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 USVF team:

Within the Commercial team this role supports the United States Visiting Forces (USVF) which are permanently located at MOD sites across the UK. The team is divided into 4 work streams by location and Commercial Activity.

The teams which these roles sit within deliver major construction projects at bases around the UK covering both Procurement and Contract Management activities, ensuring the development and continuity of the United States Air Force’s (USAF) critical strategic mission in Europe. Each team is headed up by a Grade 7 with considerable Procurement experience to whom you would report.

The team are based around the UK with small hubs around Wyton (Cambridge), Whittington (Lichfield), Andover and Glasgow and have all adopted a hybrid approach to working, with some travel to sites throughout England required.

Why join the USVF Commercial team:

USVF Commercial is a dynamic and talented, friendly team working at the heart of some of the most exciting and interesting infrastructure projects in the UK, in support of the United States Air Force mission in Europe. You will be working closely with both US military & civilian personnel and UK colleagues to deliver operational capability across the USVF sites within the UK, on a wide variety of infrastructure projects, many of considerable strategic importance. The scale and scope of these will ensure you develop your career in a demanding and varied environment which will further hone your procurement and contract management skills, build your market knowledge, and allow you to make a contribution to maintaining national security.

The size and nature of DIO ensures that, for the right candidate, onward career prospects are excellent.   

Person specification

As an Associate Commercial Lead in the USVF Commercial team:

You will work with Project Managers, the US customer and a wide range of stakeholders to provide commercial advice and assurance to the many infrastructure projects within the portfolio.

A typical day could involve working with project managers to develop a forthcoming requirement for a new military installation. A conference call with the legal department to discuss the resolution of an issue on an existing contract, drafting criteria for evaluating a future procurement and evaluating bid proposals for a new construction project. Drafting an options paper to support your manager in a negotiation, or attending a meeting with team members and the US customer at one of the base sites.

You will have the opportunity to further develop your skills in researching supplier markets, commercial strategies, contract drafting and contract management. The scale and scope of USVF projects mean you will have the opportunity to liaise with many other teams, including legal, finance, risk management, cyber security, technical service providers who support our projects and of course, the contractors with whom we are working.

Although some of the workload is programmed, the nature of the work we do in USVF means that the successful candidate can expect to work in a dynamic and rapidly changing environment.

Responsibilities

• Developing and delivering end to end competitive and single source procurement activities
• Supporting the team Grade 7 in strategic development work
• Line Management of HEO’s and EO’s
• Management of a range of contracts, including developing and managing variations and change control, ensuring compliance with governance, legal and policy requirements

Essential Criteria

• 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
• You will be required to travel to relevant UK MOD locations on occasion
• You will possess strong analytical skills including the ability to synthesise, distil and draw conclusions on large amounts of disparate data
• Be a passionate self-starter with the highest integrity and ethics
• Previous experience in Procurement
• Excellent communication skills 

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

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 2 - Sourcing: 3. Executing the Sourcing Strategy - Developing the sourcing strategy
• Section 2 - Sourcing: 3. Executing the Sourcing Strategy - Developing and issuing the bidders pack
• Section 3 - Contract Management - 3. Contract Performance Management - Measuring and monitoring contract performance
• Section 3 - Contract Management - 3. Contract Performance Management - Identifying and managing risks

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 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.

Application sifting is scheduled to take place on week commencing: 10th June 2024 Following closure. Interviews are currently taking place remotely through a digital platform, this will be confirmed with the successful candidates who are invited to an interview and will be conducted week commencing: 24th June 2024.  

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 

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a 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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.