About the job

Job summary

The Cabinet Office and HM Treasury operate at the heart of the UK government. These iconic departments are responsible for ensuring the effective running of government, maintaining control over public spending and working to achieve strong and sustainable growth for the UK. 

The Cabinet Office & HM Treasury (COHMT) Commercial team has a vision to be a top performing commercial function in government, setting best practices for others to follow. It offers a unique challenge to commercial professionals who want to work on some of the UK’s most important policy issues. The team works in partnership with all areas of the business, providing a commercial service that covers planning, commercial strategy, sourcing and contract management on circa £1bn of third party spend.

The COHMT Commercial team operates with our core values in mind which are:

We are Curious, Collaborative and Kind, we act with Integrity and are Focused on value for money.

We are looking for a talented commercial professional to join the team and help to shape and influence commercial and procurement strategies within the department. This role will be challenging and hands-on, and will require expert stakeholder and contract management skills as well as a strong grasp of commercial processes and the challenges of procuring goods and services in Central Government. Given the nature of the role, you will be required to undertake relevant GCO contract management accreditation.

Job description

The COHMT commercial team has recently undergone a change to its operating model and is now organised into spend category teams which are supplemented by business partners and embedded commercial teams in specialist areas and programmes. The directorate is supported by a central team responsible for the overall strategy and enabling functions.  

You will provide expert contract management of specific suppliers centralised cross-departmental contracts, with the support of a small team that you will be responsible for managing, as well as providing oversight and support to other contract managers. This will include ensuring that key systems and documentation remains current and accurate and that various elements of the obligations in the contract are delivered. You will be expected to provide commercial guidance and support to enable appropriate decision making and maximise value for money both in new procurement activity and existing supplier management, able to act under your own initiative and lead and drive commercial projects, engaging and influencing key stakeholders within your areas of responsibility.

At the same time, you will work with other commercial team members and stakeholders to enable continuous improvement and commercial capability development with your customers, working to implement new policies and processes as required. You will contribute to creating a great place to work, championing diversity and inclusive ways of working and proactively participating in improvement activities across the Commercial Directorate.

Also, you will act as a senior commercial advisor to business areas, focussing on contract management but also providing related procurement advice

Important information for applicants

Candidates will be expected to have successfully completed the Government Commercial Function Expert Contract Management training having attained a ‘Pass’ mark

For those who have not successfully passed the GCF Expert Contract Management training and assessment, they will need to be willing to commence the training at the earliest opportunity, sit the assessment and attain a Pass mark, within 12-months of training commencement to remain in post.

Locations
The successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. When selecting your location listed in this job advert please be aware that this will be your contractual base location with a requirement to spend a minimum of 60% of your working time in this organisational workplace.

Your time spent on official duties at workplace locations other than your contractual office such as supplier, customer or partner locations required to perform your role is included in the 60% attendance.

This requirement will however take into consideration any reasonable adjustments agreed upon appointment for people with a disability, flexibilities agreed for those with specific caring responsibilities, or other similar temporary flexibilities.

Person specification

Contract Management

• Lead Contract Management within the category, including monitoring and evaluating performance and working with suppliers to improve performance;
• Undertake regular supplier monthly contract review meetings to ensure that contracts are effectively managed with appropriate reporting to management including reporting of contract performance indicators, analysis of performance data and applying appropriate measures to correct performance or non-compliance and budget/spend management;
• Initiating and ongoing maintenance of the contract management plan including ensuring all stakeholders manage their obligations under the contract, including areas such as risk management and business continuity;
• Managing contract values and cost model for specific suppliers;
• Provide insight and information to the relevant steering boards, so that the service is managed holistically, ensuring the customer is at the heart of all decision making;
• Work with finance function to regularly benchmark the contracted service, and action any outcomes from the benchmark review;
• Work with commercial team and project team on any pre-procurement and procurement activities, including identifying any commercial activity for inclusion on the pipeline and completing any necessary paperwork;
• Keep abreast of the marketplace and understand the bigger picture and wider impact of contracts you are responsible for;
• Liaise with the appropriate expert domains when appropriate and required, for example information assurance, Government Legal Department;
• Contract exit and transition support;

Category Support and Advice

• Support the ongoing development of the Learning Category and Contract Management strategies;
• Provide relevant support and advice for the development business cases, procurement strategies, market engagement and insight.
• Provide advice and support with the handover of contracts from procurement to mobilisation and implementation.

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 3rd September and will require a full day's attendance. 

If you are invited to attend a virtual ADC, but for any reason are unable to meet the date outlined then please get in touch with the team at commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible. The ADC is booked and paid for in advance by departments, therefore it is only in certain circumstances we are able to accommodate alternative dates. 

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.