The first thing Natalie noticed on her first day at Grain LNG was they were true to their word about the family friendly policy.  “My boss asked me how my daughter was settling into nursery; it demonstrated a family friendly ethos and put me at ease”.

Having started only three months ago Natalie is still a fairly new face at the Grain LNG terminal but says “I don’t feel like the new girl, I feel like a part of the Grain LNG family already”.

Employed at Grain LNG as a senior procurement specialist, her job is to align Grain LNG’s procurement and contractual process with the rest of National Grid.  Her main objective is to liaise between the Grain LNG business and National Grid shared services to encourage the business ethos of ‘one company one way’. 

It is an extremely diversified job and that’s the way Natalie likes it. In a nutshell her role is to ensure Grain LNG’s purchasing, procurement and contractual processes are consistent and offer Grain LNG the most cost effective options. 

A typical day for Natalie can involve a myriad of tasks from assessing business tenders and awarding contracts to analysing purchasing trends and quantities bought, developing relationships with suppliers to attending training courses.

Natalie says she is enjoying the challenge and finds it very rewarding developing consistent contractual arrangements with Grain LNG’s suppliers.

When asked what she thinks of her new job and of working at Grain LNG she exclaims enthusiastically “It honestly is the best job in the world, the training I’m receiving is superb, the work life balance is genuine and the people I work with are fantastic”.

“I was worried about returning to the work place after taking two years out after having my baby girl, but National Grid couldn’t have made the process any easier for me”, she said.

Natalie’s advice to new recruits at Grain is “tap into the vast amount of knowledge and resources available, there are people from all walks of life and the diversity has added a new perspective to my job”.