Procurement Officer

Job summary

Do you excel at staying organised and focused, even when priorities shift, proactively planning your work while confidently managing competing demands?

Do you have a keen eye for detail and take pride in ensuring your work is accurate and error-free?

If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you to join the corporate procurement team at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and we'd love to hear from you!

The successful candidate will play a key role in supporting a range of procurement activities that underpin the department’s strategic objectives and ensure value for public money have been achieved.We are seeking an individual with strong attention to detail, who is confident working with multiple stakeholders and adept at managing several tasks simultaneously. As part of a small, dynamic team, you will gain exposure to a variety of procurement projects of differing size and complexity. This role offers excellent opportunities for professional development and to build your expertise in public sector procurement.

Job description

As the Procurement Officer you will:

• Assist with the compliant delivery of procurements in line with relevant regulations, best practice, and procurement legislation, including fully regulated procedures, framework call-offs, and low-value purchasing.
• Support the end-to-end procurement process, such as ensuring stakeholder approvals are in place, preparing procurement documentation, drafting and sending award letters, developing contract management plans and processing contract variations and extensions.
• Manage and maintain procurement management systems (e.g. Atamis, SAP, SharePoint), ensuring data accuracy, producing standard and ad-hoc reports, recording key performance indicators (KPIs), savings, and social value commitments, and managing contract records and purchase orders.
• Ensure all necessary approvals are in place and keep spend data up to date.
• Track and manage the department’s procurement transparency commitments, including the timely publication of new contracts.

Person specification

• Ability to manage complexity, taking responsibility for effectively handling multiple tasks and activities at the same time.
• Ability to Build and maintains strong, positive working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders.
• Ability to quickly learn and use new digital systems and tools, ensuring all tasks are completed on time.
• Demonstrate strong attention to detail, particularly in ensuring documentation and data are accurate.
• Good knowledge and practical experience of applying UK Public Contracts Regulations (and related regulations) and departmental policies.
• Experience of assisting with high-value and/or complex procurement projects and contractual arrangements, ideally within the public sector.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,801, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £10,081 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Experience , Technical

Stage 1: Sift

• Experience (Lead Criteria): Please tell us about your procurement experience.
• Technical: How do you approach managing complexity while taking ownership of multiple tasks and priorities simultaneously?
• Technical: Please tell us about your ability to build and maintain strong, positive working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders.

There is a 250-word limit per question.

When writing your application, remember:

• the assessor won’t be reading your answers sequentially

• do not assume that the same assessors will have read all of your answers

• if talking about something in your first answer, make sure that you write the second answer as if you had not written the first (and so on!)

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead behaviour listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview.

Stage 2: Interview

• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
• Technical: Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

Candidates will be asked to prepare a 5-minute presentation, further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 2nd February 2026.

Interviews are envisaged to take place the week commencing 16th February 2026 and are currently being held remotely via videocall. This could be subject to change.

How We Recruit

Find out more about our recruitment processes here.

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

Find out everything you need to know before applying here.

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Artificial Intelligence

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Fixed Term Contracts

• Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register

• Appeals and Complaints

• Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office:

London Office: + CTC

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Shauna Nash
• Email : shauna.nash@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@communities.gov.uk

Further information

If you are unsure about any part of the process or require additional information about the post to enable you to progress your application, you should speak to the Resourcing team - recruitment@communities.gov.uk. Candidates can appeal at any stage of the recruitment process if they believe there has been:

a procedural irregularity

an infringement of the Civil Service equal opportunities policy

exceptional circumstances which were not notified to the interview panel which might have affected performance on the day.

It is important to note that these are appeals about the process not the decision. In the first instance, an appeal should be directed to the MHCLG Resourcing Hub at recruitment@communities.gov.uk.

If the MHCLG Resourcing Hub is unable to satisfactorily resolve your complaint, you may contact put your complaint in writing to the Civil Service Commission, Room G8,1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or by email to: info@csc.gov.uk

Attachments

1a. MHCLG Candidate Pack (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 834kB)1b. Candidate Guidance (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 355kB)1c. Success Profiles Candidate information (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 936kB)Darlington Economic Campus Career Pathways (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 452kB)