Senior Manager/Assistant Director - ICT & SS Procurement, Technical Systems & Infrastructure

GovTech is the lead agency driving Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives and public sector digital transformation. As the Centre of Excellence for Infocomm Technology and Smart Systems (ICT & SS), GovTech develops the Singapore Government’s capabilities in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Application Development, Smart City Technology, Digital Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity.  
 
At GovTech, we offer you a purposeful career to make lives better where we empower our people to master their craft through robust learning and development opportunities all year round. 
 
Play a part in Singapore’s vision to build a Smart Nation and embark on your meaningful journey to build tech for public good. Join us to advance our mission and shape your future with us today!  

Learn more about GovTech at tech.gov.sg.

[About the role]

What procurement problem won’t leave you alone?
Why does Procurement sometimes enter the conversation after the most important decisions have already been made?

Why do experienced procurement officers repeatedly solve similar problems, but the knowledge remains with individuals rather than becoming organisational capability?

Why do we improve individual steps in a process when the better question may be whether the process, control or operating model should exist in its current form at all?

As technology, markets and business models change, how should Procurement itself change?

If questions like these make you want to get underneath the problem, challenge the assumptions behind it and build something better, you should apply.

The Policy, Risk, Engagement and Competency (PREC) team in GovTech Procurement and Contracts Division (PCD) is rethinking how Procurement can work across GovTech and, where useful, the wider Singapore Government (ICT focused).

Why this matters
Procurement is more than getting a purchase through a process.

Done well, it helps teams make better decisions about what to buy, how to approach the market, how to structure commercial relationships and how to get better outcomes from suppliers.

At GovTech, we want simple and routine buying to become increasingly intuitive and self-service, while bringing Procurement in earlier where the problem is complex, strategic or commercially significant. At the Whole-of-Government level, we are exploring how ICT procurement capability, specialist expertise, commercial intelligence and learning can be better connected and reused.

That means PREC cannot just improve today’s processes. We need to help rethink how procurement should operate tomorrow.

The capabilities you could build and combine
You may begin with depth in one or two areas and develop a broader combination over time. The capabilities you draw on will depend on the problem.

Rethink how Procurement works
Procurement Operating Model & Transformation
How should Procurement organise itself as business and technology needs evolve? Explore what should be centralised, decentralised or delivered differently. Look across people, process, policy, data and technology rather than optimising each in isolation.

Get Procurement into the right conversations
Business Partnering
How can Procurement contribute before requirements and commercial approaches have already been decided? Build approaches that help Procurement engage earlier on complex decisions, understand business problems and bring commercial thinking to the table.

Turn individual expertise into organisational capability
Knowledge Productisation
How do we stop solving the same problem from scratch? Take knowledge that sits with experienced practitioners and turn it into reusable frameworks, tools, decision support and scalable assets.

Redesign, not just streamline
Process & System Redesign
Instead of asking, “How can we make this step faster?”, ask, “Why does this step exist?” Look end-to-end at how Procurement works and determine whether processes and controls should be eliminated, simplified, standardised, automated or redesigned.

Turn information into better decisions
Procurement Intelligence
Bring together procurement, supplier, pricing, market and organisational information so decisions are based on better evidence, not simply precedent. Identify patterns, opportunities and risks, and translate them into actionable recommendations.

Make good ideas travel
Whole-of-Government Capability & Learning
How can something that works in one team or agency become useful elsewhere? Identify effective approaches, codify the learning and help create procurement capabilities that can be reused across GovTech and potentially across government.

[What we looking for]
We are not looking for someone simply to make today’s procurement processes a little faster.

We want someone willing to ask:

• What problem are we actually trying to solve?
• Why does this process or control exist?
• Does it still address the risk it was designed for?
• Are we solving the same problem repeatedly?
• Could the business make this decision itself with the right guardrails?
• Could data or technology change how the work is done?
• Should Procurement be involved earlier, later, differently, or sometimes not at all?
• If we redesigned this from scratch today, would we build it this way?

Sometimes the answer will be a better process. Sometimes it will be a different operating model, clearer decision rights, better information or a reusable capability. Occasionally, the answer may be to stop doing something.

The expectation is not to challenge everything. It is to understand what deserves to be challenged, why, and what should replace it.

[What good looks like]
Success is not the number of policies, templates, papers or improvement initiatives produced.

We are making progress when:

• Procurement gets involved at the point where it can genuinely influence an outcome.
• Simple buying becomes simpler.
• Complex procurement decisions benefit from stronger commercial thinking.
• Teams spend less effort repeatedly solving problems that have already been solved.
• Procurement knowledge becomes reusable organisational capability rather than remaining with individuals.
• Processes and controls are designed around the problems and risks they are actually meant to address.
• Good practices can be adapted and reused beyond the team that developed them.
• Procurement becomes a function that business teams seek out for the value it brings, not simply because a process requires them to engage us.

What we offer you: 

GovTech is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive workplace that values diverse voices and perspectives, as we believe that diversity is the foundation to innovation.   

Our employee benefits are based on a total rewards approach, offering a holistic and market-competitive suite of perks. These include leave benefits to meet your work-life needs and employee wellness programs. 

We champion flexible work arrangements (subject to your job role) and trust that you will manage your own time to deliver your best, wherever you are, and whatever works best for you.  

Learn more about life inside GovTech at go.gov.sg/GovTechCareers. 
Stay connected with us on social media at go.gov.sg/ConnectWithGovTech

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