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 MOD commercial team delivering departmental objectives.

Job description

This is an exciting time within Defence Digital Commercial, both IT Hardware and Services and Military Technology Categories are seeking Commercial Leads in procurement to share their experience and to influence the evolving market facing category management strategies.  Defence Digital is made up of five categories, IT Hardware & Software, Military Technology, Software, Networks and Professional Services, each individual category team varies in size but in total we are a180 person strong team. 

Both vacancies advertised are within the Defence Digital Commercial IT Hardware and ervices Category Team.

The IT Hardware and ervices Category Team has a portfolio of Circa £500m pa. The team are working to deliver Defence Digital’s future business; which is transforming from large multi £m monolithic contracts to a disaggregated Service Integration and Management (SIAM) model, making this a particularly interesting and challenging period.  This change provides a significant opportunity for the right person to add value and help shape our strategic approach to the buying and management of IT Hardware and Services within the MoD.

The first role available is within the following IT Hardware and services sub-category area:

IT Support Services:

IT Support Services Category is support to digital workplace tools that provide communication, productivity, and collaboration in support of all Defence users. This Includes end user support for devices, provision of common shared document storage and records management. We also provide, design and delivery of IT training services. This Category’s total value is £337.5m. This is an exciting time for the Category as we are looking to embed our strategy MOD wide.

This role will have particular focus on the Support services within the Category such as Print Services and Electronic Records Management. This category covers Official and Secret domains and provides worldwide coverage. The role sits in the End User Services Evolve Commercial Team within IT Hardware and Services. It supports the End User Services Service Executive which gives a full opportunity of experiencing the whole life cycle of procurement. The successful candidate will also have a small team to manage.

The second role available is within the following IT Hardware and Services sub-category area:

Workplace and Foundation Services: 

The Workplace and Foundation Services category covers the operation and management of end user services to meet Defence needs including the provision of endpoint management, application and peripheral management, device management as well as directory and access services. 

This role has a particular focus on the contract and commercial management of live end user compute services across the globe as well as the exit and transition of services from legacy contracts to follow-on contracts. It will focus on the commercial management of critical and high-profile transformation programmes which are at the heart of MOD’s digital transformation agenda. Holding our suppliers to account to deliver to defence needs is at the heart of this role and it will require engagement with a diverse range of stakeholders across MOD and industry. The role will also help to define the strategy for the future delivery of workplace and foundation Services to the MOD whilst ensuring that savings and opportunities are realised. The successful candidate will also have a team of 3 to manage.

CIPS 

All successful candidates must be CIPS Level 6 accredited/hold MCIPS or must be willing to commence (or resume) CIPS studies within three months of taking up your post. 

Clearance

All roles require SC before commencement of posts and may be required to be DV cleared once in post.

Interviews 

Interviews will be held face to face in Corsham.

Person specification

• Stakeholder engagement and management - Building influential internal relationships to ensure that commercial objectives are fully understood and embedded;
• Category strategy - Responsible for developing and implementing market facing category strategies;
• Commercial management - overseeing large value portfolio by leading the commercial approach, ensuring commercial processes are understood by stakeholders, executing commercial deliverables, taking responsibility for the success of the commercial aspects of the overall project. Commercial delegation of up to £100M;
• Supplier relationships - To build effective relationships with current and future suppliers.  Enabling the market to better understand our requirements and ensuring that we build healthy, mutually beneficial relationships that deliver the right solutions at competitive prices;
• Contract Management - The effective management of large size, long term contracts ensuring that value is delivered over the term of the contract and that exit/recompete/extension actions are strategically planned and executed;
• Collaboration - Close working with other category, finance and project leads, within MOD and Government Commercial Function teams, to develop a strategic approach to Defence technology spend;
• Cost-saving initiatives - overseeing such initiatives across your portfolio to identify opportunities to increase the overall value delivered to Defence;
• Risk analysis - proactively anticipating potential commercial risks, mitigating actions and providing expert commercial advice; 
• Leadership - taking the lead during contract negotiations including price and contract terms, understanding the appropriate levers available and able to develop a structured negotiation plan. Cognisant of contract law and able to apply in contractual discussions;
  
  
• Line management – overseeing teams, acting as a positive and proactive role model, providing coaching and support for individuals and the team;

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 24th April 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. 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.