About the job

Job summary

The Chief Operating Officer will be accountable for the efficient operation and governance of the largest and most complex Commercial Function in Government, acting on behalf of the Director General. They will ensure that there is central co-ordination and oversight of essential activities such as delivery against the Commercial Strategy, strategic decision making and risk management, and finance and resource planning and execution. The Chief Operating Officer will ensure Commercial is appropriately represented within key MOD forums, maintains compliance with Defence policy, and will drive alignment between the Commercial Function and MOD’s priorities.

Job description

Key Responsibilities

The current responsibilities of the role include:

• Setting, integrating, and managing priorities across all Commercial Directorates on behalf of DG Commercial, in alignment with functional and departmental strategic objectives, providing constructive challenge as required and holding Directors and their teams to account for delivery.
• Strategic governance of the Function, ensuring alignment of all Boards, Committees and Working Groups both internally and as part of the wider Ministry of Defence (MOD) / Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) and cross-government structures, enabling key commercial input and action.
• Making strategic decisions on financial and workforce accountability for Commercial budgets within MOD Head Office, prioritising and aligning against the rest of the Function.
• Leadership and governance of the Commercial Functional Strategy, driving action and measuring, monitoring and communicating progress against delivery of key outputs across Defence.
• Management of strategic risk at the highest departmental level to maintain assurance, co-ordinating and tracking delivery against action plans.
• Leading the Defence Commercial Communications Team to deliver innovative and strategically driven communications, engagement activities, and events.
• Acting as a key advisor to DG Commercial, providing timely and sage advice on all aspects of functional business operations, remaining cognisant of wider MOD / DE&S and cross-government policy, direction and political context.
• Working closely with DG Commercial to represent their views and functional interests at appropriate senior level forums and when engaging with individuals across the department and wider government.
• Building successful relationships with key stakeholders to resolve challenging issues, promote the work of the Commercial Function, and instil confidence in the Function’s ability to deliver and meet business needs.

Person specification

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

• A strong track record of leadership in a senior role, with experience of managing a varied and complex portfolio of work and the people and finance resource required to deliver successfully.
• Demonstrable evidence of an ability to efficiently develop, resource, and deliver against strategic plans, aligning these to overall functional and organisation objectives and priorities.
• Effective management of competing demands, both internal and external, in a challenging environment, making key decisions and providing recommendations for action to the most senior stakeholders in an organisation.
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills with an ability to establish and maintain influential relationships with senior stakeholders from a variety of different organisations.
• Ability to motivate and inspire at all levels to create and manage diverse, high-performing teams, with the confidence to make difficult decisions.

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a strong field of candidates when there is a need to distinguish between candidates. This will be as a second sift, after the essential criteria has been considered:

Strong experience within the following key business functions would be beneficial:

• Commercial and procurement
• Strategy delivery including transformational change
• Project and programme management
• Service / operational delivery

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process accessed via the advertisement listed for this role. This should be completed no later than 23:55 Sunday 18th August 2024 and will involve providing the two documents outlined below via the Civil Service Jobs portal:

• A CV (no more than 2 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.
• A Personal Statement (no more than 2 pages) explaining how your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role. 

Both documents are weighted equally in their scoring, so it's important to consider this when uploading your application. Failure to submit both documents will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification. 

Candidate Drop-In Session

We will be running a candidate drop-in session for this role to give you greater insight about the role as well as the chance to learn more about the Ministry of Defence and the recruitment process. If you would like to join us, then use the appropriate link below to join the call at the right time. 

This will take place on Thursday 15th August 10:00-10:45 and you can join here

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.