Commercial Lead, NCTP, up to £625/day

National Counter Terrorism Policing are seeking a Commercial Lead to join them in London.

Initial contracts will run for 6 months and offer a rate up to £625/day.

IR35 STATUS: Inside IR35. This engagement has been assessed by the public body as Inside IR35 legislation. Candidates would be required to operate through an umbrella company on this engagement.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 18/01/2021 at 15:00

This role requires Active SC (Security Check) clearance. Applicants require active SC clearance or the willingness to go through clearance before starting on site. Candidates with current clearance will be preferred. Candidates will need to undergo NPPV3 and STRAP clearance and therefore need to be eligible.

The Role and Background – Hiring Manager Summary

This role is an integral part of Commercial Services. In 2020, the MPS Commercial Function revised its operating model, establishing six Pillars which have overall accountability for activity covering the commercial life cycle, as well as relevant Business Partnering responsibilities across the wider business. This role sits within the Counter Terrorism Policing Pillar that is embedded with the Counter Terrorism Policing HQ.

In this role you will be expected to undertake Category Management, contributing to delivering Commercial Excellence for the Met, providing a customer focused service, understanding the business need and stakeholder drivers, with the aim of becoming a trusted commercial advisor. You will also develop relationships with MPS’s key and strategic suppliers, driving value for money and risk management excellence across the category. You will play an essential part in leading parts of the overall commercial life cycle. You will own key aspects of Category Management, including Strategy and Policy development, understanding needs and sourcing options, and the procurement process itself. You will feed into the wider Category Management team, working with a range of team members, internal and external stakeholders to drive improved commercial outcomes for MPS.

Main Responsibilities

• Strategic delivery and management within a category:
• Understanding MPS commercial strategy and feeding into planning based on commercial approaches that deliver requirements that are in line with business needs, category strategies and market trends
• Feeding into the development of category strategies and delivery of sourcing requirement within Commercial Services, as part of the team supporting business as usual and project activities
• Understanding demand by forecasting and planning requirements with internal stakeholders and suppliers
• Developing and maintaining category plans for key spend areas

• Understands relevant sourcing options and analysis, and delivers positive outcomes through the procurement process:
• Leading on end-to-end strategic sourcing activities for MPS and serving as a subject matter expert
• Working with key stakeholders to develop a clear and agreed view of business requirements, and supporting business units in articulating their commercial requirements
• Advising and providing professional guidance throughout the sourcing process, considering and evaluating a range of sourcing models o Leading development of commercial input into business cases, demonstrating a project's benefits, value for money and risk
• Influencing and shaping future procurement policy and standards across MPS
• Identifying opportunities to develop collaborative partnerships with suppliers
• Provides a procurement service to the MPS which delivers demonstrable value for money and compliant goods and services contracts as part of a team of procurement professionals on larger procurement activities, including driving productivity opportunities with existing supply base to deliver further savings
• Responsible for negotiation with 3rd parties where necessary, and has knowledge and experience relating to commercial negotiation techniques
• Understanding and being accountable for sourcing compliance and frameworks
• Ensuring effective Commercial Contract and Supplier Management within the category:
• Supporting in the contract management of Strategic contracts within relevant category
• Building and maintaining key relationships across the MPS and with important external stakeholders:
• Developing effective working relationships with supplier organisations to establish appropriate governance and relationship arrangements, ensuring the effective management of clarifications and change requests
• Provision of commercial advice to stakeholders on all aspects of commercial
• Engaging, where required, with the relevant senior business lead, ensuring that business requirements are supported by category strategies
• Internal stakeholder will include MPS colleagues who are users and buyers of the goods and services within the category, and relevant business units; MPS colleagues within Corporate Services (e.g. Finance, Legal); and Police Staff and Police Officer colleagues o External stakeholders will include MOPAC officers; Partner Agencies staff as required; and appropriate level supplier relationships
• Enabling and developing the MPS:
• Championing of procurement best practice and working with others to create a proactive and intelligent function
• Contributing to the maintenance and updating of systems throughout the procurement lifecycle
• Managing catalogues and commercial content, and may be responsible for owning key aspects of this
• Working with key stakeholders to promote the use of catalogues o Playing a role in building capability of new starters and those on development programmes (e.g. students)
• Mentoring and providing guidance to junior members of the team
• Working within a secure environment upon sensitive projects as required

Essential Skills and Experience

• Demonstrates strategic thinking, able to identify a vision along with the plans that need to be implemented to achieve the end goal
• Extensive Category Management experience and knowledge
• Ability to lead negotiations with suppliers, develop negotiation plans and strategies
• Excellent understanding of sourcing and procurement methodologies, as well as relevant Public Sector processes, policy and governance
• Highly effective communicator who can work with a range of senior stakeholders and managers
• Ability to change and adapt in order to work effectively in a variety of situations
• Ability to understand and appreciate different and opposing perspectives
• Ability to present sound and well-reasoned arguments to convince others. You can draw from a range of strategies to persuade people in a way that results in agreement or behaviour change
• Ability to prioritise and manage own workload whilst balancing both operationally urgent and important tasks to deliver to deadlines
• A good level of understanding across category discipline
• Excellent written & oral communication and interpersonal skill
• Excellent time management and delegation skills
• Excellent report writing skills
• Team management

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Ability to understand commercial imperatives and trading relationship
• A successful career in procurement with typically 4 + years category management experience with demonstrable achievements centred of best value and efficiency via leading edge category solutions
• A comprehensive understanding EU Procurement Legislation (Public Contract Regulations and Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations
• Demonstrable ability of using MI from systems to inform decision making and deliver optimum commercial solutions
• Experience of working at senior levels with internal and external stakeholders
• Ideally MCIPS/ IACCM or equivalent qualification or working towards
• Already have passed the GCF ADC at Commercial Lead (CL) level.

Candidate Eligibility

Candidates must be eligible to work in the UK, this role will not offer Visa sponsorship. Tier 2 – General visas are cannot be accepted. This role requires that candidates be willing to undergo BPSS (DS) Baseline Personnel Security Standard (with a Disclosure Scotland).

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