Contract Management and Commercial Capability Lead
Government Commercial Function
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 17th November 2024
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About the job
Job summary
The Home Office works to keep our citizens safe and our country secure. As well as working to reduce crime, enforce the law and protect our borders, it also works to protect the most vulnerable and is at the forefront of public policy making - our work is among the most challenging and rewarding in Government. Our commercial teams have been at the forefront of the Department’s responses to the COVID 19 pandemic, the protection of our borders and society.
The Home Office spends approximately £3bn each year with third party suppliers and this is managed by the Commercial Directorate, a team of around 300 procurement and contract management professionals. The range of goods and services acquired is huge and includes services to complex programmes that are unique in Europe with multi-million-pound contracts.
At the Home Office, you will have the chance to make a real and tangible positive impact to the country’s future structure, impacting the lives across the UK and work on a broad range of Missions from Borders and Migration, Public Safety and our Homeland security, the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme, Digital Data & Technology.
What we do matters and the opportunity to turn policy into reality is at the forefront of the commercial work we do and seeing the difference it makes to our country is hugely rewarding.
We are partway through a programme of change which has seen us recruiting across all grades. Now we are seeking enthusiastic individuals at Commercial Lead level who can help support the delivery of Commercial’s objectives. Commercial Leads are leaders and managers who will help us to build Commercial’s reputation as a strategic partner, improving business outcomes and delivering value for money through the contracts we source.
So, whatever your background, either public or private, if you are passionate about delivering first class outcomes then come and join our journey.
Job description
This is an opportunity to work in the People, Capability & Communications team in Commercial Operations to drive the Home Office Contract Management and Commercial Capability agenda.
World Commerce & Contracting (Previously IACCM) estimates that, on average, a contract ‘leaks’ 9% of its value over its lifetime. For the Home Office Gold and Silver contracts that’s a potential loss of £1.6bn over their lifetime. For this reason, increasing commercial awareness and contract management capability across the Home Office is a priority across Government, in Commercial Directorate’s 2-Year Business Plan, and as part of our longer-term transformation plans for Home Office.
Investing in the capability and career development of Commercial Directorate colleagues is also a key priority for this role. You will provide commercial professionals with a range of development opportunities that enable them to succeed in their roles and develop their careers. This will include ensuring Commercial Directorate embeds knowledge and skills to successfully implement the new Procurement Act by the end of October; whilst ensuring that colleagues have the skills and capabilities to adapt to new ways of working that will be implemented as part of our commercial transformation programme. You will focus on developing both commercial technical skills and wider civil service capabilities as part of this role.
The role will be responsible for:
- Driving the ongoing roll out of the Contract Management Capability Programme to Contract Managers and SROs across the Home Office, with the objective of building commercial capability and awareness.
- Supporting the development of Commercial Capability and broader skills development across the HO Commercial Directorate.
- Leading activities that develop the Commercial Profession alongside other functional Professions across the Home Office. Supporting the Chief Commercial Officer to carry out their Head of Profession responsibilities.
The successful post holder will need excellent stakeholder engagement and presentation skills, required to work with contacts across the Home Office, cross-government capability leads, liaison with the Cabinet Office and. Good project management, data, and reporting skills are required, along with excellent organisational skills. A good understanding of the commercial life cycle is essential to ensure the commercial development opportunities are appropriate for commercial professionals.
Locations
GCO is based in London.
Assignment Location: Croydon, Manchester.
Occasional travel to other office locations will be required as we are a geographically diverse organisation.
Relocation costs will not be reimbursed
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
Supporting the development of Contract Management capability and awareness across the HO
Driving the ongoing rollout of the Contract Management Capability Programme to Contract Managers and SROs across the Home Office, with the objective of building commercial capability and awareness.
- Develop and issue meaningful status reports that allow business areas to manage the resourcing and accreditation of their contract performance management teams.
- Develop clear and engaging comms to the business that helps influence and drive action.
- Maintain and improve the process to collect and keep current names of SROs and Contract Performance Managers for Gold, Silver and Bronze contracts, utilising information available on the commercial life cycle solution.
- Engage with the Cabinet Office Capabilities team to monitor developments in contract management policy, submit reports and resolve invoicing queries. Ensure any changes in policy or strategy are shared with Commercial Operations colleagues or actioned accordingly.
- Ensure audit actions related to contract performance management are completed.
- Be a key stakeholder in enabling the commercial life cycle solution to expand to the contract management community in the longer term.
- Plan and deliver regular and engaging Contract Management Community Forums, sharing knowledge and creating a Community of Practice for Home Office contract managers.
- Support contract managers across Home Office to build their commercial knowledge, including awareness of the impact of the Procurement Act on their work.
- Support regular meetings with Home Office DG sponsor and business SCS2 contract management champions.
Supporting the development of both Commercial Capability and broader skills across the HO Commercial Directorate
Key deliverables will include:
- Encourage and support CD colleagues to hold regular, good quality personal development discussions.
- Reporting on CD mandatory learning and the Procurement Act training completion rates, aligned to requirements in the organisational scorecard.
- Deliver a one stop shop of commercial L&D offers, including broader skills and other functional skills where appropriate. Align this to the skills that CD colleagues will need as part of the transformation programme
- Commercial skills gap analysis framework
- Skills coaching matrix/scheme.
- Lead on capability requirements of the commercial transformation programme and deliver the capability related actions set out in CD’s 2-Year Business Plan
- Lead engagement with Cabinet Office and the Government Commercial Function on all L&D and Capability related matters.
Commercial Profession Lead
Leading activities that develop the Commercial Profession alongside other functional Professions across the Home Office. As part of the Home Office Professions Working Group you will co-create the Careers Pathways approach for Home Office. Ensuring outputs are informed by all Home Office professions to meet business needs and provide effective career pathways resources for all Home Office staff.
Responsible for working with a range of colleagues and stakeholders on a matrix management basis. At present, there are no line management responsibilities associated with this role.
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Manages Complexity - Be able to demonstrate/evidence balancing the conflicting demands across multiple projects and tasks, including how to prioritise and ensure each task is treated appropriately
- Decisive - Experience in developing business cases/plans or strategies, presenting options to business stakeholders and presenting cases for approval at senior Boards. Identifies when something needs to change and sets out practical options
- Commercial Focus - Experience of delivering a high-quality service across the commercial lifecycle including knowledge and understanding of commercial policies and their practical application
- Builds Relationships - Builds & influences strong, productive relationships at all levels and with a variety of stakeholders with different backgrounds, perspectives & drivers, in a complex, fast-moving, commercially focused environment
- Contract and Supply Management - Experience of working in a project environment, with a good understanding of project disciplines, dependency and change management
Benefits
Please note that any move across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018 may have implications on an employee’s ability to carry on claiming childcare vouchers.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
Please be advised that the Virtual ADC is taking place on Monday 2nd December 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 at 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.
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.
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Working for the Civil Service
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).
Diversity and Inclusion
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Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Hayley Parfitt
- Email : commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
