Junior Consultant

Job Description

Junior Consultant

Contract type/Duration: Permanent

Working hours Full time (9day Fortnight companywide)

Band: 1.3

Salary: £27,340 to £41,000 (depending on office location and proven ability)

Reports to: Head of Regional and Local Growth Technical

Location: Milton Keynes/London (minimum of two days a week in the office. You can do more than two days if preferable)

Closing date: 10am 6th of May 2026


The Role


Connected Places Catapult (CPC) leads the Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre (IPEC), helping public sector and commercial buyers use procurement spend to unlock better outcomes and open markets to innovative suppliers, including high‑potential businesses. Through practical support, shared tools and applied learning, IPEC is helping shape innovation‑friendly procurement practice under the Procurement Act 2023.


We are recruiting a junior consultant to work across the whole of IPEC’s delivery. This is a delivery role, ideal for someone early in their career who wants to become outstanding at commercial and procurement practice. You will support live work with buyers: structuring problems into outcome‑based requirements, helping plan and run preliminary market engagement (including supporting the production of notices and packs), and turning what we learn from the market into clear routes to tender.


You will get close to the machinery of procurement reform and practice: learning how the competitive flexible procedure can be designed and documented, how “most advantageous tender” evaluation is made defensible, how conditions of participation can be set proportionately, and how choices like lots, frameworks and pipeline signalling affect who can bid and who wins. You will also help produce the artefacts that make this real: templates, briefings, guidance notes, spend and market analysis, and clear reporting that stands up to scrutiny.


We welcome applicants with a procurement degree or grounding in commercial, law, economics, policy or operations, but the defining characteristic is curiosity and momentum: you should want to get good at procurement innovation quickly, take responsibility for delivery, and be energised by turning an organisation’s everyday spend into a route to market for new suppliers. To understand the approach and the art of the possible, read: Art of the possible.

Key Responsibilities

Support the IPEC team in delivering work packages against agreed plans. Developing knowledge and supporting policy developing in procurement and especially how it can help drive innovation in meeting the needs of relevant partners. In doing so:

• Support delivery of programmes, including delivery of reports, research and project management
• Stakeholder management and relationship building
• Undertake thought leadership and supporting the creation of new knowledge and research
• Develop and shape policy to promote the use of and take up of innovation procurement.
• Work with account leads and teams to support opportunity identification, qualification and contracting.
• Ensure compliant use of CRM and project management process and system.
• Supporting development of high-quality client proposals and responses to tenders.
• Ensure dissemination and feedback on Connected Places Catapult standard internal communications.
• Maintain own professional development.
• Ensure an ethos of equity, inclusivity and diversity underpin your work activity, contribute to inclusive innovation across all Catapult activities.

You may be required to undertake any other reasonable duties to support the Catapult in achieving its strategic outcomes and ensure effective business operations.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Familiarity of procurement policy and wider use of guidance to support effective use of procurement policies.
• Strong communicator with the ability to adapt style and message for a variety of different audiences.
• Adaptable and able to work across multiple workstreams and with a range of teams.
• Use emotional intelligence to create an environment where team members feel safe to experiment, challenge and try new things.
• Seek, encourage and create the conditions for continuous improvements in processes, systems, behaviors and ways of working.
• Manage own workstreams to deliver against outputs, with reference to key policies, practices and procedures, effectively prioritises tasks and delegates effectively.
• Use management information to understand trends, gaps, challenges and opportunities and make commercial decisions.
• Can work as part of team, including matrix management, fostering a culture of innovation and curiosity.
• Ensures compliance with policies, and apply equalities impact assessments on all aspects of work at CPC.

Benefits

• 9 day fortnight for everyone, every other Friday.
• 23.5 holiday entitlement for everyone, with pro-rata calculations for part-time employees, along with a Christmas shutdown period for additional days off.
• Competitive pension, up to 10% company contribution to help you save for your future.
• Two paid days of volunteering leave per year (pro-rata for part-time employees) to support charitable activities.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) providing 24/7 confidential work/life support services to you and your immediate family members.
• Cycle to Work Scheme encouraging a healthy and sustainable commute.
• Cash Health Plan, offering reimbursement for a wide range of essential and everyday healthcare expenses, promoting your well-being.
• Payroll Giving scheme, allowing regular charitable contributions from pre-tax income, maximizing the impact of your donations.
• Discounts and offers from a wide variety of retailers, enhancing your purchasing power and providing savings opportunities.
• Mortgage Advice benefit, delivered in partnership with Charles Cameron & Associates – provides employees with free, expert mortgage advice and end-to-end mortgage support from the application process through to completion.

Employment here is based solely upon individual merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. We strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, colour, religion, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy status, sex, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, mental or physical disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected by law. We also make all reasonable accommodations to meet our obligations under laws protecting the rights of the disabled.