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

In this role you will provide the overall professional leadership of Supply Chain expertise for the MOD and play a key part in the Supply Chain Directorate Leadership team. You will own the MOD Supply Chain design and architecture service and the delivery responsibility for developing and embedding it, providing senior level thought leadership and experience across the department on the future state.

You will build and lead a team to develop the maturity and performance of the MOD Supply Chain Capability in terms of processes, technology and people. You will own and develop the end-to-end supply chain digital and technology strategy, to support the ambition and transformation of the MOD Supply Chain Capability. You will lead the MOD Supply Chain Capability on resilience by enabling proactive risk identification through to predicting and mitigation of supply chain disruption. The role will also require you to use your commercial expertise to take measured risks, to deliver better approaches and services to a wide range of customers.

You will drive the technology, data, intelligence and reporting aspects of the Supply Chain Capability Transformation to enable a fully integrated, efficient and effective capability.  You will create a supply chain performance-focused culture across MOD, spending substantive f2f time influencing the department outside of the Directorate, coaching and motivating the immediate team to deliver operational outputs in collaboration with Industry including; reporting, data analytics, predictive analytics and KPIs to identify and deliver insight and value across the Defence Supply Chain. 

You will also lead the MOD Supply Chain Risk Monitoring and Resilience Programme – You and your team will provide thought leadership, leverage expertise and a data science approach, oversee processes and policies and coordinate support as required to wider MOD & OGDs by enabling visibility of critical supply chains and cohering the MOD Supply Chain Capability to mitigate and manage Supply Chain disruption.

As an influential leader you will build the MOD’s confidence and commercial mindset to shape and define optimal supply chain management in a complex and often uncertain context. Your end-to-end supply chain experience and knowledge will enable you to delegate risks and issues to the right individuals in line with experience and potential. Your experience with implementing new technology in a complex environment and transforming business processes will facilitate your own measured risk taking as you transform the approaches and services required to optimise the use of the MOD Supply Chain Capability.

Person specification

• Design, implement, embed and manage supply chain architecture as an organisational capability across the MOD

• Lead and cohere, at Department, level the development of people, processes, data and technologies used to strategically plan and operationally deliver end-to-end supply chain strategies and supply chain design excellence

• Provide thought leadership and strategic direction across the end-to-end supply chain, looking at the competing demands placed on it, and making high level choice recommendations to optimise the overall system to best meet those demands. Collaborating with and working closely alongside the Defence Support organisation

• Take a lead role in the Defence Suppliers Forum representing Supply Chain activities and leading joint MOD/Industry teams to deliver key objectives

• Lead fundamental re-engineering of systems and data to support predictive supply chain resilience and risk management, with a digital first approach

• Senior Stakeholder Management across MOD, Defence Industry leaders and government; to deliver the value proposition and the associated governance

• Oversee the delivery market and supplier intelligence, analysis and products across MOD to give early insights for identifying critical fragile suppliers and cohering and coordinating supplier management activities

• Drive greater understanding of the MOD supply chain through increased leadership, coordination, governance and alignment of risk and SCR activities across MOD, Government, and Industry

• Own Supply Chain Risk Management and its reporting across the Defence Enterprise on behalf of the Supply Chain Director

• Lead the team who provide products, services and advice to support supply chain risk management, reporting and design within the Supply Chain Directorate

• Lead as an influential collaborator to shape and define optimal supply chains in a complex and uncertain context, overseeing delegating risks and issues across the risk landscape

• The role will also require you to use commercial expertise to assess and take measured risks that inform recommendations and advice to the Commercial function, MOD and Ministers on proposed courses of action and required investments; to deliver better approaches and services to a wide range of customers

• Improve and implement MOD’s approach to supply chain management, making the case for investment in people, processes, systems and data that will enable productivity of capability delivery and upgrades; working closely with the Strategic Supplier teams for a cohesive approach

• Lead a team to deliver on the aims and broader vision of MOD’s Director of Supply Chain. Solving problems as an accountable and responsible leader, escalating strategic issues where necessary

• Coach and mentor individuals as a trusted leader and display strong motivational capabilities to create a department, culture-focused on supply chain performance and industry collaboration

• Represent the Supply Chain capability for MOD across wider Government and Partner organisations

• Be amongst the most senior members of the Government Commercial Function and play a role in the broader commercial reform programme led by the Government Chief Commercial Officer

• Play a key leadership and change management role in developing a strong commercial function for the MOD and across government.

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 15th 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. 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.