Contract and Procurement Specialist

Role Responsibilities

The Contract and Procurement Specialist reports to the Manager of Procurement and Resource Management within the Employment Services Branch. The position is responsible for effectively planning, procuring, managing, reporting on, and administering various types of agreements related to Career and Employment Information Services.

The Contract and Procurement Specialist draws on a strong working knowledge across social programs, including that of service design, implementation and delivery. Familiarity with associated legislative, policy and practice framework is critical to plan for, procure, and monitor services that meet the needs of Ministry stakeholders. A thorough understanding of current Labour Market needs, paired with technical procurement proficiency, is key to effective contract and grant management.

The Contract and Procurement Specialist works independently with a high level of political acumen, autonomy, and has strong negotiation, monitoring and consultative skills. This role requires the development and maintenance of a strong network of collaborative relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including Assisted Living and Social Services delivery staff and service providers, to assess service needs, identify emerging issues, and ensure that services are in place to meet needs within the mandate of the Ministry, Division and Branch.

Role Responsibilities (continuation)

As the Contract and Procurement Specialist, your key objectives will be:

Planning: Within the context of the ministry business plan, identifying trends and leveraging opportunities to procure meaningful and quality services to meet the dynamic needs of clients, the local labour market, and the Ministry.

Communication: Strong project management skills in order to coordinate stakeholders, monitor progress and deliverables, and evaluate results.

• Strong group facilitation and presentation skills, being comfortable leading a group and/or presenting to a variety of audiences. Exceptional written and oral communication skills to effectively procure, monitor, evaluate service agreements and maintain relationship with key stakeholders.
• Excellent analytical skills to research or review literature and provide an accurate and thorough analysis and recommendations for investment planning.
• Ability to collate data and visualize information for investment planning including building budget models and completing forecasting activities.

Procurement Management: Procurement activities through the contract life cycle:  

• Ensure procurement activities, such as planning/conducting RFP/EOI competitions, managing, monitoring and evaluating outcomes for contracts and grants; are timely, effective, aligned with ministry policies and compliant with procurement policy and legislation.  
• Prioritize tasks effectively to work within tight timelines in a politically sensitive environment.
• Ensure contracts and grants are in accordance with Federal agreement requirements/ policy business process.
• Strong understanding of ALSS Career & Employment Information Services policies and how they align with Federal reporting requirements.

Relationship Management and Communication: Build and facilitate a network of linkages and collaborative relationships with key stakeholders.

Reporting: Work in collaboration with program delivery staff and service providers to monitor and manage contracts and grants while ensuring compliance to agreements and policy.

Please click on this link to view the job description for this position.

APS Competencies

Competencies are behaviors that are essential to reach our goals in serving Albertans. We encourage you to have an in depth understanding of the competencies that are required for this opportunity and to be prepared to demonstrate them during the recruitment process.

This link will assist you with understanding competencies:
https://www.alberta.ca/system/files/custom_downloaded_images/psc-alberta-public-service-competency-model.pdf.

As the Contract and Procurement Specialist, in addition to your education and experience, you will demonstrate well-honed competencies in the following areas:

SYSTEMS THINKING: Taking a broad scale, long-term view, assessing options and implications; understand the strategic direction of the organization will be of ongoing use for you in this role.

AGILITY: You are a self-starter who creates opportunities for improvement, recognizing the importance of timing and strives to be prepared to take action when appropriate.  Given the dynamic nature of the work, it is critical that you remain flexible and adaptable to circumstances, changes in policies and procedures, and continually shifting priorities.

DRIVE FOR RESULTS: You set and accomplish goals and priorities in order to deliver outcomes consistent with Government direction, departmental objectives and public expectations.  Your work is completed to expected standards and timelines to ensure the project milestones and successful outcomes are realized.

BUILDING COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS: You Engage others to think broadly about impacts of projects, and work to bring differing perspectives together.  Your ability to be collaborative, influence without direct authority, and work as part of a geographically distributed team will be key in your success as a contract and procurement specialist.

CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING:  You are able to navigate a diverse range of challenges with your creative problem solving abilities and strength in learning from and adapting to differing situations and stakeholders.

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements:

• University degree in Social Sciences, Business Administration, Public Administration, Economics or related field.
• Four years of progressively responsible related experience in writing, particularly in responding to Action Requests, writing briefing materials, planning, contract management/negotiations, consulting, program evaluation, financial administration, and working with community-based resources.
• Strong understanding of how policy is contained in contracts and grants.
• Extensive experience using Microsoft Office Suite, particularly Excel.

Equivalency: Directly related education or experience considered on the basis of:

• 1 year of education for 1 year of experience; or
• 1 year of experience for 1 year of education.

Assets:

• Experience in the provision of labour market attachment programming and assisting Albertans in their continuum towards employment
• Strong demonstrated knowledge of service procurement within the Government of Alberta
• Familiarity with IT solutions including the use of web-based applications for client interaction tracking and contract/grant management.

Minimum recruitment standards outline the minimum education and experience required for appointment to a job classification. 
Refer to https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-public-service-minimum-recruitment-standards.

Notes

This position is Permanent, Full-Time with the standard weekly work hours of 36.25, Monday to Friday (8:15 am – 4:30 pm).

Applicants are required to provide a cover letter and resume summarizing information that clearly and concisely demonstrates how their qualifications meet the advertised requirements, including education, experience, and relevant examples of required competencies.

Final candidates may be required to undergo security screening.

Any costs associated with obtaining the required documents/checks as noted or interview travel expenses, will be the responsibility of the candidate. Out-of-province applicants can obtain the required documents/checks from the province they currently reside in.

Links and information on what the GoA have to offer to prospective employees.

• Working for the Alberta Public Service - https://www.alberta.ca/advantages-working-for-alberta-public-service.aspx.
• Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP) - https://www.pspp.ca.
• Alberta Public Service Benefit Information - https://www.alberta.ca/alberta-public-service-benefits.
• Professional learning and development - https://www.alberta.ca/professional-development-support-directive.
• Research Alberta Public Service Careers tool – https://researchapscareers.alberta.ca.
• Positive workplace culture and work-life balance.
• Leadership and mentorship programs.