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Commercial Deputy Director (Construction)

Employer
Department for Education
Location
Coventry, West Midlands
Salary
£90,000 - £131,300 up to 20% performance-related-pay available on accreditation.
Closing date
20 Oct 2020

Building a strong Commercial Function in Government, and with it the right, commercial capability is at the heart of a far-reaching programme of Civil Service reform.

We are building a cadre of commercial talent in all Government departments; people who can manage our commercial portfolios, who can lead our most complex and novel programmes and projects, people who have the gravitas and depth of experience to work alongside our policy and operational leaders to develop innovative commercial arrangements, whether through joint ventures, outsourcing or best-in-class contracts.

We have already made significant progress through the establishment of the Government Commercial Organisation (GCO), our single employer of senior commercial talent across government. This role will sit within the GCO, but based in our DfE commercial team delivering departmental objectives.

Job description

Along with reporting to Rory Kennedy, Director of Capital, the successful applicant will work closely with the Department’s Commercial Director, Jennifer Williams, and the Government Commercial Function, to align Capital commercial activity with this new strategy, and ensure the needs of Capital Directorate are catered for within the new strategy. You will be expected to act as a visible change leader and role model within the Department to help embed innovation and improvement across the Department.

If you want to make a real difference in a high-profile environment and find out more about the role, please contact Rory Kennedy, line manager for the role, and Director of DfE Capital via rory.kennedy@education.gov.uk.
 

Responsibilities

Commercial Strategy

  • Working with other programme directors and SROs to determine and implement the overall commercial strategy for DfE Capital
  • Ensuring our commercial approach carefully considers trade-offs between time, cost and quality to deliver value for money
  • Providing commercial input to influence initial programme design so that it supports value for money
  • Supporting the development of the wider DfE commercial strategy, ensuring DfE Capital needs are represented effectively
  • Aligning capital commercial strategy with wider government strategy and policy related to construction, including modern methods of construction

Implementation

  • Working with programme directors, implementing the construction strategy
  • Providing challenge and support to delivery programmes to ensure their commercial approaches deliver value and help keep programmes affordable
  • Providing support and scrutiny on challenging projects and negotiations where necessary

Procurement

  • Leading the design procurement and management of frameworks to support delivery, ensuring wider government requirements are met
  • Ensuring commercial benefits are accessible to the wider education sector where this can help drive overall value for money from education funding

Supplier & Stakeholder Management

  • Managing strategic supplier relationships with our main contractors, technical advisers and the wider market
  • Managing our relationship with Cabinet Office on commercial issues and helping to shape the wider government approach by representing the DfE Capital Group on cross-government commercial groups

Continuous Improvement & Assurance

  • Making sure we have excellent data on cost, value-for-money and supplier performance and health, and that data is used to continually improve our commercial and delivery performance and manage risk
  • Supporting wider activity to drive the efficient use of funding provided to the education sector

Leadership

  • Leadership of the commercial activity across DfE Capital, including professional leadership for the commercial staff engaged in programmes
  • Being a corporate leader within DfE Capital, including membership of corporate boards, acting as a role model within the Department’s commercial profession, and helping us become a great place to work

Technical skills

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

  • Major Project Delivery - Significant experience of developing strategies for and delivering complex and large-scale commercial projects through to successful completion.
  • Manages Complexity - Evidence of leading teams at a strategic level in large-scale complex organisations, leading and delivering transformational change.
  • Decisive - Evidence of the successful design and delivery of holistic end-to-end strategic category plans and commercial strategies.
  • Commercial Focus - Significant construction commercial experience in both routine and crisis management scenarios/environments
  • Coaching Manager - A track record of achieving strong results by successfully building capability at all levels of a commercial function
  • Understanding Sourcing Needs - Experience of building successful procurement strategies considering all relevant policy and procedural processes are adhered to.

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