Digital and CTO Commercial Officer

On behalf of The Home Office, we are looking for Digital and CTO Commercial Officers (Inside IR35) for a 6 months contract. This is a hybrid working role (3 days per week office based - London, Croydon, Manchester or Liverpool). The first duty of Government is to protect the public. Since 1782, the Home Office has led work to keep the country safe from those who seek to do it harm; in doing so, we make a vital contribution to HM Government’s plan for a stronger, fairer, outward-looking and united Britain. The Home Office covers three systems Homeland Security, Public Safety and Borders, and Immigration and Citizenship. These systems work collaboratively to deliver our cross-cutting priorities, whilst providing increasingly efficient and secure services for the public. These are difficult areas that can rapidly change in the global environment we work in – this makes us one of the most exciting and stimulating government departments in which to work. Job Purpose: We are seeking an experienced Commercial Officers to support two critical areas: Enablers, which provide common services across the Home Office, and Enterprise Services (ES), which deliver essential IT services. Both areas have major contracts approaching expiry, requiring re-procurement and ongoing commercial support for business-as-usual (BAU) services. This is a unique opportunity to lead complex procurement and contract management activities that underpin vital Home Office operations. SC Clearance is an essential requirement for this role, as a minimum you must be eligible and willing to undergo these checks. Please note, due to the exceptional requirements of this position (short-term nature of this role and speed at which we require a postholder in situ) preference may be given to candidates who meet all of the essential criteria and hold active security clearance.  As a Digital and CTO Commercial Officer your main responsibilities will be to: Market Engagement: Plan and execute engagement strategies, identify required documentation and authors, provide recommendations, and liaise with suppliers under CCS frameworks. Procurement: Develop and manage documentation for Invitations to Tender, commercial approvals, contract awards, and contract management. Contract Management: Provide expert commercial advice, guidance, and escalation support for BAU contracts. Essential: Experience of leading the procurement, through re-opened competition, call-off contracts for Information Technology (IT) from Crown Commercial Service (CCS) framework agreements, as part of a multi-disciplinary team within a project or programme that is governed by one or more Boards Experience of working in multi-disciplinary Buyer teams on market engagement that involved: persuading stakeholders and team colleagues of the value of market engagement, factoring in their reasonable observations and feeding back how market engagement had been adapted. Identifying compliant opportunities to identify the team’s key information requirements from the market and the team’s key messages for the market through, as appropriate: development and application of questionnaires, with review of responses and identification of related actions; iterative sharing of draft documentation; running broadcast events and one-to-one events; and / or other means of market engagement. Experience of involving the incumbent in market engagement in a way that recognises the incumbent’s possible role as a bidder but also mitigates the risk that the incumbent is seen to have a material unfair advantage over other potential bidders. Experience of working with a legal advisor to understand and mitigate risks and issues relating to procurement regulations Experience of working with the incumbent and a legal advisor to obtain information that can be shared with potential bidders to help them to assess TUPE risk Skill in persuading stakeholders and team colleagues to acknowledge and accommodate commercial perspective in writing, though informal discussion and by attending Board meetings, achieved by using language stakeholders and team colleagues understand in respect of risks and issues pertaining to time, quality, cost, governance and compliance Desirable: CIPS or MCIPS qualification.