Job Title:                    Commercial Manager (Procurement)

Grade:                        Senior Executive Officer

Reporting to:             Senior Commercial Manager

Business Area:          MoJ – Commercial and Contract Management Directorate

Job Location:             National         

Pay Range:                The national salary range is £37,683 - £41,506, London salary range is £43,647 - £48,067. Your salary will be dependent on your base location.

Status:                        Permanent

Working Pattern:       Full time / Flexible Working Pattern

Number of Posts:      1

About the Department

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is a major government department, at the heart of the justice system. Responsible for courts, prisons, and probation services, we work to ensure sentences are served and offenders are given rehabilitation opportunities to become law-abiding citizens.

The MoJ has one of the largest and most complex spend profiles in central government. The Commercial and Contract Management Directorate (CCMD) is responsible for coordinating procurement and contract management across the MoJ, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies.

The MoJ spends £6.7bn a year and manages over 1,000 active contracts, all of which are sourced and managed by CCMD. We are running some of the most groundbreaking programmes such as Prison Reform and His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service Reform. The scope of our contracts ranges from building, maintenance and the operation of Prisons, Courts, and Young Offender establishments through to food for prison dogs. The directorate also buys and manages contracts for feeding up to 80,000 prisoners, the secure escorting of prisoners from numerous establishments based around the country, and translation services.

CCMD is organised into category teams, each with an interesting portfolio of contracts and diverse customers and suppliers to manage. We also have systems, programme management office, supplier relationship and risk management teams who work across all areas.

Scope

Portfolio – Rehabilitation Services in Community

CCMD’s Rehabilitation Services in Community Commercial Team leads the end-to-end strategy, sourcing, and management of the current and future probation services.  The probation system supports more than 243,000 a year in their journey to rehabilitation, so no day looks quite like the other and we're always ready to be responsive to an emerging need.  The team is split into two areas: Probation Business Partnering & Contract Management (BAU) and Probation Sourcing.  This is an exciting opportunity to join the Probation Sourcing Team as a Commercial Manager.  The team works with a variety of stakeholders across MoJ and HMPPS, including rehabilitation and resettlement policy teams, regional probation service teams, finance, business partnering and legal teams, to source critical probation services with the aim of rehabilitating individuals, reducing reoffending, and protecting the public.

As a team we are in the process of recommissioning the core rehabilitative services for people in prison and on probation across England and Wales, with a combined total value of £0.8bn; this is a fantastic opportunity for the successful individual to play an integral part in supporting and delivering the commercial strategy and sourcing activities for this high-profile programme.

Job Description

His Majesty’s Prions and Probation Service (HMPPS) contains a diverse set of regionally based clients that each pose their own unique set of commercial challenges and opportunities.  You will develop and maintain positive relationships with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders (including suppliers) and encourage collaborative relationships as appropriate. Your professional expertise and judgement will be relied upon and valued by senior colleagues.

The successful candidate can expect to work within a complex and fast-paced environment, whilst being given the opportunity to take ownership of key, strategic procurement activities, to bring new ideas to help shape the way the team works and to promote continuous improvement, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.   This is an excellent opportunity to develop your leadership and commercial skillset and to challenge yourself within a hard-working team that passionately supports its individual members in their personal development journey.

As a Commercial Manager, you will be required to provide commercial expertise to deliver strategic procurement requirements for the probation services across England and Wales; ensuring value for money is always demonstrated.

Key Responsibilities

Working collaboratively with a range of core business stakeholders to understand and develop the commercially led procurement requirements, including:Service design and specifications.Performance metrics.Payment mechanisms.Third Sector engagement and accessibility.Alignment to locally available services and partnering requirements.Budget allocations and should cost models.Route to market.Tender document creation.Identifying and conducting in-depth market analysis, engagement, and organisational development across a unique, diverse, and expansive marketplace for any commercially led requirement, including those listed above.Developing the strategy of approach to key procurement related activities, using business acumen and market insight to drive commercial opportunities and deliver continuous improvement, value for money and efficiencies.Conducting risk analysis and identifying mitigations, to ensure effective decision making.Ensuring compliance with legislative and policy requirements by providing sound commercial advice to stakeholders.Line management responsibilities.

Person Specification

The individual will be expected to work closely and in partnership with colleagues to deliver the requirements of the team successfully; flexibility will therefore be required to deliver effectively in the team.

Essential Criteria:

Relevant procurement and/or contract management experience, with a good understanding of the end-to-end procurement lifecycle.Ability to use initiative, take ownership of tasks to see projects through to completion; applying judgement, using evidence, and working collaboratively to make commercially sound and effective decisions to deliver outcomes in a timely manner.Ability to prioritise and manage multiple competing tasks in a fast paced and ever-changing environment.Excellent communication skills, with proven experience in building and maintaining effective relationships, as well as influencing internal and external stakeholders of all seniorities.

 Desirable Criteria:

Knowledge of public sector procurement principles and legislationKnowledge or experience of Dynamic Purchasing Systems and/or FrameworksKnowledge or experience of GrantsUnderstanding of Probation Services in England and WalesCIPS Qualification (or desire to work towards one)

Application form stage assessments:

An initial sift will be performed against the following elements in relation to the key responsibilities and person specification (essential and desirable criteria) above:

Experience

CV Statement of Suitability

Behaviour

Making Effective Decisions

In the event of a high volume of applications, the Statement of Suitability will solely be used to identify evidence of the essential criteria.

If shortlisted, you’ll be invited to an interview and will be assessed on selected success profile elements at the interview stage. Please carry a valid proof of Id that has your photo on it (passport, BRP, driving licence etc) at the interview.

Interview:

There is one interview stage for this vacancy and as part of the interview process you will be required to provide evidence of the following:

Behaviours

Delivering at Pace Making Effective Decisions Seeing the Bigger Picture Working Together

Experience

You will be assessed on experience relevant to the job description.

Strengths

You will be asked questions to understand whether you have the strengths relevant to the job role. It is important to remember that there are no right or wrong answers to these questions.  Do not rehearse your answers because we are looking for your initial response.

SEO – applicable to commercial manager role only 

New entrants are expected to join on the pay minimum. Higher starting salary and / or Recruitment & Retention Allowance (RRA) may be available for successful candidates with exceptional skills and experience.  

SEO and HEO commercial roles only 

We will consider applications from non-qualified candidates, who are willing to develop and work towards a recognised qualification in order to meet the full requirements of the role.  

The specialist allowance may apply to fully qualified applicants with a commercial professional qualification, for example, MCIPS, World CC etc. 

Further details can be provided during the recruitment process