About the job

Job summary

The DLUHC Commercial Directorate leads on complex, strategic, high-value and high-profile procurements across a range of high-profile public policy priorities.   

With Procurement law and policy changing significantly over the next ten months, working within its Performance and Capability Team is an exciting time. An SEO role exists to support developing and implementing procurement legislation and policies that support the effective delivery of essential government objectives through public procurement. The successful candidate will be involved in critical projects and manage the delivery of important contractual and spend activities across the Department, working with stakeholders at all levels. The work will include: 

Developing procurement policy. 

• Supporting and leading the implementation of the Procurement Act, which received Royal Ascent in October 2023. 
• Leading department policy initiatives for DLUHC and owning procurement guidance and operating procedures. 
• We are looking for an individual who understands the commercial process and current commercial policy, can communicate clearly and concisely, and can bring their knowledge and skills to DLUHC.  

Job description

Responsibilities include:

• supporting the implementation of the reformed UK procurement legislation and policies within Departmental teams and our ALBs
• leading on the development and maintenance of DLUHC's Commercial Standard Operating Procedures and the enhancement of an improved commercial Guidance Hub and suite of commercial templates
• leading and responsible for DLUHC commercial strategies related to pan Government commercial initiatives, which may include sustainability and NetZero, increasing spend with SMEs, Social Value or Tackling Modern Slavery, among others
• Supporting work on transparency requirements
• Leading the development of improved Commercial Governance, Audit and Assurance policies, processes and procedures
• Provision of general procurement advice to Policy leads and teams across DLUHCs on the commercial lifecycle
• Deputise for the commercial policy lead where appropriate.

Essential criteria:

• Good knowledge and application of UK procurement regulations
• Experience in managing high-value and/or complex procurement projects and contractual arrangements
• Experience in contract management activities, including understanding category management and supplier relationship management
• Good analytical skills with the ability to interrogate and present data to different audiences, including dashboards
• Ability to establish good working relationships with staff at all levels
• Good IT Skills, including competent use of Microsoft Excel, Formulae and Macros and good PowerPoint skills.

Desirable criteria:

• Applicable professional qualification/s along with strong understanding of the principles of commercial management (e.g., Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply) or working towards qualification.

Person specification

Personal Capabilities:

• Able to cope with complexity, effectively managing several tasks and relationships
• Builds trust and manages good working relationships
• Takes responsibility for delivery of individual outputs/outcomes and proactively supports those of their wider team
• Ability to learn new systems and ensure timely completion of all tasks

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,732, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities contributes £10,457 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 Strengths, Ability and Experience.

We are for everyone 

 At DLUHC we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We promote equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and a working environment free from discrimination, harassment, bullying and victimisation. 

 We would strongly recommend that applicants get in touch with the vacancy manager to find out more information about this role. 

 We are for everyone 

 CV and Cover Letter Declaration 

We recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - this is called name blind recruitment. 

 Please remove references to your: 

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

 

You will need to merge your CV and covering letter into one document. When submitting your application Applied will ask you to upload a CV, when doing this you should upload your merged document of your CV and covering letter. 

 

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that your application would be viewed by different assessors. 

 

At sift, through your CV and covering letter we will be assessing:  

Experience 

Technical Ability

At sift, through your CV (and covering letter) we will be assessing Experience and Technical Ability in relation to the Job description.

Personal Capabilities:

• Able to cope with complexity, effectively managing several tasks and relationships
• Builds trust and manages good working relationships
• Takes responsibility for delivery of individual outputs/outcomes and proactively supports those of their wider team
• Ability to learn new systems and ensure timely completion of all tasks

Essential criteria:

• Good knowledge and application of UK procurement regulations
• Experience in managing high-value and/or complex procurement projects and contractual arrangements
• Experience in contract management activities, including understanding category management and supplier relationship management
• Good analytical skills with the ability to interrogate and present data to different audiences, including dashboards
• Ability to establish good working relationships with staff at all levels
• Good IT Skills, including competent use of Microsoft Excel, Formulae and Macros and good PowerPoint skills

Your covering letter should be no more than 1 page referencing how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. 

