Category Manager – Commercial Lead

Welcome and thank you for considering joining us at the Department for Education.

We currently have openings for Commercial Leads in the Department for Education (DfE) across various commercial projects and locations and if you are an experienced professional in procurement and want to make a real difference, you should consider joining the DfE Commercial Team.

We are looking for people who are passionate about working with policy and operational teams to deliver commercial solutions that lead the way across government. The DfE spends £23bn on some of the highest profile and most rewarding government priorities across the educational sector.

We have a range of exciting opportunities available across the function, covering a broad spectrum of commercial activity. Our work includes delivering high-impact projects such as Schools Breakfast Clubs and school-based nurseries, developing procurement strategies, and conducting market appraisals across key technology categories including hardware, AI, and EdTech.

These roles play a vital part in helping schools make efficient, value-driven purchasing decisions. You will collaborate with partners in the Impact Economy to unlock additional value, while developing commercial strategies in markets that are critical to delivering the Department’s policy priorities.

This is a unique opportunity to work on innovative, high-profile initiatives while shaping the future of commercial strategy across the education sector.

If you want to use your procurement, strategic and commercial skills to help improve educational outcomes for thousands of children across the country, please see below for further details about our opportunities.

We currently have vacancies for a challenging and exciting role at the Department for Education where you can come in and make a real difference, working in our Commercial Delivery teams to deliver the Department’s commercial projects throughout their lifecycle.

You will be driving functional development, encouraging teamwork and building effective relationships to deliver great commercial outcomes with real accountability.

You will work closely with stakeholders to develop requirements and deliver procurements which ensure that DfE gains value for money from all of its contract and grant activity. You will run procurements which are compliant with commercial governance and assurance requirements, policy and processes and ensure strategies are in place to manage key stakeholder relationships.

You may be required to work across any of our teams depending on business requirements.

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 Monday 5th October 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.