Location

Birmingham, Hastings, Leeds, London, Swansea

About the job

Salary - National - £30,734 London- £34,708

Locations Birmingham, Hastings, Leeds, London or Swansea

We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.

Our transport system touches the lives of everyone in this country: it reunites families; takes millions of people to work every day; enables holidays; and keeps fresh food on the shelves of our supermarkets. The government’s manifesto contains commitments, including investment, to improve transport infrastructure across the country. This is an incredibly exciting time to work for the Department.

The Department has a wide and varied agenda ranging from the delivery of large infrastructure projects such as HS2, East West Rail and Lower Thames Crossing, through to shaping future transport innovations such as driverless cars, rapid charging for electric vehicles, important research into alternative fuels, developing walking and cycling infrastructure strategy, as well as addressing airport capacity. Job description

Would you like the opportunity to work in DfT’s Group Commercial Directorate supporting complex transactions and commercial activities in the Roads, Places & Environment Directorate?

We have an exciting opportunity for a Commercial Relationship Advisor to join us in the Department’s Commercial Directorate and we would love to hear from you!

Group Commercial Directorate (“GCD”) is split into three divisions of expertise, Policy Development, Assurance and Commercial Relationship Management. The lines often work together and there is an opportunity to do this, but this post is based in Commercial Relationship Management. They will support Commercial Relationship Managers in ensuring that robust processes are in place over commercial affairs and that commercial projects are compliant and successfully delivered to support both the Department’s and Government’s aims and objectives.

You will work on a range of commercial activity from relatively low level to multi-million-pound procurements. You will work with policy colleagues on issues ranging from the £27.2bn Road Investment Strategy, research into autonomous vehicles, promoting more inclusive travel and keeping people safe on our local and national road, cycle and walking networks.

You will have the opportunity to lead some transactions and will ensure that every contract signed has been through appropriate assurance activity.

The Commercial Relationship Advisor will also support the work of other transport modes and support the commercial function across some of our motoring agencies for example Highways England (HE) Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA).

You will be responsible for updating the procurement pipeline, analysing this and communicating it to internal and external customers. The Commercial Relationship Advisor will also lead for the team in relation to Jaggear the Departments procurement portal and be responsible for managing and reporting the teams Management Information.

This position also offers a flexible working pattern. Occasional travel across Departmental sites will be required when current Government COVID restrictions are lifted.
 

Responsibilities

• Manage some procurements with a delegated authority to sign off advisor procurements, STAs and Direct Awards under the value of £2,000,000.

• Build close and trusted relationships with colleagues across Roads, Places and Environment and the Departments Agencies. They will advise customers on the procurement process and will support the development of procurement strategies.

• Engage with customers outside the Department - including the agencies, HE, DVSA, DVLA and VCA and other parties who may need commercial support.

• Engage closely with colleagues in Group Commercial – the MI team, Commercial Relationship Managers and Advisors as well as Supplier Relationship Management and Commercial Policy colleagues.

• Manage and update the procurement pipeline by engaging with customers, capturing information and logging this onto the Contract Management System.

• Analyse pipeline, identify resourcing issues and potential synergies and develop a procurement plan for these.

• Support procurements from strategy development through to contract Award. This includes, development of tenders and procurement documentation, managing and responding to clarification questions running evaluation processes (including chairing consensus meetings), drafting contracts and compiling/reviewing feedback letters to successful and unsuccessful bidders.

• Ensure that contracts awarded are successfully managed in-life and that any supplier performance issues are escalated and addressed (this includes issues picked up from other client organisations to ensure that wider performances issues are addressed). They will provide advice and support training on contract management processes.

• Manage the Conflict of Interest Management process within their customer area, collating information from clients and suppliers - ensuring that any issues are escalated and mitigated.

• Develop efficiency initiatives that can be implemented across the customer groups to improve the way we procure and achieve efficiency savings whilst maintaining Value for Money.

• Support the development of framework strategies ensuring commercial arrangements are in place to support and deliver key projects.

• The Commercial Advisor will also support the development of category management strategies, co-ordinate meetings with CCS colleagues, Suppliers and Roads Places and Environment colleagues.

• Responsible for risk management – ensuring risks are identified and that mitigation actions are defined and managed.

About You

To be successful in this role you will need proven experience of working in a commercial function. You will also have demonstrated knowledge / experience of the end to end procurement life-cycle, procurement sourcing options, an understanding of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and proven customer relationship management experience.
In addition, the post holder is expected to have the following skills and experience:

• Experience of managing procurements and supporting major transactions
• Demonstrate sound commercial judgement – good track record of decision making balancing risk and commercial outcomes
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• Good understanding of trends and business drivers that influence business decisions
• Experience of developing dashboards and reports
• Experience of running events
• Contract Management Experience
• CIPS qualification, or willingness to work towards this

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

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

Benefits

Being part of our brilliant Civil Service means you will have access to a wide range of fantastic benefits. We offer generous annual leave, attractive pension options, flexible working, inclusive working environments and much more to support a healthy work/life balance.

Find out more about what it's like working at the Department for Transport.

Things you need to know

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

People working with government assets must complete basic personnel security standard checks.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Ability and Experience.

Selection Process

We are closely monitoring the situation regarding the coronavirus, and will be following central Government advice as it is issued. There is therefore a risk that recruitment to this post may be subject to change at short notice. In addition, where appropriate, you may be invited to attend a video interview.

Please continue to follow the application process as normal and ensure that you check your emails regularly as all updates from us will be sent to you this way.

The Civil Service Nationality Rules has been updated following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. The new rules will come into effect on 1st January 2021. We urge people from the EU, European Economic Area and Switzerland to be familiar with the updated Nationality rules prior to applying for this role.

After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Numerical test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.

Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 23:55 on 12th March 2021. If you fail to complete the online test before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please provide a CV outlining your career history and the key responsibilities you had within each role. For your Personal Statement, please utilise the 750 word-count to outline the following:

• When you have used good understanding of trends and business drivers to help influence a business decision.
• When you have used your excellent stakeholder management skills to build strong working relationships to help find commercial solutions.

The sift is due to take place w/c 15th March 2021.

Interviews/assessments are likely to be held from 25th March 2021.

This interview could be conducted via a video interview, details of which will be provided to you should you be selected for interview.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment could include:

• an interview

You’re encouraged to become familiar with the role profile, as you may be assessed against any of the criteria recorded within.

The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section

Further Information

To learn more about applying for a role within the Department for Transport, visit the Application Process page of our Careers website.

Before submitting your application, we encourage you to visit our Things You Need to Know page for further information about applying for a role within the Department for Transport and the Civil Service.

Throughout this job advert there are links to the DfT Careers website, which provides you further information to support your application. Should you be unable to access the information on our website, please email [email protected] for assistance.

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

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with (or eligible for) status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Further information on nationality requirements

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.

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.

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants Job contact : Name :   Gilly Faulkner Email :   [email protected]   Recruitment team : Email :   [email protected] Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact Government Recruitment Services via email: [email protected] If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk