About the job

Job summary

The Senior Manager Core Business Contracting leads a team responsible for the end-to-end origination and completion of all contracts with our partners delivering grant-funded Affordable Housing in England.  The team is part of the Homes England Affordable Housing Grants directorate, responsible for delivery of 1,000s of affordable homes every year.  

 

This is a 12-month fixed term contract providing maternity leave cover.  Reporting to the Head of Provider Services, the post holder will lead the four-strong contracting operations team and will ensure partners including housing associations and house builders enter into the correct form of grant agreement with Homes England.  There is an emphasis on maintaining standardised terms and conditions with all our partners as well as, when appropriate and within risk appetite, agreeing contract variations.  

Job description

The job requires often fast-paced, close-working internally with our delivery and legal teams and externally, sometimes with lawyers and our partners.  It’s all about getting our partners into the right form of agreement in a timely way, ensuring they can get on with delivering affordable homes and giving Homes England the appropriate safeguards over its grant funding.  

 

The post holder must have a strong operational focus as well as the ability to highlight matters that have strategic implications for grant delivery and contracts; and contribute to their solution.  Team-working is vital so that our partners get a true end-to-end service.  The Senior Manager will work with our new business and delivery teams and closely with our onboarding and due diligence colleagues and a small team that leads on future contract development.  

it's all about working in a collaborative/flexible way that values diversity in experience and perspective to foster good decision making and problem solving within their team.  

 

This is a rare chance to shape the future of Affordable Housing in a national organisation with real social purpose.  

Person specification

Whilst our day job is to deliver a first-class contracting service to deliver affordable homes, you will be used to “spinning several plates” at once and will always be looking for ways to improve and innovate.

 

Delivering on a mission as bold as ours isn’t always easy. You will be resilient and comfortable managing stakeholders at a senior level and your discussions will always be shaped by a good understanding of the commercial and operational impact of what we do in the contracting operations team.  You will enjoy working in an innovative, fun and engaging way and be able to negotiate and persuade.  

 

You’ll understand how to manage colleagues and be able to demonstrate you can work with others as part of a team in a collaborative, inclusive way.  

 

Some of the contracting operations team are based in our London office.  So, while the postholder will be based outside London (Coventry [Birmingham], Northstowe or Bristol offices) it is essential that they must be able to travel into London on a regular basis to ensure those London-based staff are supported.  

 

A legal qualification is not required but it is essential that the postholder has prior experience of managing high-value and high volume contracting operations (not necessarily in housing) and the maintenance of standard terms and conditions.  

 

It is essential the postholder must be available to start work from July/August (exact date TBC) so that an operations hand over can be completed before the maternity leave commences.  

 

Benefits

Homes England is an executive non-departmental public body with its own terms and conditions, benefits and pension scheme. We are a government agency working in partnership with the private sector and want to employ and retain great people. In return we offer a range of excellent benefits, some of the key benefits include:

Holiday - Homes England offers all staff 33 days annual leave per year in addition to 8 statutory bank holidays.

Working Flexibly - At Homes England we have a strong culture of flexible working and encourage all employees to have a healthy work/life balance. We offer a wide range of potential working patterns, including part time, job share and compressed hours.

Health and Wellbeing - We offer health screening with Nuffield Proactive Health Clinics, a free Employee Assistance Programme which offers confidential support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week as well as access to Occupational Health.

Professional Development - At Homes England we are committed to your continued professional and personal development with learning as one of our core values. We pay for one job-related professional membership subscription per year for our employees.

We also offer an excellent range of family friendly benefits, for example, maternity, paternity, shared parental leave

Things you need to know

Selection process details

How to apply?

To apply please follow the links to our careers page.

Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

Selection process details

For more information on the role, please see the attached Job Description.

 

Successful applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application and interviews held as soon as practical after the closing date. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in this role and Homes England.

Please note – Homes England has a responsibility to ensure compliance with HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard to address the potential problems of identity fraud, illegal working and deception generally. To ensure compliance we will carry out a pre-employment Personal Identity and Vetting Report through Experian to meet the standard and you will therefore be asked to provide certain information in order that the verification check can be carried out if you are successful in your application.

Homes England are an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer that values and respects the people who work for us.  Our aim is to be an employer of choice, enabling everyone to reach their full potential.

Homes England is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. For further information please refer to our Privacy Notice which can be viewed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/homes-england/about/personal-information-charter

Nationality requirements

Open to UK, Commonwealth and European Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a guaranteed disability confident interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Name:  Recruitment Team

Email:  recruitmentinfo@homesengland.gov.uk

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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission. 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.