Job Description

Commercial

The Ministry of Justice has one of the largest and most complex spending profiles in central government. Each year we spend more than £5 billion with our suppliers and it’s our job to help coordinate the sourcing of what we need. We support the management of our contracts across the department, its agencies and non‑departmental public bodies.

Commercial is responsible for coordinating procurement and contract management across the MoJ, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies. Commercial 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.

Commercial Operating Centre

The role is part of the commercial operating centre within the Commercial directorate, working with stakeholders across MoJ both internally and externally, to develop excellence in the department’s Purchase to Pay (P2P) capability.

Role Summary

The role is part of the commercial operating centre within the Commercial directorate, working with stakeholders across MoJ both internally and externally, to develop excellence in the department’s Purchase to Pay (P2P) capability. This is a high impact role which requires strong leadership abilities and an ‘expert level’ of P2P process and systems knowledge and management; as well as good communication skills and ability to manage relationships at all levels.

Taking a holistic approach to the department’s P2P functions, coupled with a clear understanding of current objectives and future strategy, the role is responsible for supporting Commercial teams in developing and implementing appropriate transactional strategies for their contracts that deliver ordering and payment efficiency and performance for both the department and its suppliers.

The Senior Systems Manager will lead the development of a Source to Pay (S2P) systems strategy for Commercial and as part of any broader government programmes.

The role will lead a team responsible for ensuring Purchase to Pay processes are supported, maintained and continually improved so that Commercial and the wider Ministry of Justice (MoJ) can meet their business objectives.

The role includes developing excellent working relationships and influencing across a range of key stakeholders including Director and Deputy Director level, and senior business managers, suppliers, and other Government bodies

Key Responsibilities

The post holder will, through the Commercial Systems team:

• Support the developments for the future Source to Pay system, ensuring the specific requirements for Purchase to Pay account for all areas of MoJ.

• Lead on the implementation of new policies and ways of working, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to ensure workstreams are delivered according to plan

• Lead the development and adoption of systems, including but not limited to Basware eMarketplace by Commercial and MoJ staff and suppliers, ensuring benefits are achieved in line with business case; Act as lead stakeholder on Government Shared Service project board, encouraging adoption by other SOP clients through example and sharing best practice;

• Lead and develop the low value transactional strategy incorporating but not limited to GPC, SSCL Requisition to Pay team and Basware eMarketplace

• Support the adoption of Global P2P principals and convergence to standard government P2P processes throughout MoJ;

• Act as Global P2P process owner for MoJ in conjunction with MoJ finance

• Review and lead the delivery of the supplier setup and maintenance process

• Lead the requirements, sponsor the build and assure the solution for spend reporting, insight, analysis and modelling.

• Support and work with commercial teams to develop efficient and effective transactional strategies as part of pre-procurement activity which focus on prompt payment to suppliers.

• Support and work with the business, commercial teams and shared service provider to optimise the use of the current P2P system with an aim to achieving efficiencies and cost savings through use of existing functionality (catalogues, smart forms, contract purchase agreements, electronic invoicing etc.);

• Develop and deliver an ongoing P2P support service, aligned to the needs of the business and the users; continually evolving the service and seeking user feedback.

• Develop and maintain appropriate P2P guidance to support Commercial and the wider MoJ in delivering their business objectives;

• Act as a delegate to the Head of Commercial Systems for various Board memberships when required.

• Membership of various cross-government/Government Shared Services (GSS) hosted P2P and prompt payment groups;

Essential Criteria

• Experience in leading and motivating a multi-functional P2P team

• understanding of P2P processes and industry standard practices, including government global design principles

• Understanding of commercial processes and Source to Contract systems and how these link to the P2P process;

• Understanding finance processes and principles and how these link to the P2P process;

• Experience in P2P process ownership and improvement for large organisations;

• Experience in leading the development of reporting and insight from large datasets;

• Experience in leading and coaching individuals to maximise their abilities;

• Experienced networker with proven ability build effective relationships with both internal and external stakeholders

Desirable Criteria

• Experience leading a geographically dispersed team and working with stakeholders spanning multiple locations

Application Stage

An initial sift will be performed against the following elements and will be assessed against the Civil Service success profiles framework:

Experience

• CV

• Statement of Suitability (between 500 - 750 words): this should be based around your experience in leading and motivating a multi-functional P2P team and your Understanding of commercial processes and Source to Contract systems and how these link to the P2P process.

Behaviours

We will assess your application on the following behaviours. Please use the STAR method in your examples.

• Communicating and Influencing

• Leadership

• Developing Self and Others

Please note in the event of a large number of applications being received we may run the initial sift against CV, Statement of Suitability and lead behaviour of Communicating and influencing.

If shortlisted, you will be invited to an interview and will be assessed on the selected success profile elements at the interview stage.

Interview stage

There is one interview stage for this vacancy which will be held remotely and as part of the interview process you will be required to provide evidence on the following, and will be assessed against the Civil Service success profiles framework:

Behaviours

• Communicating and Influencing

• Leadership

• Developing Self and Others

Experience

There will be 3 experience questions around the essential criteria.

Strengths maybe assessed at the interview, and these are not shared in advance.

To learn more about the Civil Service success profiles framework and how they are assessed please click here.

Please use STAR approach to structure your examples for both the application and interview for behaviours. Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.

Situation: Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?

• Who was there with you?

• What had happened?

Task: The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?

• What did you have to achieve?

Actions: What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I" rather than “we" to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Results: Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?

• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?

• Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.