London, East Kilbride - You will be required to work from the location stated above in line with FCDO policies on Hybrid Working (minimum 60% in the office).

Job Summary

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office pursues our national interests and projects the UK’s role in the world. We promote the interests of British citizens, safeguard the UK’s security, defend our values, reduce poverty and tackle global challenges with our international partners. We employ more than 17,000 staff in 179 countries and territories, across our diplomatic and development offices worldwide, which consists of 282 officially designated Posts. Our UK-based staff work in King Charles Street, London, Abercrombie House in East Kilbride and in Milton Keynes.

FCDO Commercial is an award-winning department that is highly regarded across government for its Commercial expertise.

Job Description

In this role you will work across the end-to end procurement lifecycle, contributing to delivering commercial excellence for FCDO and providing a customer-focused service. The role is varied as you will be expected to work on all stages of the procurement process, from gathering requirements from across the business in line with market research, developing procurement strategies, design and management of the procurement process, through to the contract handover and also both contract and supplier management.

You will work independently and as part of a larger team by drawing on your commercial experience to drive performance and manage setbacks. You will be able to prioritise and manage your own workload to deliver to deadlines, mitigate and escalate any emerging risks and to respond swiftly to changing operational demands.

Roles And Responsibilities

We all have a responsibility to embrace the changes of the FCDO as it transforms, building the culture we want to see and delivering our cultural statement in how we lead and behave towards others; how we make decisions and how we get the job done is everyone’s responsibility.

The Successful Candidate Will Be

Leading on end-to-end sourcing activities for the department and serving as a subject matter expert with key stakeholders to develop a clear and agreed view of business and commercial requirements, including input to business case, route to market/sourcing models, tender documents through to evaluation and delivery of compliant goods and services contracts. Contributing to the maintenance and updating of systems throughout the procurement lifecycle. Provide Commercial expertise to support operational and commercial contract management activity, including contract variations and supplier negotiations.
Engaging, where required, with the relevant senior business lead, ensuring that business requirements are supported by category strategies.
Understanding the department’s commercial strategy and feeding into the planning process based on commercial approaches that deliver requirements in line with business needs, category strategies and market trends.
Providing leadership, support, advice and best practice, working collaboratively with others to create a proactive and intelligent function. Influencing and shaping future procurement policy and standards across the department whilst demonstrating ‘value for money’ and being accountable for sourcing compliance and frameworks.
Working within a cross-functional team across Commercial and Business stakeholders to deliver effective Category Management including developing and refreshing category strategies, capturing and managing sourcing data and market insights. Whilst also building stakeholder relationships and advising stakeholders on complex contract management and supplier issues to ensure successful delivery of requirements or suspending/terminating contracts where necessary.
Developing effective working relationships with supplier organisations to establish appropriate governance and relationship arrangements, ensuring the effective management of clarifications and change requests.

The FCDO also operates an agile workforce. To facilitate this, you may be required to undertake other duties from time to time as we may reasonably require.

Candidates who secure a role that is considered specialist/technical, may be required to affiliate to the relevant specialist network, if not already a member.

In this role you will work across the end-to end procurement lifecycle, contributing to delivering commercial excellence for FCDO and providing a customer-focused service. The role is varied as you will be expected to work on all stages of the procurement process, from gathering requirements from across the business in line with market research, developing procurement strategies, design and management of the procurement process, through to the contract handover and also both contract and supplier management.

You will work independently and as part of a larger team by drawing on your commercial experience to drive performance and manage setbacks. You will be able to prioritise and manage your own workload to deliver to deadlines, mitigate and escalate any emerging risks and to respond swiftly to changing operational demands.

The Successful Candidate Will Be

Leading on end-to-end sourcing activities for the department and serving as a subject matter expert with key stakeholders to develop a clear and agreed view of business and commercial requirements, including input to business case, route to market/sourcing models, tender documents through to evaluation and delivery of compliant goods and services contracts. Contributing to the maintenance and updating of systems throughout the procurement lifecycle. Provide Commercial expertise to support operational and commercial contract management activity, including contract variations and supplier negotiations.
Engaging, where required, with the relevant senior business lead, ensuring that business requirements are supported by category strategies.
Understanding the department’s commercial strategy and feeding into the planning process based on commercial approaches that deliver requirements in line with business needs, category strategies and market trends.
Providing leadership, support, advice and best practice, working collaboratively with others to create a proactive and intelligent function. Influencing and shaping future procurement policy and standards across the department whilst demonstrating ‘value for money’ and being accountable for sourcing compliance and frameworks.
Working within a cross-functional team across Commercial and Business stakeholders to deliver effective Category Management including developing and refreshing category strategies, capturing and managing sourcing data and market insights. Whilst also building stakeholder relationships and advising stakeholders on complex contract management and supplier issues to ensure successful delivery of requirements or suspending/terminating contracts where necessary.
Developing effective working relationships with supplier organisations to establish appropriate governance and relationship arrangements, ensuring the effective management of clarifications and change requests.

