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 – Defence Digital commercial team delivering departmental objectives.

Job description

The role is a member of the Defence Digital Software Tower Senior Leadership group, and is a key and integral part of supporting the wider Software pillar in all aspects of its overarching strategy. As part of this leadership group the individual will be responsible for supporting directly the 1* Deputy Director in setting the strategic direction of the pillar, and ensuring the direction is enacted correctly.  

Broadly Speaking the operational role is split into 3 main sections

Commercial Head of the Defence Digital Foundry

• This role involves running the team of approx 6-8 commercial employees who let and manage around 70 contracts per year, supporting the Defence Digital Foundry in all aspects of its critical work. 
• The contracts provide scalable, secure, interoperable user services and the underlying core capability and platforms required to exploit the masses of Defence Data available across the estate. The team are involved from inception to close down and across all aspects of the procurement cycle, supporting a wider Foundry alliance of more than 250 people. 
• The team service and manage contractual requirements ranging from low value software development contracts up to and including £80m+ data exploitations partners. 
• This role includes ensuring all necessary commercial and procurement strategies are in place and delivered in a timely manner. Managing all resourcing effectively and ensuring the Defence Digital Foundry remains one of the best commercial environments for personal staff development.
• Stakeholder management is key as the digital community stretch across all domains and capability areas.

Commercial Head of the Defence A.I Centre. 

• This aspect of the role involves running the team of approx 2-3 Commercial employees who are currently supporting the Defence A.I Centre (DAIC), letting and managing approx 15-20 contracts per year and being on the hook for the longer term enablement of A.I Within Defence.
• The DAIC  has been set up to enable MoD to harness the game changing power of A.I through accelerating adoption and scaling the impact of A.I. This Commercial role is a key enabler to allowing that to happen- Commercial are a key enabler to this. 
• The DAIC Commercial, in support of 3* Direction has a target by 2025 to provide a clear and coherent exploitation pathway for A.I in conjunction with creating clear commercial policy and guidance and fostering the creation of a well informed and connected ecosystem of suppliers. Building out and guiding this team will be key to enabling this aspect of the role to be successful.

Operations Lead for Commercial X

• This final operational aspect of the role is to support the creation, evolution and development of the  Commercial X programme, which currently has around 25 commercial resources – the Commercial X Pathfinder team, who support Delivery teams across Defence (including DAIC & Defence Digital Foundry) in the acquisition of digital and innovation outcomes under £50m.  Commercial X operates under a set of Freedoms which allow existing acquisition processes and policies to be challenged and agile, fast-pace approaches to procuring capability for front-line forces to be tested prior to wider adoption across Defence Commercial.  
• The B1 ops lead is the delegated signatory for the majority of Commercial X initiatives, acting as the authority and approving the cross cutting commercial strategies and authorising final contracts when appropriate. 
• The role includes line managing the Commercial X Pathfinder Lead who looks after the Pathfinder team, ensuring the pipeline is well understood and the programme is well supported in relation to commercial guidance.
• Attendance and support of Commercial X related initiatives including supporting the creation of appropriate policy and attending key events is also considered part of the role. As well as act as the pull through mechanism of new ways of working in to the Foundry and DAIC as well as the wider Digital community.

Across all 3 key pillars, the relevant reporting and transparency pieces must be considered, including managing the relationships with a large number of internal and external stakeholders, including key ones such as the Cabinet Office, Crown Commercial Services and potentially going forward NATO. 

A Foundry and DAIC category strategy is also required to be delivered on an annual basis as part of the role and the maximising and recording of all commercial benefits. This role operates within a category management lead function and will own the category management of a number of key areas, including A.I and Software Development. Whilst this role operates out of Defence Digital, the remit for all area is pan defence and is key to enabling the long term success of the digital warfighter. The role will include shaping acquisition guidance for the aforementioned areas, utilising the Commercial X freedoms to accelerate the acquisition cycle and ensure the maximal benefit to Defence. 

Engaging with and proactively supporting and promoting the team and wider function are also key as part including regular engagement and support to MoD commercial and the wider Government Commercial Function. Ensuring cross governmental collaboration where possible. 

A delegation up to £100m may be associated with this role.

Person specification

To be able to successfully deliver this fantastically challenging portfolio of Commercial opportunities, you will be recognised as someone at the top of your profession. You will have built a credible career, where you will be able to demonstrate your success in:

• Actively promoting the reputation of the organisation with pride, both internally and externally. Displaying passion and enthusiasm for the work, helping to inspire colleagues and stakeholders to fully engage with the aims and long-term vision. Working collaboratively with customers and delivery partners to manage, monitor and deliver agreed outcomes. 
• Developing and instigating approaches with stakeholders (internal, external and across Allies) that establish robust commercial relationships.
• Identifies, influences and promotes new ways of working, role-modelling adoption of change as a ‘must do’ if Defence’s mission is to be achieved.
• Building trust as a leader through demonstrating personal credibility and relationship skills. Dedicating time to managing, supporting and empowering people through coaching and mentoring and sharing expertise/knowledge. Embedding a culture of inclusion and equal opportunity for all, where the diversity of individuals’ backgrounds and experiences are valued and respected.
• Translating strategic priorities into clear outcome-focused objectives for managers and teams; promoting resilience and responsiveness in the organisation.
• Providing credit for maintaining focus on priorities and responding quickly to changing requirements.
• Being a role model for delivery by showing efficiency and focus, whilst being open to new ideas and honest about challenges – providing clarity about the action required to achieve results and address unexpected developments.

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.

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 12th 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. 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.