Company Description

By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Are you interested in contributing and helping to shape the future of the world’s energy? If so, read on.

Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs.

UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research for groundbreaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid, supported by tomorrow's power stations. In pursuit of our mission, UKAEA embraces core values: Innovative, Committed, Trusted, and Collaborative."

Job Description

As an employee of UKAEA you will benefit from:

• Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme, details of which can be found at the end of this advert.
• Corporate bonus scheme up to 7% and a Relocation allowance (if eligible).
• Flexible working options including family friendly policies.
• Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders, 
• Generous annual leave allowance starting with 25 days, plus 3 days Christmas closure and 2.5 privilege days, in addition to UK bank holidays
• Wide range of career development opportunities
• A vibrant culture committed to equality and being fully inclusive

This role requires employees to be eligible for SC Clearance (must have resided in the UK for the last 5 years), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions.

The Role

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference? Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy. As System Partner and Manufacturing Procurement Lead, you will play a pivotal role in compiling and gaining approval for an overall System Partner strategy, and executing that strategy in identified priority areas, resulting in a supply chain solution for a particular technology stream.  With the support of external consultants, you will need to build relationships with our product and technology leads to help develop our approach to the supply chain and how we implement solutions that lead to the best business outcomes.  

System Partners are required for several emerging technology areas which are critical in ensuring the successful and viable technical and engineering outcome of our Fusion solution, but where supply chains don’t currently exist, are immature, or involve very long lead-times for manufacturing.  Eventually, the intent is for our system partner supply chain to be managed via our Engineering Partner with oversight from UKIFS, but this early work is critical to ensuring that our overall schedule keeps on track. 

Once strategies are understood, you will be responsible for the whole Source to Contract lifecycle using the appropriate processes and presenting business cases to senior stakeholders to gain their approval. 

Once these relationships are in place, you will be responsible for managing our suppliers in this space to ensure that they are performing according to their obligations.  You will also play a key part in ensuring that once UKIFS have an Engineering Partner on board, the process for defining a management strategy for all System Partner suppliers is clear and is executed appropriately.  

STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) is the UK’s flagship national programme to deliver a prototype fusion energy plant, targeting 2040, and a path to commercial viability of fusion.  STEP is deliberately bold and ambitious and seeks people who want to be part of a world-changing endeavour and who have credible and relevant experience in delivery. 

Additional Responsibilities:

• Commercial Strategy and Strategic Decision Making - own relationships with the DESNZ and Cabinet Office commercial teams to support the commercial assurance process where commercial controls apply.  
• Developing Supply Chain Strategies - form working groups to better understand key issues and how to address them. 
• Team Leadership and Development  - guide, coach and develop your team.
• Embody a Leadership Mindset - contribute to a respectful, inclusive and collaborative workplace. 

Qualifications

Essential Requirements:

• Proven experience as a senior Procurement professional in a technology, engineering or manufacturing environment 
• Demonstrable experience of managing high-value procurement exercises, with ideally some experience in the Public Sector 
• Experience working in a matrix and project-based environment, and with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously. 
• In-depth understanding of Commercial strategies, pricing models, legal frameworks, and demonstrable experience of writing business cases for internal and external stakeholders. 

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here https://careers.ukaea.uk/life-at-ukaea/employee-benefits/

We welcome applications from under-represented groups, particularly individuals from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and women. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) Partner and Inclusion Ambassadors, actively promotes EDI and takes steps to increase diversity within our organization. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.

For applicants applying from outside the United Kingdom or those who have spent time outside the UK in the last five years, please visit the following link for information on criminal records checks: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants If your country of residence or previous residence is not listed on the website or if the UK Government does not have information on obtaining a criminal records check from that state, we regret to inform you that we cannot process your application.