The interview will be of a blended nature consisting of experience and  technical based questions as listed in the advert. 

 

In full the campaign will test the below Success Profile Elements: 

 

Experience: Yes - Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description 

Technical: Yes – Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description. 

We do not consider direct CV applications – you must apply for this role via the application link on Civil Service Jobs: 

Please note that near miss offers may be made at the lower grade to candidates who do not meet the grade criteria for this campaign 

SEO salary 

• The salary for this role is £42,208 (London) or £38,732 (National). 

• For existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply and is non-negotiable. If you apply for a role that requires a transfer of location, for example if you are transferring from London to a National location, your salary will be adjusted in accordance with our policy on transfer between HQ pay ranges.
• You may be eligible for a CIPS allowance of either £4,000 (fully qualified), or £1,500 (part qualified). You must be in an eligible role as determined by the Head of Profession and provide evidence of qualification.  

 

Benefits 

Transfers across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018: 

Any move to DLUHC 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. 

For further information about the benefits available to DLUHC employees, please see the attached Candidate Pack. 

 

Location 

• London 
• Birmingham
• Bristol
• Wolverhampton 
• Darlington* 

 

There may be opportunities for candidates to work flexibly depending on the business needs. This will be discussed with the vacancy manager on a case-by-case basis if you are successful for the role. 

 

*Please note: The Darlington Economic Campus is a pioneering new cross-government hub which will bring together people across departments and public organisations to play an active role in the most important economic issues of the day. The work of the Campus will make a real difference to people both across the UK and internationally. There will be substantial career opportunities and exciting prospects - a career at the Campus means you will be working at the heart of Government, with access to the benefits and fantastic opportunities offered by the civil service.  This role is based at DLUHC and we will be joined on the campus by: 

• HM Treasury  
• Department for International Trade 
• Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy  
• Office for National Statistics  
• Department for Education 

 

For further information on the DEC, please take a look at the attached DEC candidate pack. 

 

Sift and Interview dates 
 
sifting is envisaged to take place W/C 8/1/2024 with interview dates to be confirmed. All interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall. 

Reserve List 

In the event that we identify more appointable candidates than we currently have posts available, we will hold applicant details on a reserve list for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. This may include roles at a lower grade. Candidates placed on a reserve list will be informed of this. Due to the length of time CTC checks can take, our HR Shared Services team will contact reserve list candidates for London based roles to commence CTC checks. Those candidates who do not wish to remain on the reserve list should contact recruitment@levellingup.gov.uk to be removed from the reserve list. 

 

CTC (Counter-terrorism Clearance): 

Important note 

 
Successful candidates for roles based in our 2 Marsham Street building must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check and the process can take up to 8 weeks to complete. 
 
Please note that successful candidates will need to pass the CTC security checks – this requires you to have been resident in the UK for the past 3 years. Please refer to the DLUHC Notes on Security Clearance section of our Candidate Pack for further information on Counter Terrorism Clearance (CTC).  
 

Candidate Pack Information 

Please see attached Candidate pack for further information. 

Before starting your application it’s very important to make sure that you are eligible to apply and meet the Civil Service nationality requirements. All candidates are expected to read the information provided in the DLUHC candidate pack regarding nationality requirements and rules 

 

Internal Fraud Database 

The Internal Fraud function of the Fraud, Error, Debt and Grants Function at the Cabinet Office processes details of civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned. The Cabinet Office receives the details from participating government organisations of civil servants who have been dismissed, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned, for internal fraud. In instances such as this, civil servants are then banned for 5 years from further employment in the civil service. The Cabinet Office then processes this data and discloses a limited dataset back to DLUHC as a participating government organisations. DLUHC then carry out the pre employment checks so as to detect instances where known fraudsters are attempting to reapply for roles in the civil service. In this way, the policy is ensured and the repetition of internal fraud is prevented.  

For more information please see- Internal Fraud Register 

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 counter-terrorist 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.