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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.
The role
The Procurement function is responsible for effectively acquiring the goods and services the company needs in order to win new business and deliver profitable projects, it is therefore uniquely placed to contribute to both the top and bottom line. It typically manages orders and contracts equating to over 60% of the company’s turnover, impacting on Thales product quality, performance, growth and reputation.
Being a Procurement professional means understanding the strategy of our businesses, working in an international environment, conducting complex negotiations, co-ordinating multidisciplinary internal teams and working with external companies to improve their performance to us.
The skills and experience you will acquire in the function are readily transferable, offering a wide variety of career opportunities both inside the function and with the many others with which we interface on a daily basis. No wonder one of our current Graduates described the Procurement function in five words: “challenging, dynamic, complex, strategic, teamwork” and concluded that “no two days are the same”.
You’ll be joining a world class procurement function recently awarded ‘Advanced Platinum’ Certification status by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.
You’ll be expected to complete four six-month placements across various Thales sites and businesses in the UK so flexibility on your location is required for this role. Our main sites are; Crawley, Glasgow, Bristol, Belfast, Reading, Cheadle, London and Templecombe.
Responsibilities
- Helping define and implement sourcing policies for goods and services
- Negotiating and executing orders and subcontracts
- Working on must win bids to optimise the bought-in value
- Managing supplier performance and relationships
Requirements
You will be on track to or have achieved a bachelor’s degree in any subject; however subjects that require critical analysis such as Law, Business, Engineering, Finance, Politics, Psychology, Sociology and History are of particular interest.
We are looking for people who have the ability to work with and understand complex information, using an analytical approach to build and argue a case with clear rationale. You will need to be able to forge effective relationships with a large variety of people, sometimes internationally, and have the ability to draw on the strengths of others in order to negotiate with suppliers and stakeholders to achieve a competitive outcome for the company. Attention to detail and being comfortable with numerical data are also skills that are important for a career in procurement.
