About the job

Job summary

This HEO Commercial Officer contract management post is a vital role in support of the Defence Community. Head Office Commercial offers a varied and rewarding work environment, and you will be contributing by supporting our MOD customers to deliver a great Defence Service across the world. 

In this important and interesting position, you will help ensure the delivery of pay, pensions and a broad range of HR services to Armed Forces personnel and Veterans, working closely with both military and civilian colleagues in a dynamic and rapidly changing environment. These services are currently outsourced under a key contract and this job role involves monitoring, collaborating with and challenging the contractor to ensure effective and accurate delivery of both day-to-day services and in an ongoing complex transformation programme (40+ projects) to bring efficient, modernised and digitised IT services to the benefit of the Armed Forces and Veterans.

You will be one of two HEO Commercial Officers with responsibility for various aspects of the contract (including the review and management of change) but you will also be required to support others members of the team. You will be part of an overall commercial team of eight dedicated to management of this contract, within the wider Head Office Commercial team of over 100 commercial staff.

The role is at the Higher Executive Officer (HEO) civil service grade which is equivalent to the Government Commercial Function (GCF) Commercial Practitioner grade. This position is 37 hours per week.

The MOD Head Office Commercial Team has offices in London, Gosport, Gloucester, Bristol and Glasgow and you must choose one of these as your primary location, the role offers hybrid working.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

You will be part of the team to manage the contract which delivers Military Personnel and Veterans (Mil Pers & Vets) pay, pensions and HR Services.

The contract outputs of this seven-year contract (classified as ‘gold’ level by Cabinet Office) fall into three main categories:

• Operational ‘Business As Usual’ (BAU) services – running of Business Processing Outsourcing and IT services ‘as is’ today – to agreed service standards and availability/quality targets;
• IT Transformation - Dis-aggregation of the existing complex IT System into four separate service towers to address obsolescence and a move to a cloud-based approach to deliver enhanced end-user experience, significantly enhanced Management Information (MI) and improved, more flexible value for money outcomes; and
• Change - Change services to support the BAU and Transformation areas.

The contract requirement covers the following business outputs:

• Military pay and allowances;
• Military pensions and compensation administration and payment;
• Military HR processes enabling both supported and self-service activity for personnel;
• Administration of personnel records and data;
• Enquiry Centre services;
• Delivery and maintenance of the IT infrastructure;
• Support to MOD Medal Services and Veterans Services;
• Provision of Management Information reports and statistics;
• Administration and delivery of change to comply with emerging policy, legislation or changing customer needs; and
• A significant Transformation programme which will provide enhanced capability and increased means of accessibility, which in turn will enable wider transformation across the MOD and reduce the Total Cost of Ownership for these services.

As one of two HEO post holders commercially supporting the contract, you will work to one of the Senior Commercial Officers (Grade SEO), with responsibilities for building strong partnerships with the Military Personnel and Veterans Business area and the Service Delivery Contract (SDC) stakeholder community, including, critically, the contractor and supply chain.

You will provide day-to-day engagement with the contractor, contributing to effective commercial management, providing commercial advice within the governance framework of the contract. You will interact across the Department and wider Government in the context of the pay, pensions and HR services. The role provides an excellent opportunity to develop a broad range of contract management experience, an understanding of IT transformation and intra- and inter- department collaboration. 

As part of the Commercial function of the MOD Head Office Commercial Team, you will work within a highly capable and supportive team who will work with you to help you understand MOD and ensure you will use and develop your skills, knowledge and experience. We employ talented people and are keen for others to join the community which is constantly looking to improve its processes and practices.

As part of MOD, Head Office includes Whitehall and several corporate support functions. Head Office Commercial manages the Commercial needs of our varied and diverse customer base, directly supporting many services and projects across MOD with a contract landscape of approx. £4Bn. Head Office Commercial advises and supports its customers by creating routes to market for products and services critical to delivering a range of diverse corporate services as well as supporting complex projects. We manage all aspects of customer and supplier relationships while spending taxpayer’s money in an efficient, effective, compliant manner.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is the UK Government’s fourth largest spending Department with a budget exceeding £36Bn per year and net assets valued at over £100Bn. MOD is responsible for over 40% of the value of all Government contracts placed with the private sector each year.

Responsibilities:

Specific responsibilities will include, but not be limited to:

• Ensuring the maintenance of and adherence to pricing and contract terms and conditions;
• Ensuring contractor delivery of operational ‘Business as Usual’ (BAU) services, incentivised through a service credit regime;
• Scrutiny and approval of contract change including commercial challenge and negotiation of contractor’s change proposals;
• Supporting delivery of a comprehensive transformation programme, underpinned by a comprehensive Transformation milestones regime; 
• Developing and maintaining a collaborative approach with the Contractor and MOD staff, including in relation to the resolution of contractual disputes;
• Identification and effective management of risks and issues;
• Supporting dis-aggregation / contract exit / future procurements; and
• Attendance at meetings and workshops as necessary

And additionally, contribution to more strategic activities through:

• Using knowledge of mechanisms to deliver contract outcomes within budget, improve performance and prevent uncontrolled changes to scope;
• Engaging with stakeholders to assess benefits and costs of contracted provisions being discontinued, brought in-house or re-procured;
• Striving for continuous improvement and removing non-value adding activity; and
• Managing stakeholder engagement and reviewing contract and programme objectives to ensure benefit realisation.

The post holder will actively participate in the appropriate contract governance processes, and more broadly, supporting operational activities (including Head Office Commercial wider team activities), as well as having a facilitation role in respect of the exit activities of the incumbent contractor, to ensure the successful transition of the services to any future contractor(s).

Person specification

You will have a key role commercially, working with tenacity, diplomacy and good attention to detail, with both the contractor, customer and stakeholders, to ensure the delivery of critical contract outputs.

Key Skills and Experience

The essential skills and experience for this role are: 

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Highly organised and able to work flexibly to meet changing requirements.
• Experience in establishing and maintaining stakeholder relationships.

Desirable: 

• Experience of supporting the delivery of project or change initiatives.
• Experience of working in a commercial environment.
• Experience of negotiations.
• Experience in managing public sector or large complex contracts.
• Excellent analytical skills including the ability to quickly synthesize, distil and draw conclusions on large amounts of data.
• Proficient IT skills including Microsoft Office.

Qualifications:

• Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) – The successful candidate must provide evidence of CIPS level 4 (or equivalent) or be willing to work towards this by commencing study within 12 months of appointment. 

• Commercial Licence – The role requires the post holder to hold a valid commercial licence, the successful candidate will therefore be supported to undertake and pass the MOD Practitioner Commercial Licence Assessment and the Contract Management Capability Programme (CMCP) Foundation level qualification. 

Travel: UK travel on a regular basis (particularly to Gosport, Hampshire) is required for this post.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,290, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,528 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.

Applications must be made online through the Civil Service Jobs website.

Candidates will be required to complete an online CV template to include career history, highlighting relevant or transferable skills and previous experience that align to the job description.

Candidates will be required to complete a Statement of Suitability of no more than 500 words to further describe your existing knowledge, skills and experience which match, or are transferable to meet, the essential criteria and responsibilities of this role.

The CV and statement of suitability will be used to sift applicants and assess whether they appear to have the relevant knowledge, skills, and experience to be invited for interview.

Candidates invited to interview will then be assessed on behaviours at interview.

The behaviours candidates will be assessed against, at HEO level, at interview are the following Civil Service Success Profiles behaviours: 

• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Job-share and/ or part-time will only be considered if the full-time equivalent can be achieved in combination with another applicant.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came in to effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.  

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk 

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.