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 opportunity to join the largest and most complex Commercial Function in Government, at a time of change when the focus is on how we can make a real difference. The MOD spends over £20bn per year across nearly 6,000 contracts, ranging from property and FM, corporate services, complex IT infrastructure and services, food, clothing and medical supplies, to large equipment platforms such as ships, aircraft and vehicles.

The context in which we operate has changed. We recognise that demand is increasing and our role in Commercial is becoming more complex. We need to adapt and improve ensuring our contribution to wider acquisition reform overcomes the changing circumstances that we are operating in, including the overlapping impact of climate change and global security. In line with wider Defence and Security Industrial Strategy priorities and the Defence Command Paper Refresh, we need to proactively adapt and respond in innovative ways to address these challenges to continue to deliver value for Defence. Within our own function we are prioritising:

• Our People – ensuring we have the skills needed for the future
• Our Ways of Working – speeding up and simplifying our processes
• Our Supply Chains – improved understanding to ensure better resilience, pace of delivery and innovation.

 At the heart of this change is a talented community that is recognised for being a great place to work. We need to keep it this way and ensure the community has the skills and tools to meet our challenges and be fit for the future. We are a team of trusted professionals, working together across various cultures and environments to deliver value for money for Defence. We want to encourage a broad range of people into the Commercial Function, giving depth to our understanding of contemporary UK workforce and society.

Bringing together commercial scrutiny, Single Source Regulations compliance, commercial data and analytics, and Continuous Improvement activities under one central role to ensure Commercial Officers in MOD Delivery Organisations are supported and projects are set up for success.

The role requires an influential leader who can ensure that we have a proportionate approach to commercial scrutiny and compliance to deliver our priorities, increase the ease of doing business and to enable data-driven decision making across the Defence Commercial function.

This role requires an individual with strong commercial / procurement skills, who has significant experience of strategy development, large scale operational delivery, and complex contractual mechanisms, who can bring a significant shift in our current approaches, focusing on standardisation and consistency in performance in a complex commercial environment. 

This role reports directly to the Commercial Function Director, who reports directly into the Director General Commercial – MOD. This is one of 10 Commercial Director roles, 7 Director roles cover operational delivery in the Delivery Organisations, and three Commercial Director roles lead all central commercial activities for the Department.

The Commercial Function Director is accountable for delivering the Our Ways of Working workstream within the Defence Commercial Function Strategy – this covers Commercial Policy, Scrutiny, Single Source legislation and implementation of all new Competitive Procurement legislation across MOD.

You will have excellent engagement and influencing skills, working to shape and improve our Commercial Scrutiny and performance practices across MOD, in line with our Defence Commercial three-year strategic vision and the wider Government Commercial Function strategy. You will be confident in working with ambiguity, building connections, and challenging the status-quo. You will have the ability to quickly grasp organisational dymanics in large, complex enterprises, have significant experience in large scale acquisition, and can work effectively with senior stakeholders from within MOD and wider Industry.

You will be confident in using a range of evidence, data, and judgment to assess risks and opportunities, with the ability to extract strategic insight from technical data, identify novel approaches and take calculated risk. You will be able to prioritise issues, be a quick-thinking self-starter, good at working under pressure and ready to inform and influence senior stakeholders within the MOD. You will be proactive in identifying opportunities for innovation and working collaboratively with wider teams across the department and Cabinet Office.

Person specification

• To be the trusted commercial advisor to MOD leadership on all matters related to Commercial Scrutiny, Single Source Contract Regulations casework and compliance, and commercial data and analytics for the Department

• Single Source Contract Regulations (SSCR) Casework and compliance: 

1. Running central casework and approvals process for all Single Source contracts, including monitoring and issuing compliance notices to Industry in conjunction with Delivery Team Commercial Officers
2. Engaging with Single Source Regulations Office to implement improvements in existing statutory guidance and referrals process through policy, process and upskilling 
3. Running the Single Source Baseline Profit Rate analysis and implementation programme 
4. Training Delivery Teams on the use of DefCARS (Defence Contract Analysis and Reporting System) to support review and action on all supplier reports submitted 

• Commercial Scrutiny: 

1. Leading Commercial Scrutiny across the whole of MOD as part of the Investment Approval Committee (IAC) process, ensuring that business cases prepared by Delivery Teams incorporate all relevant commercial considerations at the earliest stages of the acquisition lifecycle. Typical values for Category A projects are in excess of £400M, with Category B projects in excess of £100M. 
2. Working in conjunction with the Defence Acquisition and Project Delivery Directorate to implement Acquisition Reform implements, including revising current procurement strategy processes to ensure that they include clear Single Source vs. Competitive decision points, aligned to MOD policy and Secretary of State approval requirements at the outset. 
3. Act as the central liaison with Cabinet Office Commercial Controls team for MOD, delivering a joint improvement programme to streamline, automate and improve MOD performance across all 13 MOD Delivery Organisations. Please note that individual Delivery Organisations are accountable for their own performance. 
4. Ensuring delegated assurance within Delivery Organisations is fully implemented and governed

• Data and Insights: 

1. Maintaining current Commercial systems in advance of the new ERP / EPM system implementation in 2026.
2. Ensuring that each Delivery Organisation within MOD meets the Government Transparency Agenda requirements and provides (i) a robust forward pipeline covering a minimum of 18 months forward look, (ii) a minimum of 4 KPIs for all Government Major Contracts Portfolio contracts, (iii) Contract Award Notice performance meets the Cabinet Office targets of 95%. 
3. Continuing to develop and deliver a Balanced Scorecard for Defence Commercial, which is reviewed by Director General Commercial and all MOD Commercial Directors at the monthly Commercial Board. 
4. Chairing the Commercial Operations and Performance Committee with Commercial Delivery Directors present, holding them and their teams to account, using leading and lagging metrics, and ensuring that performance improvements are embedded across all areas in line with Commercial Function Strategy priorities. 

• Continuous Improvement

1. Engaging with the Defence Suppliers Forum (joint MOD and Industry forums) on all aspects associated with commercial performance and scrutiny. 
2. Identifying and coordinating continuous improvement projects across Function directorate, ensuring a clear future plan of improvements and a Lean / Agile methodology is embedded across the Commercial Function Directorate.

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 22nd February 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. Please note: Only candidates that achieve an A grade at ADC will be invited to interview for this role.                                                                                                                                                                                              
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.