Procurement Specialist

The primary responsibility of the Procurement Specialist (the PS) is to lead and manage the full procurement life cycle process for small to large sized projects with low to medium risk for the assigned categories. Projects may have a minor innovation component, may be of strategic nature and privy to or impact some confidential/labour relations information.

This involves effective management of all project activities and stakeholder relationships at various levels to ensure successful outcomes including but not limited to Compliance, Risk, IT Security, Privacy, Legal, and Lines of Business. The PS will ensure key deliverables and milestones are met and will maintain accountability for the end-to-end procurement process including contract negotiations. The PS will consult with business areas within assigned categories to recommend and implement strategic sourcing opportunities, and ensure compliance with applicable guides, policies, directives, and legislation.to ensuring that the procurement process is fair, open, transparent, and defensible.

The PS may work with, or support Category Specialists on enterprise or complex projects and programs as required, and could provide dedicated support to these projects under the direction of the Category Specialist.

The PS may assist with training or mentoring other junior staff as required.

**Major Responsibilities**:
1. **Lead and manage the full procurement life cycle process for projects that typically range from small to large in cost, size, effort, complexity and risk; may be strategic, and could have a minor innovation component, by**:

- Supporting the Procurement planning process through the provision of research and market scans.
- Leading the end-to-end RFx process, from requirements gathering to ensuring that the decision around the final contract is defensible, under the provincial government procurement directive, and relevant trade agreements to the contract implementation. Building evaluation and consensus documents supporting the procurement process. May contact suppliers to obtain or clarify information and/or reports pertaining to contractual supplier reporting.
- Collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to ensure transparency and accountability in our procurement process.
- Remaining current and ensuring adherence to all applicable WSIB policies, and applicable directives and legislation and relevant trade agreements
- Developing project plans, including time lines based on scope of project; monitoring and adjusting timelines and schedules to accommodate changes, and balance the demands of the project
- Educating and communicating to LOB clients on policies, directives, methods and processes applicable to the RFx process
- Conducting kick-off meetings and evaluator training
- Collaborating with other applicable areas such as Privacy, IT Security, AODA, Corporate Security, Legal, and others supporting assessment groups in order to prepare RFx documents
- Assisting LOB and other team members with development of evaluation criteria and metrics
- Collaborating with team members in Strategic Procurement Analytics to determine the appropriate pricing models, or utilize/configure existing templates
- Building evaluation and consensus documents
- Preparing competitive go-to-market documents for goods, services, and consulting; forwarding directly to vendors or to the general marketplace using available public tendering platforms, and standard templates.
- Facilitating the evaluation, clarification, and consensus process
- Preparing award recommendations; complete legal intake forms or other applicable legal engagement processes; assist with drafting of contract scope; facilitate negotiations; awarding contracts based upon evaluation results; facilitate the contract signing process; and notifying unsuccessful vendor(s) or service provider(s)
- Facilitating de-briefing sessions with unsuccessful Proponents on request
- Maintaining confidentiality in accordance with WSIB policies and processes; working in a confidential capacity on Procurement activities where labour relations and outsourcing may be in scope
- Keeping all relevant electronic procurement systems up to date including tracking systems, contract management databases, and others as required.
- Supporting RFx activities under the direction of the CS as assigned.

2. **Execution of procurement project planning responsibilities as part of the sourcing process by**:

- Developing project/action plans, including time frames and deadlines based on scope of project; developing work plans to allocate work to project team members; setting, monitoring and adjusting objectives, time frames and schedules to accommodate changes and balance the demands of the project
- Supporting the Procurement planning process through the provision of research and market scans.

3. **Contribute to and drive continuous improvement within the Strategic Procurement branch by**:

- Contributing to, and driving co