Commercial Manager

Background: The UK Space Agency: 

The UK Space Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) and provides technical advice on the government’s space strategy, supporting the UK space sector to deliver the government’s vision. 

Space is a part of everyday life. Satellites underpin our national economy, from agriculture and banking to aviation and shipping, and support our national security. Space science provides critical data to understand and address global challenges such as climate change, while missions to explore our solar system unite nations and advance humanity’s horizons. 

We support a thriving space sector in the UK, which generates an annual income of £16.5 billion and employs 47,000 people across the country. 

Through our portfolio of programmes and projects, we encourage the development of national space capabilities and are an early-stage investor in space research and development.  We also promote the UK space sector’s interests and achievements; make connections to join up industry and academia; and represent the UK in international space programmes. 

We have a powerful global voice, partnering with institutions across the world, including the European Space Agency. 

More information about the Agency is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-space-agency 

To discover more please watch this film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbZZ-o0IkVU

Our Inclusive Environment

We have an inclusive culture to make UK Space Agency a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.

We offer first-class flexible working benefits, excellent employee well-being support and a great pension. We are fortunate to have a range of excellent staff networks and are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We will support talented people from all backgrounds to build a career and thrive.

We actively welcome applications from anyone who shares our commitment to inclusion.

To accommodate this rapid growth in the sector, in 2019 the UK Space Agency stood up its in-house commercial capability within the Operations & Resources Directorate. The successful candidate for the Commercial Manager role will therefore join a small, agile and friendly team with the opportunity to make a great impact on how we engage with the marketplace and meet the demands of our customers. This will include a blend of commercial assurance and delivery responsibility across the Agency’s strategic programmes and major projects, dealing with contracts and grant agreements. The priorities for the post holder will be to lead on providing commercial advice and recommendations to programme and project teams within the Agency, and to drive stakeholder engagement/ collaboration to achieve the most effective commercial outcomes.

Duties will include, but are not limited to:

• To support development of commercial and procurement strategies across a range of exciting and unique space-based initiatives such as the Commercial Spaceflight and International Partnership programmes
• To engage proactively and provide commercial advice and support to ensure major project and programme teams can adopt a truly end to end commercial life-cycle approach. This activity will include reviewing supplier and grant recipient proposals, change requests and deliverables, providing recommendations, identifying risks and issues, and negotiating excellent and innovative commercial outcomes.
• Support preparing briefs and guidance as required for a variety of internal and external audiences, including UK Space Agency teams, non-commercial specialists, senior government officials and potential suppliers.
• To support the delivery of training and awareness for Agency staff in commercial matters appropriate to their needs.
• Support the design and delivery of market engagement and strategic supplier management activity to ensure the Agency is able to capitalise on an increasingly dynamic marketplace comprising start-ups, disruptive tech companies and international firms.
• Support the Commercial Leads to deliver against Agency policy and process standards for contracting and grant competitions reflecting government commercial principles while ensuring value-for-money solutions and effectively managing risks.
• To support the Commercial Leads in undertaking oversight and assurance activity in accordance with Agency governance principles.
• Maintain the contracts and grants database and help to enable our transition to automated ways of working.
• Support audit activity in relation to the UK Space Agency Corporate Grant Policy to ensure optimum use of tax-payer funds.
• The post does not currently include any line management responsibilities, but this may be required as the team continues to expand.

UK Space Agency Generic Responsibilities (This is a requirement of all posts)

• Ensure compliance with statutory and legal provisions as set out in the UK Space Agency’s policies and procedures. In relation to: Financial Regulations, Equal Opportunities and Diversity, Health and Safety, Civil Service Code, Data Protection & the Official Secrets Act.
• Comply with the competencies and standard requisites as relevant to your post as detailed in your job description, person specification and Competency Framework and take responsibility for continuing self-development, participating in training and development activities as required or requested by your line manager.
• Attend meetings as required some of which may be outside normal working hours.

The above-mentioned tasks and responsibilities are neither inclusive nor exhaustive. The post holder may be called upon to carry out such other appropriate duties as may be required by the Chief Executive and/or senior officer(s) within the grading level of the post and the competence of the post holder.

Essential criteria

• Experience of using commercial acumen to develop effective and value-for-money outcomes to meet business needs whilst identifying and mitigating commercial and procurement risks
• Strong negotiation skills to drive excellent commercial outcomes including a proven track record of negotiating contract terms 
• Ability to analyse a complex delivery environment to make effective commercial recommendations (including the development of commercial and procurement strategies) and present compelling business cases 
• Ability to consider and influence the needs of others while observing compliance with government commercial service standards.
• Good working knowledge of EU procurement directives and public contracts regulations (including PCR 2015), as well as experience of delivering procurement via advanced purchasing techniques (e.g. OJEU)
• Experience of working on complex projects or programmes
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to build strong relationships.
• Ability to communicate clearly, succinctly and persuasively in writing, in meetings and in presentations.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working on Grants and an awareness of the principles of the standards for Government Grants 
• MCIPS or working towards (any level). 
• Programme or project management qualification (such as from the Association of Project Managers, PRINCE2, Managing Successful Programmes or similar).

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Public Procurement Policy
• Commercial Acumen

UKSA offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.

• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%.

• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.

• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.

• Access to a range of retail, travel, and lifestyle employee discounts

• A generous maternity/paternity and adoption leave package.

• This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is an informal, non-contractual and voluntary arrangement, blending a balance of attendance in the workplace (your permanent duty station which is based on business assessment of where the work is best done) and working from home, or elsewhere, as a personal choice (if the role is suitable for this).  If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.

• The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e., level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

Job contact :

• Name : Michelle Boulton
• Email : Michelle.boulton@ukspaceagency.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : uksarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk