Senior Category Manager

Government Commercial Function

Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 3rd November 2024

Return to search results

Details

Reference number

373767

Salary

£68,775 - £75,920

GCO Pension, GCO Terms. Up to 15% performance-related-pay available on accreditation.

Job grade

Grade 7

Commercial Lead

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

GCF - Ministry of Justice

Type of role

Commercial

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time, Compressed hours

Location

Manchester, Leeds or London preferred; other national bases will be considered. Travel frequency to other MoJ offices in the UK for internal and supplier meetings and site visits anticipated to be occasional (2 – 3 times a month). This is a full-time post with the requirement of physical presence in the office of 2 -3 days per week combined with hybrid working for the remainder of the week. Reasonable flexible working options will be considered in line with the requirements of the role.

About the job

Job summary

Welcome and thank you for your interest in joining us in our mission to make a positive impact on the national justice system through cutting edge commercial solutions. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is a major government department at the heart of our national justice system, employing over 90,000 colleagues. Responsible for the country’s courts (HMCTS), prisons and probation services (HMPPS), we work to protect and enhance the principles of justice.

The Commercial and Contract Management Directorate (CCMD) in MoJ employs c550 professionals, manages over 1800 active contracts and spends c£6bn a year with third party suppliers. It provides commercial, procurement and contract management activities across a wide range of categories, ensuring value for money agreements are in place for the wider MoJ to source goods and services. Together the leadership has set a vision for CCMD ‘to be the Government’s best commercial team enabling world class justice’.

Within the Rehabilitation in Custody division, we are focused on supporting the department to deliver better outcomes, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money. I am personally motivated by delivering positive social outcomes at a national scale whilst challenging established ways of working to drive commercial innovation.

This is a challenging and rewarding commercial role which allows you to make a real difference to the delivery of frontline prisoner services, whilst working with suppliers to deliver high quality and effective rehabilitation solutions. You will be part of a wider supportive team, which is focused on the shared goal of improving prisoner education and reducing re-offending rates, whilst having the opportunity to grow and shape the role and your team to achieve this. You will have a leadership role, with line management responsibilities as part of an existing commercial team within the Rehabilitation in Custody division portfolio and a dedicated prisoner education team, which has a vast amount of experience and knowledge.

The appointable candidate will have the opportunity to be leading categories and projects in this high-profile priority area, working within the £1.5 billion Prisoner Education Services (PES) mega-category that has 6 service lines (categories) being procured simultaneously, with the respective contracts being mobilised over the next 18 -24 months. Developing category strategies and plans is also within the broad remit of the role.

Job description

The Prisoner Education Services team is an integral part of the Rehabilitation in Custody division and delivers contracts to support the education, skills and vocational training of prisoners in custody. You will line manage a small team (2- 5 staff) to lead the category development and contract management activities of the next generation of Prisoner Education contracts. These are 11 regionally lotted contracts, up to 7-year duration, total value ca. £1.5 billion across 103 prisons in the English HMPPS estate. These are the flag ship contracts of the new Prisoner Education Service, developed to meet the Prison White Paper and MoJ strategic objective of Reducing Reoffending. The role will also contribute to the key areas of contract mobilisation & strategic post contract management.

Following the conclusion of the prisoner education contract mobilisation, the role will pivot into creating education services category strategies and plans, working with the supply market to create innovative education service delivery models & piloting new commercial options. This work will pave the way for the next generation of Prisoner Education Services commercial strategy and the re-procurement to commence over the next few years.

You will work with Senior Business Owners and a wide variety of stakeholders in cross-functional teams, including the existing contracts management team, to deliver our aspirations.

Locations

The successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. When selecting your location listed in this job advert please be aware that this will be your contractual base location with a requirement to spend a minimum of 60% of your working time in this organisational workplace. Your time spent on official duties at workplace locations other than your contractual office such as supplier, customer or partner locations required to perform your role is included in the 60% attendance. This requirement will however take into consideration any reasonable adjustments agreed upon appointment for people with a disability, flexibilities agreed for those with specific caring responsibilities, or other similar temporary flexibilities.

Person specification

Demonstrable skills and experience of developing category strategies through application of a data driven methodology and working with the supply markets to formulate delivery plans in order to realise and implement the category strategies to drive Value for Money outcomes.
Manage the strategic supplier market development activities and maintain a healthy and agile supply market to meet current and future requirements.
Be accountable for the system level commercial ownership of the relevant categories and contracts, including associated processes, to ensure these continue to consistently meet business requirements and adhere to the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and The Procurement Act 2023.
Deep experience of developing the contractual documentation, working with external legal advisers, for the regionally lotted contracts, including contract awards and variations, and work with the Senior Business Owners in building the business case and specification requirements.
Superior forward planning, time management and organising skills to work on multiple priorities to manage personal outputs and team deliverables, ensuring oversight & monitoring of of teams’ workplans.
Lead, manage, motivate, inspire and develop your team, whilst ensuring alignment with operational delivery and timely progression of new prisoner education services through to contract award and implementation.
Develop and manage productive relationships with senior stakeholders in HMPPS and other functions to deliver effective commercial and contract management services.
Ensure adherence to governance, legislative and policy requirements and adopt a robust approach to risk management across the team, including managing formal reports through MoJ’s internal governance routes.
Drive a quality service and value for money to place it at the heart of the commercial process, together with enabling supplier collaboration to achieve improved outcomes.
Highly numerate and ideally MCIPS qualified (or working towards achieving the qualification).

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

Assertive – Demonstrate an adaptive and assured style that inspires confidence to assert the commercial viewpoint, whilst engaging and challenging stakeholders, to influence positive commercial outcomes
Manages Complexity – Works efficiently in a fast-paced environment to manage competing priorities across multiple-fronts (stakeholders, workstreams, contracts & projects) to deliver targets whilst working in a public sector commercial setting
Decisive – Evaluate commercial challenges & recommend decisions, based on risk-assessed options analysis, using qualitative & quantitative evidence focusing on delivering best commercial & service outcomes, proposing trade-offs as necessary
Builds Relationships – Builds & manages positive relationships with a wide range of suppliers and challenging stakeholders, in different directorates with conflicting objectives, to successfully assert the commercial perspective
Coaching Manager – Experience of motivating and managing multi-site team members, with a range of skills and experiences, at different levels of professional development to provide career paths within the portfolio and encourage retention
Procurement Process – Notable experience & evidence developing & implementing category strategies, processes, end-to end commercial process, timelines, risks, mitigations & deliverables securing positive social and VfM outcomes

Benefits

As a valued employee of the Government Commercial Organisation (GCO), you will have access to all the benefits the centre has to offer; including flexible working, generous benefits, Career Coaches, Mentors, L&D, a Commercial College, active talent management and, most importantly, access to commercial projects that will far exceed the scale and complexity on offer elsewhere in the UK.

For existing Civil Servants: For full details of the impact on any move across the civil service on your existing terms and conditions, please read the candidate pack. Please note that any move across the Civil Service may have implications on your ability to continue to claim childcare vouchers.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

Please be advised that the Virtual ADC is taking place on 22nd November 2024 and will require a full day's attendance.

If you are invited to attend a virtual ADC, but for any reason are unable to meet the date outlined then please get in touch with the team on commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible. The ADC is booked and paid for in advance by departments, therefore it is only in certain circumstances we are able to accommodate alternative dates.

Details of schemes available are attached in the advert.

For full details of our process, and a likely timeline, please read the explanation provided in the attached candidate pack.
Throughout our selection process, we will make decisions about your capability to do the job, based on evidence you provide against the essential criteria for the role which are detailed in the attached Candidate Pack.

Your application will be reviewed by a panel and should you be successful at sift we will invite you to attend a Virtual commercial Assessment and Development Centre (VADC). The panel will review results of the VADC and determine which candidates will go through to a subsequent final panel interview. Please note: Only candidates that achieve an A grade at ADC will be invited to interview for this role.
IMPORTANT: If you do not receive an acknowledgement of your application within 2 working days please contact: commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.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

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

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

Job contact :

Name : Lynsey Munro
Email : commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should direct this to the Head of Commercial Resourcing Hub at the following email commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk quoting the vacancy reference number (if applicable) and the details of your complaint. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission via the following web page: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitment/complaints/