Category Specialists Ref RT04125

Category Specialists - People (Adult Social Care Childrens Services and Public Health) - Ref: RT04125
G9: 42839 - 46142 per annum
2 posts.

Term: Permanent
Location: Remote/Walsall
Holidays: 28 days plus 9 days bank holidays (Increasing to 33 after 5 years of continuous service)

About our Procurement and Contract Management Team

We are pleased to share that following a review and restructure Walsall Council has a number of new and exciting opportunities in its Procurement and Contract Management team.

Our team support a wide range of service areas across the Council including services for Adult Social Care Childrens Service Public Health Construction FM Waste Fleet Finance HR and ICT to name a few.

With significant changes in public sector procurement with the UKs Procurement Act 2023 (PA23) coming into force bringing with it the challenges of a major overhaul of the procurement and contract management rules and a heightened focus on transparency integrity and commerciality this is an ideal time to join our established team and positively impact change.

About our Category Specialist

We are seeking a commercially minded positive individual with a can do attitude to work collaboratively with stakeholders to successfully deliver a range of procurement activities. Ideally you will:

• be flexible and pragmatic in your approach

• have the ability to manage multiple workstreams across your category area at different stages of the procurement cycle.

• work with a variety of teams planning and defining services and ensuring procurement projects meet local objectives to support the Councils corporate vision of delivering excellent services and improving life chances for all Walsall residents.

About the People Category

Our People Category has four fantastic opportunities available for two Category Specialist roles and two Assistant Category Specialist to strengthen our capacity to deliver a wide range of procurement activity.

We work in close collaboration with many key internal and external stakeholders that include Council wide service areas vulnerable service users providers VCSEs and of course our valued supply chain.

We are not afraid to think outside the box and challenge the norm we pride ourselves on our flexible and pragmatic procurement advice to achieve the most advantageous procurement strategy and to ensure successful project delivery.

Our projects vary in value and complexity with sometimes challenging timescales. Examples of recent and current/future projects include:

• Healthy Child Programme circa 6M annually (lifetime value 60M) Provider Selection Regime
• Integrated Sexual Health Services circa 2M annually (lifetime value 20M) Provider Selection Regime
• Community Based Support Services circa 28M annually (lifetime value 224M) PA23 Light Touch Framework
• Support Living Services circa 20M annually (lifetime value 160M) PA23 Light Touch Framework
• Residential and Nursing Care Services circa 54M annually PA23 User Choice
• Home to School Transport circa 10M annually PCRs 2015 DPS
• Healthy Eating for Families and Children circa 250k annually (lifetime value 1.25M) PCRs 2015 Open Process

If you want to be supported by passionate and dedicated Category Managers and Category Lead believe you could add value to our team and you have relevant category knowledge or the desire to learn then we would like to hear from you.

It is our intention to notify applicants of their outcome at the earliest opportunity after the closing date subject to the volume of interest and to interview short listed applicants during week commencing 5th and 12th January 2026

If you have any questions or wish to discuss any of the opportunities available please contact Susan Wilson Category Lead for People at

View Job Description and Employee Specification

Important note: When completing your online application form you will be asked to enter supporting information. You must enter a detailed supporting information statement describing how your skills abilities and experience meet the specific criteria included in the employee specification. If you do not include a supporting information statement you will not be also ensure that you complete the work history and qualifications sections of your application form. Please do not add a CV as we do not accept them. Please see ourInformation for Applicants leaflet for further information.

We kindly request that recruitment agencies do not contact us regarding this job vacancy. We are not accepting agency applications or referrals at this time.

Closing Date: 7th December 2025