About the job

Job summary

This position is based nationally

Job description

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is a major government department, at the heart of the justice system. Responsible for courts, prisons and probation services, we work to ensure sentences are served and offenders are given rehabilitation opportunities to become law-abiding citizens.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has one of the largest and most complex spend profiles in central government. The Commercial and Contract Management Directorate (CCMD) is responsible for coordinating procurement and contract management across the MoJ, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies.

The MoJ spends £7.5bn a year and manages over 1600 active contracts, all of which are sourced and managed by CCMD. We are running some of the most groundbreaking programmes such as Prison Reform and His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service Reform. The scope of our contracts ranges from building, maintenance and the operation of Prisons, Courts and Young Offender establishments through to food for prison dogs. The directorate also buys and manages contracts for feeding up to 80,000 prisoners, the secure escorting of prisoners from numerous establishments based around the country and translation services.

CCMD is organised into category teams, each with an interesting portfolio of contracts and diverse customers and suppliers to manage. We also have systems, programme management office, supplier relationship and risk management teams who work across all areas. 

SCOPE

Portfolio – Public Body Business Partnering Team

MoJ's complex spend profile results in delivery being spread across more than 30 Public Bodies (PBs) as well as the department itself. The PB Commercial Portfolio is a relatively new and exciting area in CCMD’s already diverse and wide range. Its aim; to ensure the department’s PBs have the appropriate commercial advice and support, while providing effective assurance and governance oversight for the directorate. 

As the Assistant Commercial Business Partner, your ability to build effective working relationships across your own portfolio of PBs is critical to this role. You will be responsible for understanding each of the PBs within your remit, their unique operational priorities and how these translate into commercial pipelines and risks. You will provide commercial expertise and advice where needed, while working across the portfolio to support a variety of initiatives to improve the overall commercial offering to, and capability of the PBs. This will include developing and delivering training, assessing and building contract and supplier management capability and supporting the delivery of the overarching communication/engagement strategy. You may also lead sourcing activity from time to time, where PB requirements are not catered for within existing categories. You will work closely within a small team, supporting seniors with more complex issues and fostering a collaborative culture with peers. 

The Public Bodies Business Partnering team work closely with all CCMD categories, especially Core & Professional Services who sit within our same portfolio. Your immediate team will comprise of six commercial colleagues and your ability work effectively within this team will be paramount to your success and enjoyment. 

Key Responsibilities                                              

• Build effective working relationships across your own portfolio of PBs to understand their unique operational priorities and how these translate into commercial needs, opportunities and risks.
• For each PB set out effective and proportional commercial engagement and activity strategies to support the delivery of the overarching communication and engagement strategy.
• Work closely with each PB to understand their future commercial needs and ensure this is captured in their commercial pipeline to allow forward planning with CCMD category teams.
• Identify needs of PBs and provide general advice and guidance, signposting where required. Work across the portfolio to support a variety of initiatives to improve the overall commercial offering to, and capability of the PBs.
• Undertake commercial assessments before identifying, developing where necessary, and delivering suitable materials and mediums to share best practice to improve and build capability, particularly for contract management.
• Develop an understanding of the new public procurement regime to ensure stakeholders are kept up to date with changes proportionate to their needs.
• Within the PB role you may also lead sourcing activity from time to time, where PB requirements are not catered for within existing categories. 

Person Specification

Essential Criteria:       

• Our ideal candidate will have excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills and an ability to deploy commercial and contract management expertise in a partnership approach.
• Relevant public sector commercial experience against one or more key elements of the commercial life cycle (define, procure, manage).  
• The post holder must be able to demonstrate initiative being a proven self-starter who is hard working and shows drive and enthusiasm.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to plan, organise and manage your time and that of others effectively.
• Interpersonal and communication skills, evidence of building relationships and communicating with clarity and confidence with stakeholders at different levels of seniority.
• Being a team player and working well with others.
• Confident user of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and MS Teams. 

Qualifications

Candidates must have one of the following or be willing to work towards gaining appropriate qualifications: 

• Member of relevant professional body e.g. CIPS, WCC (previously IACCM) or similar
• Contract Management Capability Programme Foundation level (available through Government Commercial College). 

Desirable Criteria:

• Knowledge of public body sponsorship by ministerial departments. 

Application stage (Sifting):

An initial sift will be performed against the following elements in relation to the key responsibilities and person specification above:

Experience:

• CV - Relevant public sector commercial experience against one or more key elements of the commercial life cycle (define, procure, manage).  
• 
     Statement of Suitability

Behaviours:

• Working Together (Lead Behaviour) – 250 words
• Communicating and Influencing – 250 words
• Managing a Quality Service – 250 words 

Please note that in the event of a large number of applications being received we may run the initial sift against the CV & Statement of Suitability and Lead Behaviour of Working Together.

If shortlisted, you’ll be invited to an interview and will be assessed on the selected success profile elements at the interview stage. Please carry a valid proof of Id that has your photo on it (passport, BRP, driving licence etc) at the interview.

Interview stage:

There is one interview stage for this vacancy and as part of the interview process you will be required to provide evidence on the following:

• Communicating & Influencing
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service 

Strengths may also be assessed at the interview.

Please use STAR approach to structure your examples.

• Situation – Describe the situation you found yourself in and what happened.
• Task – The Hiring Manager will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation that you found yourself in.
• Action – What actions did you take and how did you do it. Make sure to use “I”, not “we” to explain how your actions lead to a result.
• Result – Use facts and statistics to demonstrate the results that your actions produced. Explain whether it was a successful outcome, and if not, what you learned from the experience.

Further information on the Success profile elements can be found on Success Profiles - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

Person specification

Please refer to job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,827, Ministry of Justice contributes £8,896 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.