Category Officer in Defra
I started my role at Defra group Commercial in September 2020 as a HEO Category Officer in the Evidence Team within Environmental Goods and Services. At that time everyone was working from home, which presented quite a challenge obtaining the knowledge I needed in a sector I wasn’t familiar with; we have since moved to a hybrid way of working and while we are a geographically dispersed team, I have found a good support network in the Evidence team and from other teams based in my local office.
I come from a Travel Industry background with 18 years’ experience in product management and purchasing, while public sector procurement is somewhat different to the private sector purchasing role I have come from, there are so many relevant transferrable skills and experience I have brought with me, such as stakeholder management and contract management, and much of my purchasing knowledge can be transferred to the procurement routes used in this role.
Within my job role, I procure works and services, largely research projects, for low to medium risk/value projects and packages for our customers, those being the likes of Environment Agency, Natural England and Core Defra. Within this, I identify the best route to market working closely with the customers throughout the process while managing tenders from procurement strategy to contract award.
My days vary depending on the stage each procurement is at, and could include working on procurement strategies, managing the tender process of those procurements, and stakeholder engagement such as holding evaluation moderation meetings. There’s also a lot of training opportunities within Defra which means a lot of routes available for personal development and room to make your mark in the wider team. There is a lot of support in the role which makes it an overall very positive place to work.
