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.

HM courts and Tribunal Services Commercial

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

The Commercial Directorate is organised into category teams, each with an interesting portfolio of contracts and diverse customers and suppliers to manage. This role sits in the Contract Management Team within HM Courts and Tribunal Services (HMCTS) Commercial and relates specifically to contact management activities to deliver the best possible outcomes from our contracts.

The HMCTS Commercial Contact Management Team is a new and exciting area in Commercial’s already diverse and wide range of commercial support opportunities. Its aim: to ensure HMCTS have the appropriate strategic and routine contract management advice and support to enable delivery of HMCTS objectives and deliver value for money with effective assurance and governance.

As a commercial contract manager you will lead on contract management activities for your portfolio of contracts. This involves building effective relationships across HMCTS and Supplier Key stakeholders. You will be responsible for understanding your stakeholders operational priorities and how these translate into commercial opportunities and risks. You will provide commercial expertise and advice where needed, while working across the portfolio to support a variety of initiatives to improve the overall commercial offering to, and capability of HMCTS.

Employees must attend an MoJ or satellite office up to 60% of their working week, with supplier meetings and events, face to face training and exhibitions, and team events counting towards this attendance. The HMCTS Commercial Portfolio is predominantly based out of the Leeds and London offices and some travel, expected to be minimal, will be required.

Role Summary

In this role you will be expected to undertake contract management activity for one (or more) of the organisation’s key contracts of low to medium complexity/value. The role includes supporting activity relating to: mobilising contracts, managing the delivery and performance of the contract, carrying out contract changes, managing risk within the contract and managing contract transition and exit.

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):

• Managing one or more of the organisation’s key contracts of low to medium complexity/value, ensuring effective governance, performance management frameworks, escalation, risk management, issues resolution, financial management, change control and compliance

• Developing extension business cases to justify the initiation and continuation of projects in terms of benefits, ‘value for money’ and risk

• Preparing for contract commencement, including the development, delivery and implementation of contract management plans

• Utilising contract information systems to analyse contract performance

• Monitoring progress against objectives specified in the business case and delivery against contractual and security obligations

• Applying understanding of contractual risk, to identify risks and raise them with senior colleagues

• Monitoring progress against business objectives specified in the business case, adapting to changing circumstances without losing sight of business objectives

• Ensuring effective change control, justifying, controlling and recording changes to ensure requirements continue to meet business needs

• Evaluating suppliers’ performance against specific terms and conditions to ensure delivery of strategic outcomes and high contract performance

• Identifying and addressing issues before escalation without creating unnecessary bureaucracy and escalating supply issues to the appropriate level for resolution when necessary

• Managing a number of requirements concurrently

• Developing commercial strategies

• Leading on and assisting with the development of outputs, contract sourcing and commercial strategies

• Maintaining quality and concurrency of systems, reporting and management information

• Working in a secure environment upon sensitive projects as required

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

Contract Management: Has some practical experience in carrying out contract management for low value, low complexity contracts. Has good knowledge of all aspects of contract management and understands how it fits in the commercial lifecycle.

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

• Relevant commercial experience delivering contract management in a commercial environment.

• Strong business acumen and commercial judgement and ability to show evidence-based decision making.

• Excellent communication (written and oral), influencing, and stakeholder management skills

• Strong organisational skills with the ability to plan, organise and manage your time and that of others effectively.

• Holds a Contract Management Capability Programme Foundation level qualification (available through Government Commercial College), or a willingness to achieve within 6 months of starting the role.

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 key responsibilities and essential criteria as detailed in the job description.

Behaviours

Each applicant must provide, in no more than 250 words per behaviour, evidence of their ability to adequately demonstrate how they meet each one.

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

• Making Effective Decisions - Analyse and use a range of relevant, credible information from internal and external sources to support decisions. Invite challenge and where appropriate involve others in decision making. Consult with others to ensure the potential impacts on end users have been considered. Present strong recommendations in a timely manner outlining the consideration of other options, costs, benefits and risks.

• Working Together - Encourage joined up team work within your own team and across other groups. Establish professional relationships with a range of stakeholders. Collaborate with these to share information, resources and support. Invest time to develop a common focus and genuine positive team spirit where colleagues feel valued and respect one another.

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 Making Effective Decisions.

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

• Changing and Improving

• Managing a Quality Service

• Delivering at Pace

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.

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