Assistant Buyer

The Wates Group was established in 1897 and is one of the leading privately- owned, construction, development, and property services companies in the UK. We employ almost 4,000 people, working with a range of clients and partners from across the public and private sectors.

We have an opportunity for an Assistant Buyerto join our SES Procurement team in York, to support the procurement objectives with prompt placement of orders in line with budgets and programme, working alongside a team of buyers.

This is an exciting opportunity to develop a career and become a Procurement Professional, working with and supported by the knowledge and expertise of an established team. You will develop and learn a vast range of skills in a growing business; supplier management, negotiation, customer service, relationship building, project management skills, commercial awareness.

Procurement experience not essential. Proactive, can do attitude required.

As part of the Wates Group, SES (Engineering Services) Ltd is a £180 Million M&E Business operating out of 4 Regional Offices as the UK’s pre-eminent design-led Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) provider, specialising in the design and installation of building services and infrastructure solutions. Having successfully worked on several prestigious contracts in the UK and Scotland, we are viewed as the pre-eminent supplier of building services and are BIM 2 level accredited

SES deliver bespoke, design-led cost-efficient solutions optimised for the whole construction team, by maximising off-site manufacture in our production facility SES PRISM delivering our solutions which minimise onsite resources and interfaces assuring quality and customer satisfaction in a measurable, safe way every time.

Key Accountabilities will include:

• Processing overhead orders and placement of project consumable orders, managing acknowledgements and invoice variations
• Supplier engagement and visits, developing product knowledge and identifying opportunities for commercial betterment on material spend
• Material database maintenance, managing price files updates adding/removing items, manually updating monthly price files for copper cable and channel
• Setting up new contract information including contract defaults and delivery information, auto order and set up and management of the daily order reports
• Supporting the procurement team and operational leader with creating reports, taking meeting notes and creating and issuing minutes, updating trackers and other tasks as required
• Manage site returns and credit log

The successful candidate will have a wide range of admin skills gained within a fast paced office environment. We are looking for you to have excellent MS Office skills including Excel and be a clear and confident communicator across all mediums. NVQ Business administration or equivalent desirable not essential.

You will be an effective in organising your time, and plan/prioritise workload to meet deadlines, whilst being a team player and collaborating with others. You will bring a can-do approach and a solid analytical ability.

A bit about us:

Being a family owned business means we understand and value long term relationships. We are community minded and our work is guided by inspiring better ways of creating the places, communities, and businesses of tomorrow.

It’s our people who make Wates successful. We will only achieve our strategic objectives if we recruit and retain the best people and operate in an environment underpinned by inclusivity, diversity, and opportunity.

We offer industry-leading family friendly and flexible working opportunities that reflect the changing expectations of talent and enable you to manage personal and professional commitments as part of a balanced and healthy lifestyle.

As a responsible and inclusive employer, offering equal opportunities, we are proud to have been recognised through our Investors in People Gold accreditation and Disability Confident Leaders certification.

So, if you’d like to work for an inclusive organisation which invests in you and your continued career development, and you’re looking for your next challenge, we’d like to hear from you.