CSOC Commercial Senior Manager - HQ

Cyber and Specialist Operations Command (CSOC) generates and operates specialist capabilities, ready to fight across all domains to make the United Kingdom secure at home and strong abroad.

Always on, we are across every UK operation, delivering the capabilities you don’t usually see – or those you can’t.

From cyber warriors and medics to intelligence analysts, special forces, educators, and Defence attachés, our collective expertise delivers the warfighting edge Defence needs to deter threats and secure the nation today, and prepare for tomorrow.

CSOC unites Defence’s cyber and specialist capabilities under a single, military command alongside the Royal Navy, British Army, and the Royal Air Force – acting as the UK’s fourth Military Command. For more information, please see here.

CSOC Commercial has a rich and varied portfolio of contracts across multiple categories of spend. We have 100 commercial specialists geographically spread over the globe covering contracts worth £7.5bn. It is a dynamic and exciting place to work at the leading edge of Defence. We welcome diversity, we are passionate about inclusivity, and love challenge that drives innovation. We value each individual contribution, learn together, and deliver stronger.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

In this role you will contribute to delivering commercial excellence for CSOC through, analysing key supply markets to understand the characteristics of new markets, and inform whether market making or development is required, work on all stages of the procurement process, mobilising contracts, managing the delivery and performance of the contract, supplier relationship management (SRM), carrying out contract changes, managing risk within the contract and managing contract transition and exit.

You will work independently and part of a larger team by drawing on your commercial experience to drive performance and manage setbacks. You will be able to prioritise and manage your own workload to deliver to deadlines, mitigate and escalate any emerging risks and to respond swiftly to changing operational demands.

Typically, the key responsibilities in this role will include (but are not limited to):

• Working as a procurement lead and as part of cross-functional teams in order to implement pre market engagement
• Leading/ managing any Controls, Department Approvals and Governance processes; working with procurement regulations, organisational policies, procedures and security requirements
• Using e-sourcing/ e-tendering tools and techniques
• Overseeing market analysis, understanding market models and market shaping
• Ensuring that all pre-procurement engagement has been completed and that the organisation is ready to go to market
• Working with key stakeholders to develop a clear and agreed view of business requirements, and supporting business units in articulating their commercial requirements
• Understanding the requirement, the market place and potential solutions, providing advice and challenging where necessary
• Advising and providing professional guidance throughout the sourcing process, considering and evaluating a range of sourcing models
• Drawing together and presenting reasonable conclusions from a wide range of incomplete and complex data and recognising when to bring in experts/researchers to add value to the available information
• Justifying and documenting the selection of a particular commercial option
• Challenging the organisational need for the purchase especially where Corporate Social Responsibility or value for money considerations suggest the procurement can be better channelled through existing assets or an existing contract
• Gathering requirements from across the business in line with market research when defining Terms and Conditions
• Developing the bidders’ packs including reviewing and clarifying the specification, drafting appropriate tools and considering optimal pricing and incentivisation mechanisms for medium value purchases and procurements
• Applying the most appropriate evaluation strategy to a sourcing requirement taking into account the type of commodity or service being procured, complexity, value and strategic importance
• Managing one or more contracts of medium complexity/ value, ensuring effective stakeholder management, governance, performance management frameworks, escalation, risk management, issues resolution, financial management, change control and compliance
• Reviewing and understanding the terms and conditions of contracts and deliverables, working with the supplier to establish a plan for delivering them
• Agreeing and clarifying contract management responsibilities with stakeholders, advising them on setting up effective processes
• Leading all planning and preparation, goal setting, strategy and tactics for re-procurement, undertaking soft market testing
• Developing and maintaining positive commercial relationships with the supply chain to maintain and enhance performance, improve service delivery and create additional value
• Mentoring and providing guidance to junior members of the team

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, Experience and Technical skills.

Stage 1 – Application

To apply for this job, please submit:

CV – A CV outlining your job history, full qualification details and previous skills and experience.

Personal Statement – A Personal Statement (maximum 750 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience meet the role description and responsibilities.

Success Profiles: Behaviours:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical Skills:

• Sourcing – Executing the Sourcing Strategy (Practitioner Level)

You should ensure that you read and understand the criteria within the Success Profiles: Behaviours and the Commercial Skills and Competency Framework documents and provide evidence of those criteria using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) format.

Stage 2 – Sift

We aim to release sift results to applicants 1 to 2 weeks following the closing date. Depending on the volume of applications, these dates may be subject to change.

Stage 3 – Interviews

All candidates who are successful at the sift stage will be invited to undertake a single virtual video interview which will be conducted via Microsoft Teams and will take around 60 minutes. During the interview we will be asking questions to assess you against the Civil Service Behaviours and Commercial Technical Skills as referenced below.

Success Profiles: Behaviours –

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at pace

Technical Skills –

• Sourcing – Executing the Sourcing Strategy (Practitioner Level)
• Contract Performance Management (Practitioner Level)

Interviews are scheduled to take place 3 to 4 weeks after the job advert has closed. These dates may be subject to change depending on the volume of candidates we have to interview.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

There may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all DCS candidates that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example, in certain recruitment situations such as a high volume of applications, seasonal demand, or peak periods, the employer may wish to limit the overall number of interviews offered to both DCS and non-DCS applicants.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.

Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

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