Procurement Graduate Crawley 2024
In fast changing markets, customers worldwide rely on Thales. 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. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times.
Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.
The role
We’re inventing the future, right here, right now, at Thales. By combining the curiosity to explore, the intelligence to question and the vision to create, we’re transforming the world around us.
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 a Global 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 that achieved ‘Advanced Platinum’ Certification status by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply back in 2018. The work involved is Diverse, Cross Functional and you will have an opportunity to collaborate with many other areas of the business.
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.
Key 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
Skills, qualifications and experience
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 Globally, 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.
Please note that Graduate Development Programme (GDP) activities take place during the working week but may require the investment of some personal time for travel and follow-up activities. You may have the opportunity to travel to Thales and non-Thales sites throughout the UK when participating in GDP activities.
Additional information
Please note, assessment centres for shortlisted candidates will be held between February and May 2024. Induction week for all Graduate and Apprentices will commence on Monday 2 September until Friday 6 September 2024
Our applications will close at 11.59pm on Sunday 7 January 2024, this is the only time we will be accepting applications this year. Please note, we will be in contact by the end of January 2024 with details of next steps.
Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales many of our roles are subject to security restrictions, and as a result, you may be limited to what you can work on within our business in relation to your place of birth and/or nationality.
As standard, all successful candidates must possess the permanent right to work in the UK, and will be required to go through Government security clearance at BPSS Level prior to starting with us and then to obtain full Security Clearance (SC) in line with the United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) requirements.
To gain full SC, you must have resided in the UK for a minimum of 12 months. As part of the vetting process you will be asked to provide evidence of your identity, eligibility to work in the UK, time spent abroad over the last 5 years, as well as employment and/ or educational history.
In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.
At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.
Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.
Great journeys start here, apply now!