Assistant Director - Commercial

Job summary

Can you lead MCA’s Commercial Strategy and Procurement Team delivering a high quality service for stakeholders?

Do you have experience delivering commercial strategies achieving value for money whilst mitigating risk?

Can you provide effective leadership acting with integrity, honesty and an inclusive mindset?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is seeking an Assistant Director of Commercial to join the Corporate Services. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) is an Executive Agency of the Department for Transport, providing multiple statutory functions as flag, port and coastal State and delivering international obligations for search and rescue, environmental protection and responding to major maritime incidents. The Procurement function is a key enabler for the Agency to ensure we can deliver against this remit.

As part of the Finance and Analysis directorate, the Procurement team is responsible for MCA’s Commercial Strategy and managing the procurement of goods and services for the Agency and ensuring that its c. £500m total budget is deployed in an efficient and value for money way.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at: MCA Homepage , Civil Service Careers

Job description

As the Assistant Director - Commercial you will report to the Director of Finance and Analysis, providing strategic focus and oversight of MCA’s commercial activity, ensuring the robustness of commercial decision making and value for money is obtained.

As a key member of the Senior Management Team within the Finance and Analysis Directorate, you will provide effective and inspiring leadership to the Procurement team, fostering a high performing culture through continuous improvement.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

1. Leading on MCA's Commercial Strategy, ensuring alignment with MCA objectives and financial plans, and the Government Commercial Function Strategy.
2. Leading MCA’s Procurement team and embedding a culture of continuous improvement and high performance to ensure the effectiveness of support and commercial advice.
3. Working closely with leads on MCA’s major projects and programmes, to ensure projects are developed and monitored with strong commercial focus.
4. Ensuring alignment with the Government Functional Standard for Commercial, including applicable guidance and playbooks.
5. Providing assurance to MCA’s Accounting Officer by ensuring compliance with procurement legislation.
6. Building and maintaining key relationships with senior stakeholders, in particular developing trust and rapport, to influence and challenge decision making.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Person specification

Required experience:

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience:

• Experience of developing and managing a Commercial Strategy and control framework.
• Experience of delivering innovative commercial strategies to achieve value for money while balancing risk.
• Evidence of managing complex commercial procedures including multistage negotiation, ensuring delivery of required outcomes while adhering to Government procurement policy and regulation.
• Experience of senior stakeholder management, with both senior management and external suppliers.
• Advanced knowledge of commercial skills and contract management techniques and methods across the full commercial lifecycle
• Knowledge of applicable UK Government commercial policies and requirements, including Public Contract Regulations and the Procurement Act 2023.

Additional Information

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

Whilst we welcome applications from those looking to work with us on a part time basis, there is a business requirement for the successful candidate to be able to work at least 22.5 hours per week.

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location/visiting stakeholders. Your designated workplace will be your contractual place of work. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

Occasional travel to other offices will be required, which may involve overnight stays.

If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that we will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. Therefore, this role is not open to applications from those who require sponsorship – candidates must ensure they have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service

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

• Leadership

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £69,501, Maritime and Coastguard Agency contributes £20,134 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

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