Assistant Director - Commercial

Can you lead MCA’s Commercial Strategy and Procurement Team delivering a high quality service for stakeholders?

Do you have experience delivering commercial strategies achieving value for money whilst mitigating risk?

Can you provide effective leadership acting with integrity, honesty and an inclusive mindset?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is seeking an Assistant Director of Commercial to join the Corporate Services. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport, providing multiple statutory functions as flag, port and coastal State and delivering international obligations for search and rescue, environmental protection and responding to major maritime incidents. The Procurement function is a key enabler for the Agency to ensure we can deliver against this remit.

As part of the Finance and Analysis directorate, the Procurement team is responsible for MCA’s Commercial Strategy and managing the procurement of goods and services for the Agency and ensuring that its c. £500m total budget is deployed in an efficient and value for money way.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at: MCA Homepage , Civil Service Careers

As the Assistant Director - Commercial you will report to the Director of Finance and Analysis, providing strategic focus and oversight of MCA’s commercial activity, ensuring the robustness of commercial decision making and value for money is obtained.

As a key member of the Senior Management Team within the Finance and Analysis Directorate, you will provide effective and inspiring leadership to the Procurement team, fostering a high performing culture through continuous improvement.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Leading on MCA's Commercial Strategy, ensuring alignment with MCA objectives and financial plans, and the Government Commercial Function Strategy.
• Leading MCA’s Procurement team and embedding a culture of continuous improvement and high performance to ensure the effectiveness of support and commercial advice.
• Working closely with leads on MCA’s major projects and programmes, to ensure projects are developed and monitored with strong commercial focus.
• Ensuring alignment with the Government Functional Standard for Commercial, including applicable guidance and playbooks.
• Providing assurance to MCA’s Accounting Officer by ensuring compliance with procurement legislation.
• Building and maintaining key relationships with senior stakeholders, in particular developing trust and rapport, to influence and challenge decision making.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

How to apply:

Our selection process ensures a comprehensive assessment of each applicant's skills, and potential fit within our organisation.

The selection process for this role will be:

Stage 1: Sift of CV and personal statement

Stage 2: Interview

You must be successful at each stage to progress to the next stage.

Stage 1: Sift

At sift, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours – you will be asked to provide a 250-word statement on the following Behaviour: Leadership
• Experience – you will be asked to provide a CV (unlimited wordcount) and personal statement (500-word count). Please provide evidence of your experience of delivering innovative commercial strategies to achieve value for money while balancing risk.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the lead Success Profile element, Experience - Experience of delivering innovative commercial strategies to achieve value for money while balancing risk. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to assessment/interview.

Please note: the sift will be completed on a rolling basis whilst the campaign is still live, so you may receive your sift scores before the advert closing date.

The sift will take place week commencing 07/09/2026

Stage 2: Interview

At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements:

• Behaviours: Leadership
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

You will also be required to create and deliver a presentation to assess your experience and the Behaviour Communicating and Influencing. Guidance will be provided if you are invited to interview.

The interviews will take place week commencing 14/09/2026

This interview will be conducted in person at our Southampton office (105 Commercial Road, Southampton, SO15 1EG). Further details will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

You can find out more about our hiring process, how to apply, and application and interview guidance on our careers site (opens in a new window).

Please note that we will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change.

Further information on the selection process

Feedback on your application can only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

We will also hold a 12 month reserve list for this role, which may lead to potential opportunities beyond the role you applied for.

Vetting

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert or the information on our website, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Appointments for this position will be made in order of merit. If you are successful in the selection process but there are no further available posts for the advertised role, you may be contacted to discuss an offer for a lower graded role (with similar experience and responsibility requirements).

Pre-employment Checking

If you are unsuccessful in the selection process, your application may be considered for a lower graded position if your demonstrated skills and experience meet the requirements of the alternative position. Candidates will be considered in order of merit.

If your application is successful but you have been dismissed from the Civil Service, your application could be removed at the pre-employment checking stage depending on the nature of the dismissal.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

All external applicants and current employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will be required to undergo a Social Media Check. A Social Media Check is a review of your publicly available online activity, typically across platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and others. The purpose is to identify any public posts or content that could raise concerns for employers, such as:

• Hate speech or discriminatory behaviour
• Threats or acts of violence
• Illegal activity or substance misuse
• Sexually explicit material
• Extremist views or affiliations

Importantly, this check does not involve hacking into your accounts or accessing private messages. It only considers content you have chosen to make public. Employers use this kind of screening to help ensure their workplace remains safe, inclusive, and aligned with company values. It’s not about judging your personality or lifestyle - it’s about checking for potential red flags that might affect the role or company culture. If you have questions or concerns about the social media check, we would be happy to explain in more detail what’s being looked at and how your data is handled securely and fairly.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.