Army Commercial Officer – Pre-Sourcing

Army HQ Andover, South-East England, SP11 8HJ. The Army is operating a hybrid working arrangement of 40-60% (up to 2 – 3 days a week) in the Andover office. We are passionate about Smarter Working and believe that a combination of flexible working practices, digital technology and modern workspaces will give you the opportunity to enjoy a healthy work-life balance, while ensuing you deliver your outcomes effectively and efficiently – we expect you to know where to be to have the most impact, balancing your individual needs with that of your team and the organisation.

Have you considered a Civil Service career and the unparalleled opportunities it has to offer in a variety of significant roles, with the potential to change the nation and people’s lives for the better?

The Army’s Programmes Directorate brings together all the key change programmes to optimise their delivery and to direct and monitor its change portfolio ensuring that programmes are delivered to performance, cost and time.

As a Directorate, we are passionate in Project, Programme & Portfolio management (P3M) and delivery.

From every item of basic equipment to the most ground-breaking technology imaginable, every new project brings outstanding possibilities and challenges, and we’ll ensure you’re equipped to succeed, with extensive training and development opportunities.

Our dedicated Commercial Team comprises of around 90 qualified Commercial Officers ranging in experience and levels. Within this team, there is a responsibility for placing around 180 contracts a year for around £240M worth of activity and handling £5bn worth of contracts.

This posts sit in the Army Commercial’s Capability Support Team which provides support to the Directorate of Futures and Directorate of Programmes. We provide support and commercial advice ranging from early engagement support, dedicated commercial support to Major Programmes and for procuring urgent requirements. It is a great time to join the team as we grow in providing the professional Commercial support and advice to our customers across the directorates.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

This exciting opportunity is to undertake very influential and strategic role providing commercial leadership to programme teams in our Military Capability Delivery (MCD) area and help shape programmes in development. 

The successful candidate will be involved in commercially supporting a pipeline of future programmes that are contemplated by the Army to improve capability, use of innovation and technology. You will be engaged very early in the procurement cycle which will maximise the opportunity to influence and shape the commercial strategy working with internal customers and colleagues. You will acquire a knowledge of the current and potential supplier market and understand, and put into effect, the components required to maximise competition. You will be creative in coming up with commercial solutions and be confident in exercising your commercial judgment to best effect.

This challenging but rewarding role require significant commercial competence and experience, strong communication skills, relationship management skills as well as strong leadership capability. A significant part of the roles will be working closely with and collaborating with Commercial colleagues in the delivery agents (predominantly DE&S).

Main responsibilities include:

• Providing commercial advice and support to and establishing/maintaining positive working relationships meeting both Army Commercial and Customer needs.
• Generating ideas for securing better value for money in meeting Army capability requirements through support to requirement setting and development of commercial strategies.
• Understanding the importance of implementing exploitation strategies where relevant for any projects/ programme where R&D, prototyping or concept demonstrators are required and ensure that the customer with your help strategically plans this work and considers the need for exploitation pathways to ensure that the benefits can be realised later.
• Developing, maximising and sustaining improved commercial awareness across the Army Command by delivering Commercial awareness training to your customers as and when necessary to maintain their knowledge and understanding (Due to Army staff rotation this is an ongoing requirement)
• Working closely with Army customers and Pan-MOD Commercial teams to develop and agree Commercial Strategies and ensure commercial alignment across teams, which will require effective networking with peers to build commercial coherence across the function.
• Understanding the Army’s procurement pipeline and working with them to undertake early industry engagement activity which will inform requirements, risks and opportunities and procurement options

Desirable:

• CIPS Level 4 or willingness to work towards.

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

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing

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

• https://modgovuk.sharepoint.com/sites/defnet/Corp/PSCLearning/CompetenceFrameworks/UsefulInfo/FC_A-L/CommercialSkillsandCompetencyFramework_v1_Sep17-O.pdf
  Commercial Skills and Competency Framework:
  SECTION 1: PRE-SOURCING Practitioner

Alongside your salary of £41,000, Ministry of Defence contributes
£11,070 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

As a Civil Servant, you will experience a forward-leaning organisation with inclusive environment policies, excellent career prospects and you will do a job that makes a difference.

The Army prides itself on being an encouraging employer, other benefits for Civil Servants include:

• 25 days paid annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service.
• Competitive pension scheme.
• Personal and professional development of skills.
• Access to the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), a free service that assists you with achieving a productive, balanced environment that is conducive to a healthy lifestyle.
• Improved parental and adoption leave.
• Onsite Gym Facilities.

The post does not offer relocation expenses.

External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

Please Note: Expenses incurred for travel to interviews will not be reimbursed.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

Any move to MOD from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking. Under the Smoke-Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment however some exemptions are in place, please refer to local guidance. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non-MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

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Job contact :

• Name : Sarah Hammond
• Email : sarah.hammond953@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk