About the job

Job summary

This position is based nationally

Job description

Job Description

Job Title: Commercial Manager (Contract Management)

Job Grade: SEO

Reporting to:  Senior Commercial Manager

Job Location: National 

Contract Type: Permanent  

Business Area: MOJ – Commercial & Contract Management Department 

Type of role: Contract Management, Procurement

Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time 

Number of Posts: 1 

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 ground-breaking 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 of the Role/s:

The role sits within a sub team (Professional Services) within the wider portfolio supporting two of the MoJ’s indirect spend categories, the Consultancy and Professional Services category and the Contingent Labour category. The team delivers commercial support across the whole range of MOJ directorates, giving a unique and fascinating insight into the operations of one of the largest government Departments.

The Contingent Labour category has a longer-term focus on contract management as well as supplier and stakeholder relationship management with the majority of the spend routed via a pan Government Framework Agreement. This is an exciting time to join the team as the re-procurement of the government framework which will replace the existing contract, is currently underway. This offers the opportunity to become involved in shaping the new MOJ contract requirements and managing transition to a new contract. Within the Professional Services team, commercial contract management support and guidance is also provided  for internal customers.

This role will report into the Senior Commercial Manager (Contingent Labour) and provide commercial contract management within the contingent labour category as well as developing best practice contract management approaches and continuous improvements across the Professional Services team. Working alongside operational contract managers the role will provide a commercial lens through thorough commercial understanding of designated contracts and how to leverage for optimal delivery. The role will have a focus on spend and data analysis across the contingent labour category providing essential insight to identify continuous improvement opportunities across the team. There may also be opportunities to work alongside colleagues on the Consultancy and Professional Services side of the team providing specialist contract management advice, support and best practice sharing.

The team includes both procurement and contract management professionals working together to deliver effectively. There is potential scope for the role to carry out procurement activity within the category should this be required and depending on the successful candidate.

The roles sit within a busy, friendly, and supportive team, offering an interesting and varied workload with opportunity to inform and continually improve the ways of working.

Key Responsibilities:

• Providing commercial contract management for contracts within the contingent labour category.
• Providing contract management support, advice and best practice sharing across the team.
• Act as escalation point for contractual matters such as disputes, non-performance, and contract breach.
• Manage the commercial stream of the transition plan to new Workforce Solutions framework for MoJ.
• Ensuring a focus on continuous improvement opportunities, ability to question and challenge existing ways of working where appropriate to ensure value for money, compliance and efficiencies made.
• Providing commercial support and guidance to a range of stakeholders, ensuring the delivery of the department’s objectives is informed by commercial best practice,
• Develop and manage the team SharePoint site ensuring accurate sharing of required information across team and version control.
• Undertake all work in compliance with applicable legislation, Cabinet Office guidance & controls, MoJ policies, processes, procedures, and governance.
• Analysis of supplier and contract spend data to inform contract performance and prioritise areas of focus.
• Take ownership for/use electronic sourcing and management systems to ensure contract records are accurate and up to date.
• Support the Senior Commercial Manager to deliver team, CCMD and MOJ priorities.

Essential Criteria:

• Excellent people engagement skills across all levels of internal and external stakeholders
• Relevant commercial & contract management experience with a strong understanding of the benefits delivered through best practice contract management.
• A collaborative approach to drive decisions and deliver on timely outcomes.
• Ability to apply judgement to make quick and effective decisions.
• Customer and delivery focus to meet deadlines in a fast paced and ever-changing environment.
• Ability to manage multiple demands and conflicting priorities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, particularly in delivering commercial advice to senior leaders.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office suite of products including Outlook, Word, Teams, and Excel
• Evidence of strong data analysis skills and presenting data in a clear and user-friendly way
• Good understanding and practical knowledge of risk management and appropriate risk mitigation techniques when managing

 Desirable Criteria:

• An understanding of public sector procurement principles and legislation and how they apply to contract management.
• Experience of contract management within a services category
• Working knowledge of sourcing systems
• Experience of running procurements in a regulated environment
• Working towards or a willingness to work towards MCIPS or relevant Contract Management accreditations incl. Contract Management Capability Programme (Practitioner and Expert).

Application form stage assessments:

An initial sift will be performed against the following elements: 

Experience:

• CV
• Statement of Suitability (Max 750 words)

Behaviours

• Managing a Quality Service

Interview:

There is one interview stage for this vacancy and as part of the interview process you will be required to provide evidence of the following behaviours, and experience at SEO level:

Behaviours

The Civil Service Success Profiles Framework sets out the standard skills, knowledge and behaviours that all civil servants are expected to meet. You will be assessed against the below at interview:

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making effective decisions
• Managing a Quality Service

Experience

As part of the interview, we will test your experience specifically in relation to contract management. This will include those areas as outlined in Essential and Desirable criteria above.

Please also refer to the People Standards for the profession (Associate Commercial Lead) – Attributes for Government Commercial Professionals – Section A: Judgement and Leadership.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/984460/__Government_Commercial_Function__GCF__People_Standards_for_the_Profession_Version_3.0_.pdf

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) 

Additional

New entrants are expected to join on the pay minimum. Higher starting salary and / or Recruitment & Retention Allowance (RRA) may be available for successful candidates with exceptional skills and experience. 

We will consider applications from non-qualified candidates, who are willing to develop and work towards a recognised qualification in order to meet the full requirements of the role.

The specialist allowance may apply to qualified applicants with a commercial professional qualification, for example, CIPS, World CC etc. vgfc

Further details can be provided during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,868, Ministry of Justice contributes £10,804 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 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.