Associate Commercial Specialist - Construction

The Government Commercial Agency (GCA) is the UK's central commercial and procurement organisation. As the single center of expertise for government commercial activity, GCA guides over 20,000 public sector customers to best value, shapes markets, and provides a gateway for suppliers of all sizes to work with the public sector.

Construction is a high-profile Category within the Government Commercial Agency which has shown exponential growth over the last 5 years. Part of the wider GCA’s Estates Category Team, alongside FM & Energy.

Developing and managing a range of innovative Construction commercial agreements, extensive supplier relationship management and market engagement. We are a supportive team of highly-experienced construction, procurement and category management professionals, who are passionate about driving policy, developing category and procurement strategies in support of delivering the Industrial strategy and Infrastructure Pipeline.

This is a key senior role within the Construction Category Team which provides an opportunity to be involved in some of the largest, complex Construction projects in the UK such as the Ministry of Justice new prison programme and the Defence Estates Optimisation Programme to name a few. Working with multiple government departments and wider public sector bodies to enable them to procure infrastructure projects and programmes of work ranging from £10k - £1bn >

The role provides opportunity to lead on industry specific areas of critical importance

If you are interested in how you can bring your Construction Sector knowledge and strategic commercial skills to the GCA’s Construction Category and how you can play a role in shaping industry and delivering against the Industrial Strategy and Government Missions then we would love to hear from you.

The Construction category team comprises 30 members of staff and the role holder will be responsible for line management of a small team within that.

Responsibility for conducting strategic category management to develop and deliver in collaboration with the GCA’s procurement operations team, new Construction frameworks to compliment the existing portfolio of construction works, offsite construction and construction professional services. Together with oversight of the existing portfolio in respect of framework management and compliance. Which have seen multi million pound projects being delivered such as the Ministry of Justice’s new prison programme.

In doing so you will be interfacing with multiple senior stakeholders across the GCA, other government departments and wider public sector, ensuring user requirements are incorporated, relevant policies are embedded and legal compliance is adhered to in line with PA23

Locations:

The successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. When selecting your location listed in this job advert please be aware that this will be your contractual base location with a requirement to spend a minimum of 60% of your working time in this organisational workplace.

Your time spent on official duties at workplace locations other than your contractual office such as supplier, customer or partner locations required to perform your role is included in the 60% attendance.

This requirement will however take into consideration any reasonable adjustments agreed upon appointment for people with a disability, flexibilities agreed for those with specific caring responsibilities, or other similar temporary flexibilities.

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 Experience and Technical skills.

Your application will be reviewed by a panel and should you be successful at sift we will invite you to attend a Virtual commercial Assessment and Development Centre (VADC). The panel will review results of the VADC and determine which candidates will go through to a subsequent final panel interview. Please note: Only candidates that achieve an A grade at ADC will be invited to interview for this role.

Please be advised that the Virtual ADC is taking place on the 2nd of December 2026 and will require a full day's attendance.

If you are invited to attend a virtual ADC, but for any reason are unable to meet the date outlined then please get in touch with the team on commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible. The ADC is booked and paid for in advance by departments, therefore it is only in certain circumstances we are able to accommodate alternative dates.

For full details of our process, and a likely timeline, please read the attached candidate pack.

Throughout our selection process, we will make decisions about your capability to do the job, based on evidence you provide against the Technical Skills (essential criteria) and your Job History (CV) that you will be asked to provide during the application process. Further help and advice on our application and selection process can be found at this web address https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/gcf-how-to-apply/

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/artificial-intelligence-and-recruitment/

IMPORTANT: If you do not receive an acknowledgement of your application within 2 working days please contact: commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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