Head of Procurement

• Salary grade 4, £91,053 per annum
• Full time, 37 hours per week
• 33 days’ annual leave, plus bank holidays
• Hybrid working arrangement, with a base at our modern, refurbished County Hall offices in Taunton and the option to work from home.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Head of Procurement at Somerset Council – a pivotal leadership role shaping how we deliver high-quality, cost-effective services for our communities.

Finance and Procurement provide critical support functions to the unitary Council. Our aim is to drive the organisation to relentlessly focus on delivering better and cost-effective outcomes. This role will work with services to understand their demands and identify fundamental savings needed on our contracted spend. The role will also be required to actively drive, manage and leverage category spend for the best strategic needs of the Council.

What You’ll Lead:

In this leadership position, you will play a key role in the organisation, developing and embedding forward thinking procurement practice across the diverse range of commissioning and contractual opportunities within the Council. You will ensure compliance with all procurement legislation impacting the operation of the procurement team and the Council.

We welcome applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences to enrich our team. You can always contact the hiring manager for a chat if there’s anything you want to talk about before you apply.

We’re committed to supporting your development through continuous training and guidance. To succeed in this role, you will need to:

• Have senior experience leading teams within large, complex organisations involving procurement activity, commercial contract negotiation or large processing operations.
• Demonstrate strong knowledge and understanding of statutory and policy requirements within local government, and how these apply across commissioning, procurement and contract management.
• Have experience developing and delivering representational and communication activities that successfully convey key messages to both the public and internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrate knowledge of a range of contract formats for goods, services and works.

We’re proud to be here for the people of Somerset. And that means everyone in Somerset. An important part of this is ensuring that we are as diverse and inclusive as the people and communities we serve.

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset.

We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact Clive Heaphy, Interim Chief Finance Officer – clive.heaphy@somerset.gov.uk or Nicola Hix, Service Director Finance & Procurement – nicola.hix@somerset.gov.uk

Interviews will be 4 February 2026.

If you have everything you need, just hit the apply button. We can’t wait to hear from you.

When completing your application/CV please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your current or most recent employment.

This role requires a Basic DBS clearance.