguments clearly and adapting language and form of communication to meet the needs of different people/audiences.

• Managing Risk – Level 2

Has track record of identifying and highlighting risks and suggesting mitigating actions

●           Analyzing Data & Problems – Level 3

Seeks out and examines a range of information to identify patterns, trend and options , to assist in solving multifaceted and complex problems

British Council Behaviors (Assessment Stage: Interview)

• Creating Shared Purpose – essential
• Connecting with others - more demanding
• Working together - most demanding
• Being accountable – more demanding
• Making it Happen – essential
• Shaping the future – essential