About the job

Job summary

What you can expect

If you like a challenge, you’ll feel at home with us at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). We’re a big organisation, with big challenges, big opportunities and we’re building a reputation for pushing the governments agenda in getting people back to work following the Covid-19 pandemic. If you are passionate, proactive, and can take ownership, and share our commitment to inclusion and innovation, we want to hear from you.

Making the Difference

The DWP is one of the UK's biggest government departments, building services that make a real difference to the lives of 20 million people. Commercial Directorate (CD) is one of the leading government procurement functions, is commercially unique and presents an attractive challenge for anyone wanting to advance their procurement career.

Our Inclusive Culture

We continue to grow our inclusive, diverse culture and focus on making CD a fabulous place to work. A culture where all our people feel themselves, feel valued, empowered, and have a voice that’s heard. We do this well and as a result have a culture where innovation is driven at all levels and by everyone!

Job description

Employment Category is well-established, with a great team ethos focused upon Commercial excellence, continuous improvement & knowledge share. The role of Commercial Practitioner is challenging and requires pro-active and innovative thinking, good communication skills and an outgoing and enthusiastic approach to challenges. 

As a Commercial Practitioner you will support commercial activity across the commercial lifecycle, including leading on procurements and supporting implementation and contract management of high-profile, high-value and high-risk public contracts.

You will be required to work with a variety of stakeholders ensuring, providing information and advise to help senior leadership make appropriate and informed decisions.

You will support Commercial Leads with all necessary commercial activity to ensure Value for Money solutions are realised and category objectives and policies are met.

Person specification

The roles and responsibilities for this position include, but are not restricted to:

Commercial Strategy

• Provide commercial advice to a wide range of stakeholders to support colleagues with market engagement, sourcing, tendering and a wide range of procurement activities.

Stakeholder Management / Engagement / Communication

• Working with stakeholders at all levels (internal and external) to develop strategy and tactics for procurement category initiatives.
• Create positive supplier relationships, encouraging innovation, creation of “value add” solutions, and a strong customer service ethic.

Managing the Procurement Process

• Producing, reviewing and advising on governance documents and processes such as papers for Commercial Board, Programme Board, gated project submissions etc.

Leadership

• Play an active part in supporting Commercial Directorate values and culture.

Contract Management

• Take responsibility for the development, review, execution of contracts including supporting negotiation where required.
• Commercial management of related suppliers including analysis of contract performance information.

Application of Contract Law

• Understanding of Public Contract Regulations.
• Be comfortable dealing with complex contract documents including interpreting terms and conditions in contracts and supplier agreements.
• Using and developing templates to draft commercial documents for publication such as Invitations to tender and contract notices.

Other

• Project manage necessary work streams and initiatives to ensure timely delivery of objectives, ensuring all necessary process, including formal stakeholder engagement and approval are completed.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS

The application process will involve uploading a CV and personal statement. To be successful, you must demonstrate your experience matching ALL the Essential Skills listed below. Further information under ‘Application process’.

The essential skills for these roles are:

Contract Management/Risk 

• Provide evidence to show an understanding and awareness of procurement commercial projects, which could include where you have worked on strategies and sourcing plans, or end to end contract management / supplier management and commercial risk.
• Demonstrate how you have analysed and understood key management information and performance data to inform decision making.

Sourcing options

• Demonstrate & provide evidence of where you have contributed to the development and understanding of any strategy and/or plan.

Stakeholder Management / Engagement / Communication

• Demonstrate previous experience of working collaboratively across a range of stakeholders and gained buy-in using appropriate communication and influencing skills.

Leadership

• Demonstrate how you have previously worked as part of a team, taken ownership to drive an issue forward, given direction and feedback to colleagues that has produced positive results.

Attention to Detail

• Provide evidence of how your focus and attention to detail has enabled you to resolve an issue or negotiate a better outcome for your organisation.

Benefits

We offer attractive long term career opportunities and personal development. We also offer a range of unrivalled employee benefits (see below) whilst promoting a supportive and engaging working environment.  

• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%.
• Annual Leave of 25 days, rising to 30 days, plus all Bank Holidays.
• Flexible working arrangements including ability to work remotely and flexi-leave.
• Dedicated training & professional development specific to your role.
• Exclusive access to join sports and social clubs with benefits vouchers.

This job role is suitable for hybrid working, where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business needs, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be considered. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post. Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas.

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

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement (maximum of 1250 words) which should demonstrate how you meet the essential skills as set out in the job description.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Stage 1 - Sift

At sift, we will assess your application by using your CV and personal statement only. To be successful, you must demonstrate your experience matching ALL of the Essential Skills listed in the job advert above.

Please note that you are not required to produce behaviour-based examples in the content of your CV or personal statement as these are not assessed at sift. Applications will be sifted and scored based on the information supplied in both your CV and personal statement and entered as one overall score within the results.

Stage 2 - Interview

If you are successful at the sift stage, you will be invited to a video interview using MS Teams. We will assess your relevant experience against the essential skills mentioned above and we will assess the Behaviours listed above.

Indicative Timeline

Please note that the following dates are only indicative at this stage and could be subject to change. If you are unable to meet these time frames, please let us know in your application.

• Sifting Panel: Week commencing 11th December 2023
• Final Panel Interviews: Week commencing 8 January 2024

Further Information

Find out more about Working for DWP

Successful candidates will be posted in merit order based on your location preferences and the geographical requirements of the business.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. Reserve list candidates will be posted in merit order by location.

Any move to DWP 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 at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Reasonable Adjustment

At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:Contact Government Recruitment Service via DWPRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.