About the job

Job summary

Building a strong Commercial Function in Government, and with it the right commercial capability, is at the heart of a far-reaching programme of Civil Service reform.

We are building a cadre of commercial talent in all Government departments; people who can manage our commercial portfolios, who can lead our most complex and novel programmes and projects, people who have the gravitas and depth of experience to work alongside our policy and operational leaders to develop innovative commercial arrangements, whether through joint ventures, outsourcing or best-in-class contracts.

The Government Commercial Organisation is an employer which is truly committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and are able to perform to their potential. We understand the importance of diversity and inclusion and strive for a workplace that reflects the communities which we serve. We especially welcome applications from underrepresented groups including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates, candidates with a disability and candidates with gender-diverse identities. Appointments will be made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.

We have already made significant progress through the establishment of the Government Commercial Organisation (GCO), our single employer of senior commercial talent across government. This role will sit within the GCO, but based in our DfT commercial team delivering departmental objectives.

Job description

This role sits within the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) Commercial Directorate, and is part of the commercial Strategy, Policy, and Capability (SPC) division. The aim of this division is to ensure that the DfT Group (comprising the DfT central departments, its Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs), and Executive Agencies (EAs), as well as the supply chains related to the activities undertaken by the Group), are aligned with the strategic aims of the DfT, in line with commercial policy and strategy, and developing the capabilities required from a commercial perspective. The Strategy team sits within the SPC division and is the central focal point for the DfT Group Commercial Strategy. The DfT Group Commercial Strategy was launched at the end of 2022 and provides strategic direction for a range of initiatives that maximise value through collaboration across the DfT Group.

As part of the Strategy team, this role will focus on the delivery of commercial strategies across the DfT Group. The role will develop initiatives that facilitate adoption of the DfT Group Commercial Strategy and contribute to the development of the Strategy and revisions to the Strategy document. The role will consider how government policies and commercial initiatives can be applied to the transport sector and establish the optimum approach that will deliver the benefits these initiatives intend to achieve. 

This role will be responsible for developing guidance and strategies, which will require an in-depth understanding of the commercial objectives and outcomes of DfT’s transport client bodies. In doing so, the post holder will need to lead on the testing of existing commercial tools and engage with a range of stakeholders in the DfT Group, the supply chain and relevant government organisations to ensure their proposed strategy is deliverable, in line with wider objectives and avoiding duplication of effort.

The Vacancy Holder for this post will be holding a Teams drop in session on Wednesday 14th February at 2.00pm for 30mins to talk through this role in more detail and answer some high level questions.

Joining details:

Click here to join the meeting<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZmRiMTRmNDktZDA1YS00OGI4LWE4MjYtMTI1ZDFkNzEwODg0%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2228b782fb-41e1-48ea-bfc3-ad7558ce7136%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2271aa4059-d1c0-4a40-8c09-09a9028535b2%22%7d>

Meeting ID: 387 945 307 182
Passcode: DhjXf8

Or call in (audio only)
+44 20 3 443 8728Phone Conference ID: 303 364 750#

Person specification

The post-holder will lead and present to, a number of working groups comprised of senior commercial professionals from the DfT Group and the wider transport sector and use that network to evaluate and agree an appropriate programme of work to deliver a commercial Strategy to deliver DfT’s programme of commercial activity. This will include, but is not limited to a number of specific areas such as:

• Sustainability and initiatives that will promote decarbonisation, biodiversity and reducing our impact on our environment, when undertaking commercial activity.
• Innovation and driving a culture where data, and technology are leveraged to deliver the outcomes of the future. 
• How our commercial activity supports the skills required to deliver the future pipeline of procurement across the DfT Group.
• How we increase social value in our supply chain and ensuring that our procurement activity maximises the longer-term societal improvements that a focus on social value should deliver.
• How we can develop our commercial pipelines so that our activity contributes to economic growth across the UK.
• How we ensure that our overall activities provide value for money, are competitive and take a long-term approach to the outcomes desired.

The post-holder will take a leadership role in supporting and enabling delivery of this work, helping to identify and resolve barriers and engendering an ethos of continuous improvement across the DfT Group. The scope of commercial activity across the DfT Group is large and the scale of operations is far reaching. Our largest commercial category is construction and infrastructure and so this role will have a large focus on this area and the initiatives that aim to improve performance from construction and infrastructure suppliers. The role will translate cross government initiatives into strategies that can be applied across the transport sector, and as such will require knowledge of policies and initiatives including, but not limited to:

• Transforming Public Procurement and the Procurement Act
• The Construction Playbook, Sourcing Playbook, Consultancy Playbook and Digital, Data and Technology Playbook 
• Transforming Infrastructure Performance Roadmap

• Procurement Policy Notes (PPNs)

Benefits

As a valued employee of the Government Commercial Organisation (GCO), you will have access to all the benefits the centre has to offer; including flexible working, generous benefits, Career Coaches, Mentors, L&D, a Commercial College, active talent management and, most importantly, access to commercial projects that will far exceed the scale and complexity on offer elsewhere in the UK.

For existing Civil Servants: For full details of the impact on any move across the civil service on your existing terms and conditions, please read the candidate pack. Please note that any move across the Civil Service may have implications on your ability to continue to claim childcare vouchers.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

Please be advised that the Virtual ADC is taking place on 7th March and will require a full day's attendance. Please contact commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk in advance if you are unable to attend this date.

Details of schemes available are attached in the advert.

For full details of our process, and a likely timeline, please read the explanation provided in the attached candidate pack.

Throughout our selection process, we will make decisions about your capability to do the job, based on evidence you provide against the essential criteria for the role which are detailed in the attached Candidate Pack.

Your application will be reviewed by a panel and should you be successful at sift we will invite you to attend a Virtual commercial Assessment and Development Centre (VADC). The panel will review results of the VADC and determine which candidates will go through to a subsequent final panel interview.

IMPORTANT: If you do not receive an acknowledgement of your application within 2 working days please contact: commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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. 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.