About the job

Job summary

Do you want to work for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and care for the Defence Estate? DIO enables Defence to live, work, train and deploy, all with sustainability in mind. From net carbon zero accommodations to runways for the F35 fighter jets; our outputs are unique in the UK and across the globe!

Learn much more about DIO in our Candidate Information Guide attached.

Join the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and have a future that matters: Be proud; Be challenged; Be unique.

To enable this DIO recognises that a diverse workforce is at the heart of different insights, ideas and innovation. A workforce diverse in background and life experience produces trusted public services and better decisions. We want our people to be curious and continuously strive for improvement, collaborative in an inclusive culture, ambitious and resilient and committed to Defence, empowered and able to challenge so you can play a key part in shaping the direction of our organisation.

To enable this DIO commits to offering its employees:

• The ability to obtain industry recognised qualifications supported by DIO
• Free membership for professional qualifications including CIPS
• Professional and Personal Development of skills
• Access to thousands of training courses through Civil Service Learning, some free or paid by DIO
• Opportunity to join 6 networks covering Disability, Faith and Belief, Gender Equality, LGBTQI+, Race, Social Mobility and 3 networks dealing with employee wellbeing and support: Speak Safe Volunteers, Mental Health First Aiders and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisers
• Opportunity to drive and embed sustainable practices and solutions through delivering and managing sustainable procurement for Defence estates

About DIO

View our YouTube video to see more about our work  

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

About our Accommodation team:

The provision of good quality homes for Service personnel and their families is a critical priority for the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) handles around 49,000 homes in the UK on behalf of the MOD, and is also responsible for planning for future requirements and targeted improvement programmes.

The Accommodation Commercial team plays a key role in delivering contract management and procurement services for the UK’s armed forces.

The contracts we handle are diverse and include the Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS), Accommodation, allocation of service personnel to accommodation in the private rental sector, management of the contracts for Legal Services and Furniture, in addition to numerous PFI contracts.

We are looking for hard-working individuals with either shown commercial experience, and/or transferable skills, to join us and help make a real difference as we expand our team to meet growing demands.

Why join us:

This is a fast paced environment bringing both challenge and job satisfaction. The role will provide an opportunity to work within an encouraging commercial environment, allowing you to build and develop within procurement, stakeholder and supplier management. With support from the team, you will be involved in the administration of payments to suppliers, including inputting to our finance end invoicing system. You will review extra contractual tasks, including performance/supplier management activities (meetings, reporting, supply chain checks) and estimates for consistency and adherence to the contract, collaborating closely with DIO colleagues and the supplier for agreement and logging of these.

You will have the opportunity to provide commercial advice and support to deliver the best value for money solutions, and ensure all activity undertaken is in line with HMG procurement policy, applicable regulations, and best practice.

Person specification

As an Associate Commercial Lead in the Accommodation team:

You will gain exposure to the wider DIO Accommodation teams – Regional Delivery, Assurance, Finance, Communication. You will assist us in supporting the strategic relationships with our suppliers and senior internal stakeholders, while building collaboration within and across organisational boundaries.

You will be responsible for the management of a key suppliers and contract(s), ensuring that contractual obligations are met whilst maintaining DIO’s successful and collaborative relationship with its suppliers.

Responsibilities:

• Actively support delivery teams to deliver procurement and commercial projects across accommodation, including risks and timelines while guiding on appropriate commercial processes

• Lead on day-to-day contract management of allocated projects, ensuring that delivery, payment and performance requirements are supervised and met

• Deliver wider contract management activities, including monitoring supplier performance in line with the contract, applying contractual remedies and implementing the contract as appropriate, payment analysis and processing and negotiation, agreement and implementing of contract amendments

• Interrogate and present complex information to a wide range of internal and external partners

• See opportunities for continuous improvement with colleagues across Accommodation to develop and improve ways of working

• Work in an agile and flexible way with other Commercial Delivery staff to support the wider objectives of the Accommodation Team

• Line manage staff at HEO level, or below as appropriate

Essential Skills:

• Experience of working in a commercial role within a relevant organisation
• Experience in Contract Management and Procurement
• Excellent communication, written, verbal, and stakeholder management skills
• Ability to successfully manage competing workloads in a fast-paced environment
• You must become a qualified Commercial Officer to Practitioner Level within 18 months of joining the organisation. This means you will have to study to achieve CIPS Level 4, and sit a MOD accreditation panel
• Will undertake travel to relevant MOD locations on occasion
• Strong analytical skills including the ability to quickly synthesise, distil and draw conclusions on large amounts of disparate data

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,080, Ministry of Defence contributes £11,631 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, Experience and Technical skills.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework and Commercial Skills and Competency Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile and the Commercial Skills and Competency Framework elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Please provide your evidence using the STAR Technique using the attached information on how to apply.

Situation: Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand. Where are you? Who was there with you? What had happened?

Task: The recruitment panel will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in. What was the task that you had to complete and why? What did you have to achieve?

Action: What did you do? The recruitment panel will be looking for information of what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Result: Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures easily understandable. What results did the actions produce? What did you achieve through your actions, and did you meet your goals? Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience? Keep the situation and task parts brief.

Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths. When providing your evidence please ensure that you avoid acronyms and company specific jargon.

At application you will be assessed against the following:

Experience:

• CV - detailing Job History, Previous Skills and Experience
• Personal Statement - As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a Personal Statement of 750 words, the purpose for this, is for you to showcase your relevant skills and experience against the role responsibilities. The statement is your opportunity to give examples of how you fit the requirements of the role. 

When writing a personal statement, it is important that you: 

• Read the job advert so you are clear about the job requirements 
• Outline the skills and experience that you have that are relevant to the job and use examples to help demonstrate this 
• Keep to the word limit, if your statement is too brief it will not provide the required depth of detail and evidence to be assessed fully 

Technical: Commercial Skills and Competency Framework - Practitioner Level:

• Section 3 - Contract Management - 3. Contract Performance Management - Measuring and Monitoring Contract Performance

Please review the Commercial Skills and Competency element that we require evidence on, please ensure that you review and understand the description of this testing element at Practitioner level.

We require you to provide evidence and a demonstration of specific skills, knowledge or transferable experience. This will allow you to provide evidence to show a more rounded picture of your suitability for the role.

At interview you will be assessed against the following:

Behaviours:

• Leadership

Technical: Commercial Skills and Competency Framework - Practitioner Level:

• Section 3 - Contract Management - 3. Contract Performance Management - Measuring and Monitoring Contract Performance
• Section 3 - Contract Management - 1. Contract Management Principles - Understanding Contract Management
• Section 3 - Contract Management - 4. Supplier Relationship Management - Relationship Management

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn't always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months.

Interviews are currently taking place remotely through a digital platform, this will be confirmed with the successful candidates who are invited to an interview. 

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews. We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

To assist with your application please find attached below:

1. DIO Candidate Information Guide
2. DIO Candidate Information Guide - Accessible Version
3. Commercial Skills and Competency Framework

For help and support with your application check out our Civil Service Careers Homepage and the How to apply section

Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk .

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

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.