About the job

Job summary

This is an exciting opportunity to lead an expert policy and commercial team in the Cabinet Office. You will be responsible for shaping policy on how the Government uses the public sector’s £385bn p.a. purchasing power to deliver additional economic, social and environmental outcomes in public procurement. 

The Procurement Act will come into force in October 2024 and will create a simpler and more flexible commercial system supporting innovation, opening up public procurement to small businesses, and opportunities to create additional social value through the life of a contract. Your role will be to exploit these policy and legislative reforms to implement the new Government’s priorities for public procurement.

This role is based in the Government Commercial Function (GCF) within the Cabinet Office and reports to the Director of Commercial Policy. 

Job description

The new Government has set out a number of areas where it wants to use public procurement to support delivery of its missions and create local jobs, skills and wealth, including:

• increasing small business access to public contracts;
• ensuring social value in contract design;
• supporting innovation and industrial strategy;
• driving up employment standards in the supply chain.

You will lead a team responsible for designing and implementing public procurement policies to achieve these commitments, working in partnership with external stakeholders to build strong relationships. 

You will need to develop practical policy solutions that achieve real-world outcomes while complying with procurement law. This will involve close collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, including policy makers in departments, commercial leads in central government and the wider public sector, business organisations, trade unions and civil society. You will need to balance competing priorities and avoid creating new barriers or burdens in operational delivery.

The team are already working on a varied and interesting portfolio including:

• legislative and policy reforms to remove barriers to small businesses bidding for public contracts;
• ensuring major government suppliers pay their subcontractors on time to support cash flow in small businesses;
• delivering a new approach to support government departments in reporting the social value benefits achieved through their contracts;
• commercial policy and practice in tackling fraud, corruption and supplier poor performance in public procurement;
• taking account of environmental impact and carbon reduction in sourcing major contracts.

The key responsibilities include:

• Advising new Ministers on the strategic opportunities and risks in public procurement policy.
• Developing a programme of work to implement the procurement commitments in the manifesto, working across Whitehall to ensure a joined-up approach (DBT on industrial strategy and late payment, DSIT on innovation, etc).
• Co-chairing a group of commercial policy deputy directors across central government departments to coordinate action and engagement.
• Providing guidance and support to contracting authorities in central government and the wider public sector to help them execute the practical changes to their procurement operations simply and quickly.
• Leading stakeholder engagement with small businesses (including though the Federation of Small Business) in the development of the reforms and to secure buy-in; working closely with the Government’s Small Business Crown Representative.
• Line management of a team of about 15 FTEs including policy analysts and commercial professionals.
• Play a leading role in the strategic management of the Directorate (joining the Senior Leadership Team with the Director and two other Deputy Directors) and working across the wider business unit to ensure a joined-up approach in the GCF.

You will need to be an effective communicator and produce compelling products which express complex ideas simply. You will be able to handle and balance a wide range of relationships, internally and externally, and be credible at senior levels, including with Ministers, senior officials, and other stakeholders.

Some occasional travel may be required for this role.

Person specification

Essential criteria 

It is important that, through your CV and supporting statement, you provide evidence of the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post.

• A strong record of strategic leadership and with a shown ability to engage and motivate a team to deliver results in complex environments. 
  
• Effective policy analysis and delivery skills with experience of designing and implementing policy projects using data. 
• Procurement skills with an understanding of the lifecycle of contracts and how policy interventions align with commercial outcomes; credible operator with senior commercial professionals.
• Effective oral and written communication skills, political sensitivity and able to translate complex policy and legal issues into clear advice for Ministers. 
• Excellent stakeholder management and relationship skills with a record of collaborating across organisational boundaries to deliver through others. 

Desirable criteria

• A practical understanding of the policy and regulatory framework for public procurement in the UK.
• Some experience or knowledge of parliamentary and legislation-making processes would be helpful.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,000, Cabinet Office contributes £20,250 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.

Application process

To apply for this post please submit the following: 

1. A CV (no longer than 1250 words) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years.

2. A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.

Failure to submit both sections of the application (CV and Statement of Suitability) by 23:55pm on the 9th of August will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification.

Please direct your application or any queries to: cpbusinesssupport@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Selection process

If you are successful at the application stage, you will be invited to attend a panel interview, in order to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification. We will be assessing against experience and success profile behaviours at interview.

Full details of the assessment process will be made available to shortlisted candidates. If you are required to prepare a presentation for the final interview you will be given the subject in advance.

Expected timeline (subject to change)
Expected sift date – w/c 12th August.
Expected interview date/s – w/c 26th August.
Interview location - London or virtual.

Reasonable adjustments
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should contact:

cpbusinesssupport@cabinetoffice.gov.uk in the first instance.

Further information

Please note: in addition to the standard pre-employment checks for appointment into the Civil Service, all candidates must also obtain National Security Vetting at Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) clearance level for this vacancy. You will normally need to meet the minimum UK residency period as determined by the level of vetting being undertaken, which for CTC is 3 years UK residency prior to your vetting application. If you have any questions about this residency requirement, please speak to the vacancy holder for this post.

Any move to Cabinet Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility here.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

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 counter-terrorist 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.