Assistant Commercial Manager, Home Office Digital

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair, and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter terrorism, policing, fire, crime, drugs policy, immigration, and passports. Commercial Directorate is part of Chief Operating Officer Group and works closely with the Home Office's policy and operational commands to enable us together to deliver the department's priorities. The directorate is comprised of different teams and professional functions, including Commercial, Finance, People, Portfolio and Project Delivery, Security, Estates and Information and Home Office Digital.

We are seeking individuals to work at SEO level to provide critical activities to support the delivery of Commercial's objectives.

The Home Office Commercial team is part way through a programme of change which has seen us recruiting across all grades. We are seeking diligent individuals to work at SEO level to provide critical activities to support the delivery of Commercial's objectives.

These roles could be of interest to commercial professionals with procurement experience and expertise or contract managers who are looking to apply and broaden their commercial skills in a central government commercial function or to existing commercial staff who would enjoy taking on a new role.

Successful candidates will receive a programme of development with the opportunity to study towards professional commercial qualifications.

So, whatever your background, either public or private, if you are enthusiastic about delivering first class outcomes then come and join our journey.

The job is to procure and / or commercially administrate and manage Home Office contracts in accordance with legislation and regulations that apply to the central government department in the public sector, as well as in accordance with relevant policies of the Home Office, Cabinet Office, and His Majesty's Treasury.

The contracts support delivery of Home Office objectives by sourcing items and services including but not limited to:

• IT equipment including hardware and software.
• Cloud based services.
• Specialist technological skills, services, and consultancy.
• Expertise and capability in (for example) application development and maintenance.
• Software defined networking.
• Artificial Intelligence.
• Software and Licensing.

The categories of IT enabled by the contracts include and are not limited to:

• End user compute.
• Application development.
• Call centres; telephony and networks.
• Data centre operations.
• Security operations (Cyber and otherwise).
• Support for insourced and outsourced IT services provided to Home Office sites around the United Kingdom and abroad.

For the most complex or risky contracts, the job involves supporting a Grade 7 (one grade higher than the SEO) who is accountable for these contracts. Most SEO roles within this campaign will involve independent working, supported by senior colleagues.

Procurement and Contract Management activity must support the delivery of Commercial Directorate's objectives by demonstrating Home Office compliance with relevant legislation, regulations, and policies such as PCR2015 and TPA2023. Targets include timely publication of notices relating to procurement and contract management, evidencing of savings and accuracy of key data fields on Commercial Lifecycle Management Systems. Performance against these targets is monitored and reviewed.

The Home Office operates a RASCI (responsible / accountable / support / consult / inform) which recommends how the SEO interacts with other commercial colleagues, business colleagues (e.g. operational contract managers), and enablers (e.g. Government Legal Department) to ensure good procurement and contract management.

SEO roles operate within the Home Office RASCI framework, which sets out how they collaborate with commercial colleagues, business stakeholders, and enablers (including the Government Legal Department) to ensure effective procurement and contract management.

Continuous professional development is expected as part of individual targets, and opportunities to study for relevant professional qualifications may be available.

• Working collaboratively with commercial colleagues, DDaT Senior Contract Owners, delivery managers and enablers from opportunity identification through to contract award and mobilisation.
• Develop robust commercial cases and procurement strategies, using commercial and financial analysis, market engagement, assurance of requirements, and clear articulation of value for money.
• Lead compliant procurement planning and governance, providing commercial insight on routes to market, approvals (e.g. Commercial Assurance / Approvals Boards), documentation, and realistic lead times.
• Own delivery of the commercial elements of procurements, including market facing activity, moderation of tender evaluations, drafting/review/sign off of commercial documentation, and transition to effective contract management.
• Ensure full compliance with Home Office policy and public procurement legislation, including the Procurement Act 2023 and Public Contract Regulations 2015, while providing clear commercial advice and guidance to stakeholders.
• Build and maintain strong stakeholder relationships, aligning procurement strategies to business needs, maintaining the Home Office pipeline, identifying efficiencies, and contributing to category strategy development and delivery.
• Lead early market engagement and strategic planning, working with business and G7 Commercial Leads to develop category strategies, sourcing plans, procurement pipelines, and approaches that encourage competition and innovation.
• Support capability building and leadership, mentoring peers and junior staff, providing expert commercial guidance, and (where applicable) line managing a junior colleague and overseeing routine transactional contracts.

This role is available on a full time basis with the option of compressed hours working - subject to business needs.

There may be some travel to other offices for team meetings.