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.

Rehabilitation Services in Community

The probation arm of His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) supports more than 243,000 individuals a year in their joruney to rehabilitation. The Rehabilitation portfolio leads on the procurements of all outsourced probation related services, such as accommodation, education and finance, and unique services such as dependency and recovery. HMPPS contains a diverse set of regionally based clients that each pose their own unique set of commercial challenges and opportunities. As such, no day looks quite like the other and we’re always ready to be responsive to an emerging need.

Day-to-day the successful candidate can expect themselves to be working within a fast-paced environment, supporting the Senior Commercial Managers in delivering our £1.4billion core services contracts, and taking ownership of lower-value, less complext procurements. The role holder will be working with a wide and diverse set of stakeholders and will need to bring new ideas to help shape the way the team works, promoting continuous improvement, collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Role Summary

In this role you will contribute to the procurement process, delivering commercial excellence for your department and providing a customer-focused service. The role is varied as you will be expected to operate within relevant frameworks in order to contribute to all stages of the procurement process, from gathering requirements from across the business in line with market research, through to the handing over of the contract to contract and supplier management.

You will work as part of a larger team, but will be expected to work independently by prioritising and managing your own workload to deliver to deadlines and to respond to changing operational demands.

Key Responsibilities

Typically, the key responsibilities in this role will include (but are not limited to):

• Working effectively with senior staff in the supplier organisation and establishing appropriate governance and relationship arrangements

• Applying the organisations and government-wide key performance indicators (KPIs) and measures supplier performance against them

• Briefing and training evaluators in the use of e-sourcing tools (e.g. managing supplier correspondence)

• Developing the bidders’ packs including reviewing and clarifying the specification, drafting appropriate tools and considering optimal pricing and incentivisation mechanisms for simple low value purchases and procurements

• Leading and managing the end to end tendering process

• Debriefing unsuccessful suppliers

• Participating in strategic and business negotiations in order to deliver the agreed strategy and comply with the procurement process

• Leading supplier engagement across a variety of stages within the procurement process

• Using methods and strategic relationships to manage risks and foster high quality, reliable and on time delivery of products and services, which are only available from one supplier

• Working effectively with the contract management function as part of the contract management mobilisation phase

• Applying a strong visual project management approach to procurement projects

• Identifying and communicating perceived and relevant areas of risk (to include cyber, personnel and physical risks) and gaining agreement on how best to manage/mitigate

• Using cost models and associated commercial and security concepts

As part of your own personal career development in the Commercial team, there could be opportunities to move roles at the same grade.  In some circumstances, we may need to move you on to business-critical priorities at the same grade to meet business need.

Essential Criteria

Procurement Process: Has some practical experience in carrying out elements of the procurement process with support for low value and low risk contracts.

Commercial Focus: Has an understanding of elementary economics factors that may determine a market shape, dynamics and models, the changes in the business needs of an organisation and is familiar with key commercial tools.

Risk and Assurance Management: Demonstrates the ability to identify and communicate cyber, personnel and physical risks and gain agreement on how they should be managed/mitigated.

Commercial Ethics: Demonstrates the ability to apply standards to eliminate corruption, fraud and unethical behaviour in supply chains, taking appropriate actions in the event of any alleged breach of standards.

Team Focus: Demonstrates the ability to work as part of a team to support their performance, manage setbacks and resolve issues internally.

Build Relationships: Demonstrates the ability to communicate with stakeholders at all levels using different communication styles to articulate the benefits that have been achieved and to establish governance and relationship arrangements.

Desirable Criteria

• Working knowledge of systems, e.g. Oracle and/or Jaggaer (Bravo),

• Awareness and understanding of public sector commercial principles and legislation

• Awareness of public sector commercial legislation including EU Rules and UK interpretations. 

• Candidates must have one of the following or a willingness to work towards gaining the appropriate qualification in commercial management profession - CIPS, World CC or similar.

• Understanding of Probation Services in England and Wales

• Knowledge or experience of Dynamic Purchasing Systems

• Knowledge or experience of Grants

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 (up to 500 words). In the statement of suitability, please demonstrate your skills for the role and how you meet the essential and desirable criteria as detailed in the job description.

Behaviour

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

• Communicating & Influencing (max 250 words)

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

The candidate will be assessed on the following behaviours at the interview:

• Communicating and Influencing

• Changing and Improving

• Making Effective Decisions

• Managing a Quality Service

• Delivering at Pace

Experience

The candidate will be assessed on their experience relating to the essential criteria at the interview.

Strengths

The candidate will be assessed on Strengths from the Civil Service Success Profiles at the interview, but 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.

Commercial Roles

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

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 CIPS, World CC, etc.

Further details can be provided during the recruitment process.