VN 25/21 Purchase Officer

The Contracts Division (COS) provides contractual and commercial expertise across the organisation, contributing to ensuring that procurements are timely, well managed and follow the EUMETSAT financial and procurement rules, procedures and best practices.

It is an exciting time to be working at EUMETSAT. As an organisation we are operating a fleet of satellites delivering weather and climate-related satellite data and images to our users worldwide; helping protect lives, property and industries. However, you do not need to be an engineer or a scientist to make a positive contribution. Our specialist administrative and support functions play an equally important role in enabling the success of the EUMETSAT programmes.

The Purchase Officer, reporting to the Head of Purchasing Group, is the sole member of the team responsible for handling procurements below KEUR100 within the Purchasing Group. The post handles approximately 1000 transactions with a portfolio value of about MEUR15 per year.

Duties

• Undertaking procurement related activities below KEUR100 including drafting documents for Call for Offers;
• Preparation and drafting contractual documents including Purchase Orders and contracts;
• Assessing and negotiating the bidders’ offers in coordination with the initiator of the procurement;
• Monitoring purchase requisitions and generating purchase orders in SAP FAME;
• Drafting Contract riders for contracts above KEUR100 as requested (e.g.: exercise of options, change of bank details or contract representatives…);
• Drafting tender evaluation report for COTS procurements above KEUR100, as requested;
• Dealing with enquiries from EUMETSAT staff and contractors regarding procurement related activities;
• Providing support to the Initiators of the procurements, and Project Controllers, Finance Division;
• Providing support to the Contracts Officer of the Purchasing Group, as required;
• Ensuring compliance with the EUMETSAT Financial and Procurement rules, procedures and best practices as well as contractual conditions;
• Handling administration of the Purchase Orders.

Skills and Experience

• Proven experience in purchasing low value high volume supplies/services, dealing with contractual/financial matters and related legal provisions, ideally in a multi-lingual environment;
• Demonstrated experience using the Materials Management module of an ERP system, ideally SAP;
• Ability to work both independently and in a team, as well as under time pressure;
• Ability to cope with high volume / highly demanding workload;
• Excellent interpersonal skills.

Employment Conditions

The initial contract will be of 4 years’ duration, with subsequent 5 year contracts being awarded thereafter, subject to individual performance and organisation requirements. There is no limit to the amount of follow-up contracts a staff member can receive up to the EUMETSAT retirement age of 63 and there are certainly opportunities to establish a long career perspective at EUMETSAT.
This post is graded B3/B5 on the EUMETSAT salary scales. The minimum basic salary for this post is EURO 4888 per month (net of internal tax but excluding pension contribution and insurances) which may be negotiable on the basis of skills and experience. The salary scale provides for increments on the anniversary of taking up employment, and scales are reviewed by the EUMETSAT Council with effect from 1 January each year. In addition to basic salary, EUMETSAT offers attractive benefits. Further information, including salary details, is available on the EUMETSAT web site.

EUMETSAT is committed to providing an equal opportunities work environment for men and women.
Please note that only nationals of EUMETSAT Member States may apply. The EUMETSAT Convention requires that Staff shall be recruited on the basis of their qualifications, account being taken of the international character of EUMETSAT.

About EUMETSAT

EUMETSAT is Europe’s meteorological satellite agency. Its role is to establish and operate meteorological satellites to monitor the weather and climate from space - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This information is supplied to the National Meteorological Services of the organisation's Member States in Europe, as well as other users worldwide.

EUMETSAT also operates several Copernicus missions on behalf of the European Union and provide data services to the Copernicus marine and atmospheric services and their users.

As an intergovernmental European Organisation, EUMETSAT has 30 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.)