Senior IT Procurement Analyst (12-month fixed-term contract)

The Firm

HFW is a sector focused global law firm.  We have over 500 lawyers working across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.  We take a progressive approach to our roles in commercial business – thinking creatively and pragmatically to support our clients.

Whether we are solving complex issues within the construction, aviation or shipping industries, or providing advice across insurance, commodities and energy we are specialist lawyers here to add value to our clients.  We think about the commercial solution first, and then underpin our advice with a solid foundation of legal expertise. 

The Department

HFW has an IT Department of approximately 50 staff globally, located in London, Paris, Dubai, Hong Kong, Houston, Melbourne and Singapore.  The IT team is undergoing a period of significant change and maturation very much aligned to the ambition of the firm, and this role is a key element in improving the performance and value derived from the applications supporting the legal practice and operations.

HFW operate a 24/7 support service, providing comprehensive training and develop innovative projects to suit business needs.  Together, we are implementing a world-class IT infrastructure designed to assist our clients, lawyers and business services.

The Role

The Senior IT Procurement Analyst will ensure that the firm's IT budget is effectively managed, with the appropriate reporting and governance in place to control cost, maximise value and mitigate risk.

The role will ensure that new and existing goods and services are procured and renewed cost-effectively.  It will also ensure that that the performance of existing IT contracts are pro-actively monitored and that the firm's IT assets are diligently monitored and managed.

As a result, the firm will effectively control the cost of technology delivery and support, in line with operational prioritises and strategy.

Duties and responsibilities

The incumbent will be expected to perform up to Level 4 of Financial Management, Asset Management, Sourcing, Supplier Management and Contract Management within the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).  This includes:

• Assists all other areas of IT with their financial tasks, especially in the areas of identification of process, service, project and component costs and the calculation and subsequent reduction of all IT service, project, component and process failures.
• Contributes to financial planning and budgeting.
• Collates required financial data and reports for analysis and to facilitate decision making.
• Controls IT assets in one or more significant areas, ensuring that administration of the acquisition, storage, distribution, movement and disposal of assets is carried out.
• Acts to highlight and resolve potential instances of unauthorised assets such as unlicensed copies of software.
• Reviews business cases (requirements, potential benefits and options) and determines appropriate procurement routes, for example, open market or collaborative framework.
• Collects and collates data to support collaboration and negotiates terms and conditions to reflect the scale of requirements and encourage good performance.
• Evaluates tenders based on specification and evaluation criteria, prepares acceptance documentation and advises on contracts and service level agreements.
• Collects supplier performance data and investigates problems.
• Monitors and reports on supplier performance, customer satisfaction, and market intelligence.
• Validates that suppliers' performance is in accordance with contract terms.
• Implements supplier management-related service improvement initiatives and programmes.
• Sources and collects contract performance data (such as pricing and supply chain costs), and monitors performance against KPIs.
• Identifies and reports under-performance and develops opportunities for improvement.
• Monitors compliance with Terms and Conditions and take appropriate steps to address non-compliance.
• Pro-actively manages risk and reward mechanisms in the contract.

Detailed responsibilities include:

• Responsible for the process to assemble and agree the annual global worldwide IT budget; works closely with the Global Director of IT and IT leadership team.
• Pro-actively manages and reports on the worldwide IT budget, monitoring actual and committed spend and forecasting forward on a regular basis, escalating any risks, issues and opportunities.
• Responsible for the sundry purchasing process; works closely with the relevant managers and Finance team on order, receipt and payment of goods and services required in support of day-to-day IT operations.
• Ensures that the relevant approvals for ordering and payments are obtained.
• Pro-actively monitors and acts on all contract and lease terms and renewal/payment schedules.
• Works closely with the relevant managers to determine the appropriate procurement strategy and identify the best fit suppliers, e.g. through third party market analysis e.g. Gartner.
• Ensures that the appropriate procurement processes and controls are applied for goods and services required for projects and programmes.
• Works closely with the Cyber Security team to ensure that any procurement does not expose the firm to threat, e.g. through the purchase of unsanctioned technology.
• Works closely with the P3M team to monitor and forecast project and program spend.
• Works closely with the Global Director and IT and Head of IT Operations to monitor and control service contracts, ensuring that performance is monitored and any breaches acted upon.
• Ensures the relevant NDAs and information security clauses are in place for all contracts.
• Works closely with Finance to manage postings, accruals and prepayments.
• Provides commercial and financial input into IT strategy, e.g. fiscal impact analysis involved in technology programmes such as a move to cloud.
• Works closely with the Cyber Security and IT Operations teams to ensure the appropriate controls and measures are applied to asset disposal, e.g. erasure and destruction.
• Maintains the firm's global IT asset register, working closely with Finance to ensure that it is up-to-date and that it aligns with the Finance register.
• Remains abreast of financial developments, e.g. accounting and procurement practices and relevant legislation, e.g. WEEE.
• Produces, updates and maintains budget and asset register documentation.
• Any other ad hoc duties as and when required.

The Person

•           Personality: Self-driven, results-oriented with a positive outlook and a clear focus on high quality. Reliable, tolerant, and determined.  Well-presented and business-like.  Able to get on with others and be a team-player.

•           Business Skills: Must be an excellent communicator with real understanding and empathy for the business.  Should seek to position the customer and the customer’s interests first and foremost in every decision.

•           Financial and Commercial skills: Must have a strong grasp of finance and procurement best practice in the context of technology delivery and support, coupled with a pragmatic, commercial approach.

•           Technical skills: An ability to understand IT solutions and issues sufficiently to consider and act upon the financial aspects of purchasing and support.

Key skills and experience required

• Experience of a role in IT procurement and/or IT financial management is essential.
• Strong Excel skills, with the ability to query and analyse data, e.g. using formulae and pivot tables.
• Good understanding of finance and procurement concepts and terminology, ideally with one or more supporting qualifications.
• Solid knowledge of other Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint.
• Able to effectively translate and accurately finance matters to senior technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Commercially aware, with a results oriented, pragmatic approach.
• Professional manner, with the ability to work under pressure and prioritise effectively.
• Inquisitive and tenacious, with an ability to challenge constructively where and when appropriate.
• Good understanding of IT concepts and terminology.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Familiarity with legal IT systems would be beneficial.
• Flexible with regard to working hours - normal office hours are between 9.30am and 5.30pm.

Additional Information

Kindly note, this job description is not contractual.  It will be reviewed periodically and may be amended or altered to meet the needs of the firm. 

HFW aims to ensure equality of opportunity and we are actively working towards improving the diversity of our staff.  All applications will be considered only on merit and the applicant's suitability to meet the requirements of the role.

HFW collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants to manage its recruitment process.  The firm is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.  For information on how the firm will process your data, please see our Privacy Notice on our website (www.hfw.com/Privacy-Notice), in the section "What we collect and how we use it".

Due to the volume of applications, only those candidates shortlisted for interview will be contacted.

HFW operates a Preferred Supplier List (PSL).  Recruitment agencies should not submit CVs unless they are part of the PSL and have been engaged regarding this specific vacancy.