About the job

Job summary

The Home Office vision strives to be a world-leading immigration service, working for a safe and prosperous UK. We will carry out our vision through the delivery of four strategic missions: to control migration, deliver world-class customer service, safeguard the vulnerable and their host communities, and make The Home Office a great place to work.

As a Commercial Business Operations Manager, you will primarily lead on the administrative work in relation to our Governance reporting obligations as well as Resourcing covering the onboarding of both temporary and permanent staff into a large commercial team.

You will also lead on compliance with government commercial transparency requirements and spend control processes including tracking responses to outstanding cabinet office spend control conditions; coordinate monthly stocktake activity, quarterly KPI returns, and data quality performance.

A meaningful role that underpins the wider commercial team by ensuring the efficient and timely onboarding of critical resources to support key procurement projects and contract management activity as well as maintaining compliance with our governance and reporting obligations into cabinet office and home office senior leaders.

Job description

As a Commercial Business Operations Manager, you will:

• Manage the onboarding and exiting of professional services resources. This will include approvals, onboarding and exiting; preparing documentation for the External Resources Group (ERG) approval process, managing the PO process, Metis account and POISE account set up, lap top ordering, Field glass management and milestone approvals. Collaborating closely with the hiring manager, ERG team, Professional Services team, Public Sector Resourcing (PSR), Metis and IT support.
• Lead on the onboarding and exiting of permanent staff ensuring new joiners are fully onboarded, added to all relevant meetings and Commercial distribution lists, Team’s site etc and have IT equipment and building passes they require.
• Manage corporate processes such as maintaining the team staffing database, ensuring the central Commercial team are kept updated each month of leavers, new starters, and changes. Ensuring asset registers are kept up to date.
• Issue and record annual delegation letters for the team; lead all aspects of central records such as the list showing when individual’s security clearances expire.
• Lead on compliance with government commercial transparency requirements and spend control processes including tracking responses to outstanding cabinet office spend control conditions via the CAMS system, Coordinate monthly stocktake activity and quarterly KPI returns and tracking contract finder and data quality performance via existing Jaggaer and power BI tools.
• Be responsible for effective use of team teams SharePoint areas, ensuring appropriate access, filing structures, and promoting guidance on system good practice to the team.
• This role may also have some Line management in the future.

Important information

• Due to the nature of the work this role is available on a full time and compressed hours basis only.
• Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estates capacity.

Person specification

• You will be a highly organised and efficient individual, able to prioritise challenging priorities and work under pressure, without loss of quality.
• You will be an excellent communicator, able to build effective and influential working relationships with internal and external stakeholders of all levels and will have an excellent eye for detail.
• You will have sound IT skills, and a solution-focused outlook, able to anticipate problems and deal with them before they become an issue.

Essential criteria 

• Evidence of a high standard of communication skills, written and oral.
• Experience of providing EA support to senior management, or an equivalent role with similar or transferable skills.
• Demonstrable evidence of advanced user of Outlook, Excel, SharePoint and MS Teams.
• Experienced planner/organiser of complex meetings and events.
• Excellent organisation and time management skills.
• Strong evidence of building and maintaining strong and effective relationships with a variety of stakeholders.
• Validated experience of delivering accurate, good quality work to tight deadlines.
• Validated experience of working in a commercial business operations environment.

Desirable criteria 

• Willingness to learn new systems and processes.
• Experience of approval process for contractors in the Home Office.
• Experience of Metis system.
• Experience of data analysis.

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete: 

•    A CV detailing job history/skills  
•    A statement of suitability (personal statement) (maximum 750 words)  

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Your CV should consist of your career history, including any key achievements in each role, but instead will be used to provide further context on your personal statement, and support conversations at interview.

The CV will be used for information purposes only and will not be scored. 

The statement of suitability should concisely explain your motivation for applying to this role and offer evidence of how you meet the essential criteria listed on the Job Specification. 

The sift will be based on the statement of suitability. 

Candidates shortlisted will be invited to an interview which will consist of behaviour-based questions on all the behaviours listed in the advert. 

Sift and Interview dates
 
Sift is expected to take place week commencing 5th August 2024.

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 19th August 2024.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert, however on occasions these dates may change. 

• A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam
• Good internet connection
• Microsoft Teams
 
PLEASE NOTE: Due to time constraints we may not be able to offer alternative interview date(s). It is therefore expected that candidates who are successful at sift stage will make themselves available during the above time frame given.

Further Information

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.  A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made. We may also hold a location merit list.

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. All applications are screened for plagiarism and copying and generating of examples/answers from internet sources including Artificial Intelligence. If any is detected the application may be withdrawn from the process. Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving civil servants. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all Civil Servants.

If you are successful in this position and choose to accept the provisional offer for this role, you will be removed from all other Home Office reserve lists at the same grade.

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to  bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk 

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

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.