Senior Commercial Manager

Job summary

Please be aware that this recruitment campaign is being managed by our recruitment partners, Michael Page.

As part of the NCA’s Commercial Function, you will play a pivotal role in supporting the Agency’s mission to protect the public from serious and organised crime. Working at the centre of the organisation, you will partner with operational and corporate teams to provide high‑quality commercial expertise across policy development, strategic planning, sourcing, and contract management.

These roles sit within the NCA’s multi‑year commercial transformation programme, offering a rare opportunity to shape how the Agency procures critical goods and services that enable frontline operations. You will gain significant exposure to complex commercial activity, high‑value portfolios, and senior stakeholders - experience that is difficult to match elsewhere in the Civil Service.

Please note that the role may involve occasional travel to other NCA sites and partner locations.

Job description

As a Senior Commercial Manager, you will provide strategic commercial leadership across the full procurement and contract management lifecycle. You will shape and deliver robust commercial strategies, ensure compliance with government procurement regulations, and drive value for money through effective market engagement, sourcing, negotiation and supplier management.

You will lead complex, high‑risk and high‑value procurements, oversee critical commercial activity across your portfolio, and provide expert guidance to commercial colleagues. Working closely with senior stakeholders, you will influence commercial decisions, manage competing priorities, and ensure commercial outcomes support organisational objectives.

This role requires exceptional commercial judgement, strong leadership, and the ability to navigate ambiguity while maintaining a high‑quality, compliant and strategically aligned commercial service.

Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Commercial Leadership

• Lead the development and delivery of strategic commercial approaches across your portfolio, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities and government commercial policy.
• Provide authoritative commercial advice to senior stakeholders, influencing strategic decisions and shaping commercial direction at programme and organisational level.
• Identify opportunities to improve commercial outcomes, strengthen competition, and deliver sustainable value for money across high‑value and high‑risk procurements.

Procurement Delivery & Governance

• Oversee complex, high‑risk and high‑value procurements, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory frameworks and delivering high‑quality commercial documentation and recommendations.
• Lead key stages of the sourcing process, including market engagement, commercial modelling, negotiation strategies, and the development of robust governance cases.
• Ensure commercial activity is subject to appropriate assurance and is delivered to a consistently high standard across the team.

Contract & Supplier Management

• Provide senior‑level oversight of major contracts, ensuring effective performance management, risk control, financial monitoring and delivery against agreed outcomes.
• Lead strategic supplier engagement, supporting the development of effective partnerships, resolving complex commercial issues, and identifying opportunities for optimisation and innovation.
• Ensure that contract management practices are compliant, proactive and consistently applied across the portfolio.

Stakeholder Management & Customer Engagement

• Build strong, trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, programme leads and delivery partners, ensuring commercial considerations inform strategic and operational decisions.
• Communicate complex commercial issues clearly, providing balanced, evidence‑based advice to support informed decision‑making.
• Manage competing priorities across multiple programmes, balancing commercial, financial, operational and legal considerations.

Commercial Capability & Team Leadership

• Provide leadership, coaching and oversight to commercial colleagues, supporting capability development across the function.
• Champion best practice in procurement and contract management, actively driving improvements in processes, standards and commercial governance.
• Act as a role model for professional commercial behaviours, fostering a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration and high‑quality service delivery.

Person specification

The below expected skills and behaviours are aligned to the Government Commercial Function (GCF) People Standards for the Profession - People standards for the commercial profession - GOV.UK

Stakeholder Management

• Builds strong, credible relationships with senior stakeholders, communicating with clarity, confidence and impact.
• Clearly articulates commercial motivations, constraints and expected behaviours across stakeholder groups, suppliers and delivery partners.
• Engages the right stakeholders early in the process, maintaining constructive engagement and alignment throughout commercial activity.
• Explains complex commercial, technical or market issues to non‑specialists in a clear and accessible way, ensuring understanding, buy‑in and commitment to commercial plans.
• Promotes and enforces high ethical standards across supply chains, actively addressing risks of fraud, corruption or unethical behaviour and taking appropriate action where concerns arise.
• Is a trusted source of commercial advice, able to influence senior decision‑makers using evidence‑based reasoning.

Commercial Experience

• Proven experience leading complex and high‑value procurements, applying strong commercial judgement and delivering high‑quality outcomes.
• Demonstrable experience of category management, including developing category strategies, analysing markets and identifying opportunities for improved value and performance.
• Strong track record of managing teams or leading others in delivering commercial activity, providing oversight, direction and expert challenge.
• Identifies and resolves commercial issues even when data is incomplete or ambiguous, using professional judgement and structured analysis.
• Understands and balances key trade‑offs across cost, risk, performance, delivery confidence and operational need.
• Leads commercial activity that secures demonstrable value for money through effective competition, negotiation, contract management and supplier collaboration.

Business Acumen

• Applies commercial principles confidently within public procurement and contract law, understanding the legal context for decisions and actions.
• Identifies legal or compliance implications in commercial activity and works effectively with legal and policy experts to address complex issues.
• Understands commercial drivers, category‑specific markets and broader organisational priorities, ensuring commercial strategies are well‑aligned.
• Brings a flexible mindset and skillset, able to work effectively across any Commercial team at this grade, adapting quickly to new subject matter and priorities.

Risk Management

• Analyses commercial and contract risks comprehensively, understanding assumptions, margins of error a