Procurement and Contracts Management

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

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. 

Reporting to:            Senior Commercial Manager

Status:                        Permanent

Job Location:            National

Number of posts:      5

The Ministry of Justice

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 Ministry of Justice (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 £3.5bn a year and manages over 1000 active contracts, all of which are sourced and managed by CCMD. We are running some of the most ground-breaking programmes such as Prison Reform and Her 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.

The Team

The posts being advertised are within the Directorate’s Custodial Services team. The team are responsible for leading and providing commercial support across the MOJ’s high profile outsourced operational services namely, Prisoner Escort and Custody Services; Privately Managed Prisons; and Victim Services (Grants).

Delivery of strategic value to drive our category forward is critical to our success in a dynamic and challenging operational environment. We are seeking individuals who have a desire to take ownership, bring new ideas and act passionately as part of an experienced team, to drive value for money decisions. Your professional expertise and judgement will be relied upon by senior colleagues. Contribution to a strong team ethos as well as commitment to continuous improvement, collaboration and knowledge share are essential.

Responsibilities

Commercial Managers will have the opportunity to create real difference and contribute to public service, providing the associated development exposure this brings. Key responsibilities include:

• Ownership of strategy at contract level, driving commercial opportunities to deliver value for money and/or savings
• Stakeholder engagement and strong relationship building to define requirements, develop, implement and manage procurement and contract management strategies – stakeholders including customers (often at a Senior Director level), suppliers, legal and finance
• Supplier management to ensure robust management of commercial delivery against contract (include payment mechanisms and KPI delivery) whilst driving innovation to create value for money
• Delivery of continuous improvement to drive best practice for our categories
• Associated adherence to respective policy and governance controls
• Commercial Managers may also have line management responsibilities

Person Specification

The post holder must be keen to learn and able to demonstrate experience in the following areas:

Essential:

• A proven track-record delivering sourcing and/or contract management in a high value complex commercial environment
• Strong business acumen and ability to show evidence-based decision making
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Awareness of public sector procurement legislation

Desirable:

• A working knowledge of public sector procurement legislation including EU Rules and UK interpretations
• Most importantly we are looking for people with the right personal qualities – enthusiasm, energy, proactivity, prepared to work under their own initiative and to be flexible and adaptable in a demanding environment.

Qualifications

Candidates must have one of the following or a willingness to work towards gaining the appropriate qualification:

• Member of a relevant professional body, e.g. CIPS, IACCM or similar.
• Contract Management Capability Programme Foundation Accredited (Available through govcommercialcollege.co.uk)
• MCIPS (attracts a higher starting salary) 

Experience Criteria

• Experience of delivering contract management strategies in a high value complex commercial environment
• Awareness of public sector procurement legislation
• Working knowledge of public sector procurement legislation including EU Rules and UK interpretations (desirable)
• Strong business acumen and ability to show evidence-based decision making
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• Working with large, high value contracts (desirable)
• Exit and mobilisation of large contracts (desirable)
• Dealing with large corporate organisations (desirable) 

Application form stage assessments:  

An initial sift will be performed against the following behaviour and experience elements:  

Behaviours

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the application stage: 

• Making Effective Decisions (Lead behaviour) – 250 words
• Communicating and Influencing – 250 words 

Please note that in the event of a large number of applications being received we may run the initial sift on the lead behaviour of Making Effective Decisions  

Experience 

We’ll assess you against the below during the application stage: 

• CV
• Statement of Suitability – 500 words 

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

We’ll assess you against these behaviours at the interview stage: 

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace 

Experience

We’ll assess you against the following experience at the interview stage:

• Question relating the experience criteria points listed above.

Strengths

Strengths may also be assessed in the interview. 

Please use STAR approach to structure your examples.  

• Situation – Describe the situation you found yourself in and what happened. 

• Task – The Hiring Manager will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation that you found yourself in. 

• Action – What actions did you take and how did you do it. Make sure to use “I”, not “we” to explain how your actions lead to a result. 

• Result – Use facts and statistics to demonstrate the results that your actions produced. Explain whether it was a successful outcome, and if not, what you learned from the experience.  

Further information on the Success profile elements can be found onSuccess Profiles – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  

Salary

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

Additional Information

Working Arrangements & Further Information

The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.

For nationally advertised roles, the successful candidate(s) will be appointed to a MoJ office location, which may include their nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office. This will be discussed and agreed on the completion of pre-employment checks.

Some of MoJ’s terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service reform. The changes will apply to staff joining MoJ who are new to the Civil Service. Staff joining MoJ from other civil service employers will transfer onto the new MoJ terms if they are already on ‘modernised’ terms in their current post or onto ‘unmodernised’ MoJ terms if they are on ‘unmodernised’ terms at their current post. Details will be available if an offer is made.

Flexible working hours

The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices.

Benefits

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years’ service.

There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Pension

The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.

Training

The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.

Networks

The opportunity to join employee-run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed direct to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, employees with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

Support

• A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
• Access to flexible benefits such as voluntary benefits, retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
• For moves to or from another employer or moves across the Civil Service this can have implications on your eligibility to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for alternative government childcare support schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. More information can be found on GOV.UK or Childcare Choices. You can determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
• Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
• Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles. Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order

• To Shared Service Connected Ltd (0845 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am – 6pm) or e mail Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com);
• To Ministry of Justice Resourcing team (resourcing-management-office@justice.gov.uk);
• To the Civil Service Commission (details available here)

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As a Disability Confident employer, MoJ are committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. MoJ are able to offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns.

You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. If you need additional help completing the application form, please contact the SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team.

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.