About the job

Job summary

About OPSS 

Do you care about the safety of products and want to protect people and places? Can we use your skills, knowledge and experience to enable UK business to thrive? If the answer is yes, then we would like to hear from you! 

We are the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS), part of the Department for Business & Trade (Previously the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy). We are here for the purpose of making regulation work to deliver real world impact. Regulation is a powerful Government tool to address market failures, influence behaviour and promote positive action. Crafted and delivered well, regulation can be an enabler of growth, innovation and efficiency. 

Since early 2018 we have been building a positive and creative team that enjoys a position of influence and respect within an organisation that continues to grow, most recently with the addition of construction products regulation planned. 

Our primary purpose is to protect people and places from product-related harm, ensuring consumers and businesses can buy and sell products with confidence. 

Further information can be found on our website here 

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles. We embrace diversity and promote equality of opportunity. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. There is a guaranteed interview scheme (DCS) for people with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. 

We are Inclusive 

We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible and recognise how important inclusivity is to achieve the best outcomes. We hope to attract applications from all underrepresented groups. 

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation if required to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

Job description

The Role and Our Team

The New Testing Commissioning team delivers across the whole portfolio of OPSS regulatory and testing requirements. The team holds responsibility for the Testing Commissioning strategy which feed into the overall OPSS strategies and high-level decision making.

On any given day, the team collaborate closely with both internal and external stakeholders to ensure robust, rigorous and outcome focused tests are conducted. To continue to increase our product safety capabilities, we have spent over £5 million to develop our site at Teddington and that includes growing our laboratories to cover key elements of product safety testing needs.

As part of that growth our budget for externally sourced testing has been in excess of £5m pa. We are expanding the team to focus on procurement, contract management and governance and are looking to recruit a G7 with passion and experience who enjoys working and leading in a team to deliver projects for a range of clients.

As part of a dynamic and collaborative team, working to the Head of Testing Commissioning you will develop and deliver an OPSS wide procurement framework to meet OPSS testing needs, and lead the delivery of procurement, contract management and governance aspects for testing projects spanning the OPSS portfolio.

Person specification

Key Responsibilities:

As Testing Commissioning Senior Operations Manager, you will be responsible for supporting the development and delivery of the Commissioning and Procurement  Strategies, leading a  team and ensuring:

• Effective working across OPSS and the Department to develop and deliver a long-term procurement and tender framework meeting the full range of OPSS testing needs over the next four years.
• Tenders, which are clear, concise, and accurate, securing specialist technical input from OPSS’s engineers and scientists. Managing the tenders through to fruition including drawing in tender review experts where required.
• Proactive engagement with wider OPSS, working collaboratively with internal stakeholders to identify and understand their unique and evolving requirements, to develop the Commissioning and Procurement Strategies and associated methodologies.
• The team are the primary point of contact for commissioning testing projects. Ensuring project requirements are effectively established, communicated, documented and managed.
• Working across OPSS to agree a delivery plan and process for individual testing projects, under appropriate governance and visibility, while considering organisational priorities.
• Contract development, management and delivery. Working with suppliers both internal and external to Government to deliver the aim of discrete testing projects. Negotiating agreements that align with OPSS’s needs.
• Developing mechanisms and metrics including KPI’s for monitoring of service provided by suppliers and taking corrective action when necessary. Establishing lessons learned through post-project reviews, to improve service delivery.

Skills & Experience

We are excited to hear from you if you have the following attributes as well as success in delivering the responsibilities above.

As someone who sees the bigger picture, you will understand the importance of your work in achieving OPSS’ objectives and will champion continuous improvement to improve delivery processes and ensure robust governance is in place. You are highly organised and adaptable, and comfortable working at pace whilst managing a full workload and driving forward delivery.

You will have had successes in:

• Scoping, planning and managing multifaceted projects.
• Analysing and interpreting complex information and simplifying into strategic and practical communications
• Delivery and management of supplier contracts.
• Government procurement strategy and delivery
• Developing and maintaining positive working relationships with a broad range of partners as well as confidently dealing with colleagues and external contacts.
• Project management.
• Developing and improving management systems.
• Leading and managing teams

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £53,560, Department for Business and Trade contributes £14,461 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, Strengths and Experience.

To apply for this post, you will be asked to complete the following as part of the online application:   

• A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Provide employment history that relates to the essential criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained. The CV should not exceed more than 2 x A4 pages.
• A Personal Statement (maximum 750 words) which should demonstrate how your skills, knowledge and experience match the requirements of the role detailed in the bullet points under the "key responsibilities" and the essential criteria detailed in the" skills and experience" sections of the job description.

Please see the link below to our Personal Statement and CV Guidance for Candidates for further support. 

 https://opss-careers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Personal-Statement-and-CV-%E2%80%93-Guidance-for-Candidates.docx

In the event of a large number of applicants, an initial short sift will be conducted on the Personal Statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.  

It is likely that the sift will take place 1-2 weeks after the closing date and interviews 3-5 weeks after the closing date though this is subject to change.

Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to supporting candidates so they can perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. This includes making reasonable adjustments to our process. In order to request an adjustment: 

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section on the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. 

Alternatively contact the Government Recruitment Service at DBTrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

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

Candidate Support

You may want to join a virtual Candidate Support Session. These sessions include helpful tips and advice on the recruitment process, from application to interview.  

Please see attached Candidate Pack for further information on: Diversity and Inclusion; Benefits; Learning and Development; Working Patterns and what we deliver as a department. 

Further Information:

• A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made. Reserve Lists will be for each location and appointments made in merit order based on location preferences.   
• Any move to the Department for Business and Trade from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.
• The Department will not consider sponsoring a visa or issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship. We are unable to offer advice on any Visa and Immigration cases.  
• 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. Any applicant who has 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.  
• Terms and Conditions are attached.  Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
• Please note – the successful candidate will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of 18 months before being released for another role.
• This role may be considered as a secondment opportunity. Please reach out to the hiring manager listed at the bottom of this advert to discuss.

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.

Feedback

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.