The FCDO also operates an agile workforce. To facilitate this, you may be required to undertake other duties from time to time as we may reasonably require.

Candidates who secure a role that is considered specialist/technical, may be required to affiliate to the relevant specialist network, if not already a member.

Person specification

You must be a British Citizen at the time of application and, if invited to interview, you will need to bring proof of identity (British Passport/Driving Licence etc.) with you.

This role requires you to attain Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance.

For more information about this process, click here. Attaining DV will require you to have been resident in the UK for five of the last ten years. At least one year of this must have been a consecutive twelve-month period. Serving overseas with HM Forces, in some other official capacity as a representative of His Majesty’s Government or having lived overseas as a result of your parents’ or partner’s Government employment counts as UK residency for the purposes of security clearances.

It is essential in your application that you provide evidence and proven examples in each of the following Minimum Criteria, the Behaviours and the Technical question as far as you are able to do so. These responses will be further developed and discussed with those candidates invited for interview.

Minimum Criteria

Experience in conducting the end-to-end procurement process across an area of responsibility taking into consideration the nature of what is being procured, complexity, value and strategic importance demonstrating strong commercial knowledge, understanding of commercial law and use of appropriate key commercial tools.
Good commercial awareness and strong analytical skills to perform commercial analysis on spend and market data, extract key insights, and deliver well-justified recommendations that support strategic decision-making and problem-solving.
Ability to work as part of a team to support performance, manage setbacks and resolve issues internally.
Ability to communicate with stakeholders at all levels using different communication styles to articulate the benefits that have been achieved and to establish governance and relationship arrangements.
Ability to manage internal governance and support risk controls (including cyber, personnel and physical risks) within your category, and apply standards that help tackle corruption, fraud and unethical behaviour in supply chains, taking appropriate action in the event of any alleged breach of standards.

Behaviours

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

Delivering at Pace
Communicating and Influencing
Working Together
Making Effective Decisions

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

Delivering at Pace

Alongside your salary of £46,000, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office contributes £13,326 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

A Civil Service Pension.
25 days Annual Leave per annum.
9 days Public and Privilege holidays per annum.
Learning and Development tailored to your role.

See the attached candidate pack.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Application Stage

This vacancy uses the Success Profiles Framework and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Please see the ‘Hints and Tips’ that are provided for your information about how to prepare Behaviour examples at the Application and Interview stage.

You will be required to complete the following as part of the online application:

A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). CVs will be assessed against the Minimum Criteria outlined in the Person Specification section above.
A Personal Statement of 500 words explaining how you consider your skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with specific reference to the Minimum Criteria. These responses will be explored further during the interview process for shortlisted candidates.

The Behaviour you will be assessed on at the application stage is:

Delivering at Pace (Lead Behaviour)

You will also be required to answer a role-specific question on:

Relevant knowledge/experience across the full procurement lifecycle

In the event of a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift by the lead Behaviour. For this campaign we will be prioritising Delivering at Pace. Only candidates who meet the minimum standard in this Behaviour will have the rest of their application fully assessed.

Interview Stage

At the start of your interview, you will be asked a non-assessed warm-up question about your motivation for applying for the role.

Candidates Will Be Required To Give a 5-minute Presentation At The Interview. The Topic Will Be Sent To You In Advance And Will Test The Following Job Specific Skill:

Knowledge/experience across the full procurement lifecycle.

The Behaviours you will be assessed on during the interview are as follows:

Delivering at Pace
Communicating & Influencing
Working Together
Making Effective Decisions

You will also be asked an Experience question at the interview which will be assessed.

IMPORTANT: If you are applying under the Disability Confident Scheme and require Reasonable Adjustments in order to complete your application, please ensure FCDO External Recruitment (External.Recruitment@fcdo.gov.uk) are aware of this on the date of application and certainly by the closing date.

Please note that the FCDO carries out name-blind (anonymised) recruitment to help build a more diverse and inclusive workforce. The personal information on your Application form and/or CV will be concealed during the sifting phase, and only the names of those who are being invited for Interviews will be made known to the Panel.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to FCDO 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

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems reading the Candidate Pack, such as through screen reader software, please contact our Team via fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk and we will share a Word version of this.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Applications must be factually accurate and should be your own work. If there is any evidence of plagiarism, including presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence (AI), as your own, your application will be withdrawn. The candidate’s guide to artificial intelligence in recruitment provides guidance on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in the application process.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

Open to UK nationals only.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

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

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact

Name : FCDO Recruitment Team
Email : fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

The FCDO’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the principle of selection for appointment on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should, in the first instance, contact External.Recruitment@fcdo.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the FCDO, you can contact the Office of the Civil Service Commissioners.

Commercial/Procurement Specialist, Security Pillar - Estates, Commercial Directorate

Job Type