Location: Crawley, United Kingdom

In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. Thales is a business where brilliant people from all over the world come together to share ideas and inspire each other. In aerospace, transportation, defence, security and space, our architects design innovative solutions that make our tomorrow's possible.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across five major industries; Aerospace, Defence, Ground Transportation, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Tactical Buyer

Based in Crawley with flexibility to work from home

Are you looking for a change in your career direction? Are you interested in a role that will give you access to a career in procurement? Are you a problem solver who would thrive in a fast-paced and agile environment? Then this is the role for you!

What the role has to offer:

• Join a supportive team invested in your training, development and career progression.

• Kick-start your journey to a career into procurement and beyond.

• Genuine flexibility with hybrid working available.

Our Opportunity

As the Tactical Buyer you will be responsible for the effective and accurate processing of orders from purchase to payment (P2P). You will create and administer Purchase Orders and their subsequent delivery to the required technical and quality specifications, contractual conditions and total acquisition cost.

You will report into the Tactical Buying Senior Manager but be allocated a buddy to support you within the role from Day 1. The role will be varied and dynamic, as you work towards the timely acquisition of products and services for Thales UK.

Day to day you will:

• Generate end to end successful execution of purchase orders to achieve appropriate levels of material availability and service provisions (Indirect) to meet both the Master Production Schedule and day to day business operational demands.

• Be responsible for all activities in accordance with Chorus 2 processes, including order book levels, work queues, lead times, unmatched invoices, supplier payments, CAPAs and Internal and External supplier audits.

• Continually review and identify areas of opportunity to improve service delivery to the business be it through efficiency improvement or cost reduction.

• Issue RFQs in support of business operations, programme and bid requirements.

• Where needed, negotiate purchasing pricing and terms and conditions (including customer, product or programme conditions) as necessary.

• Engage with the Category Management team to ensure adherence to category strategy and the leveraging of approved suppliers.

• Identify opportunities for cost savings, cost avoidance and improved cash management through effective supplier negotiation and /or supplier selection.

• Help drive sustainability in our projects and products to optimise cost benefits and innovation from within our supply chain, and pro-actively reduce risk and non-compliance to legislation.

• Assist in incorporating sustainable requirements: energy, climate change and material security & criticality into the product and services we procure.

• Ensure that any items that are purchased meet the required trade compliance requirements.

About You

You should be a team player with high attention to detail. You will have a genuine interest in the role with an aspiration to start a career within procurement. We are happy to consider all backgrounds with a transferable skill-set, of which the following would be useful:

• Customer focused with good communication skills.

• Some experience of Oracle would be advantageous

• Experience of or a specific interest in Procurement

• Delivery orientated with an ability to prioritise workload and deliver to timelines as needed.

• Excellent stakeholder Management Skills.

• Ability to build effective relationships or rapport with external Suppliers

What We Can Offer

We’re committed to giving you opportunities to be your best. We believe in embracing the passion and potential of our people, and to achieve this we offer market leading training, development and experiences, along with the opportunity to be mentored and coached by some of the smartest minds in the industry. We hire from within as our first priority, so you’ll have a myriad of opportunities within our diverse, global organisation.

Flexibility

Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

If you are interested in this role, we would encourage you to have informal chat with the Talent Acquisition Partner.

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of Thales.

In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

Great journeys start here, apply now!