About the job

Summary

Building a strong Commercial Function in Government, and with it the right commercial capability, is at the heart of a far-reaching programme of Civil Service reform.

We are building a cadre of commercial talent in all Government departments; people who can manage our commercial portfolios, who can lead our most complex and novel programmes and projects, people who have the gravitas and depth of experience to work alongside our policy and operational leaders to develop innovative commercial arrangements, whether through joint ventures, outsourcing or best-in-class contracts.

The Government Commercial Organisation is an employer which is truly committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and are able to perform to their potential. We understand the importance of diversity and inclusion and strive for a workplace that reflects the communities which we serve. We especially welcome applications from underrepresented groups including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates, candidates with a disability and candidates with gender-diverse identities. Appointments will be made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.

We have already made significant progress through the establishment of the Government Commercial Organisation (GCO), our single employer of senior commercial talent across government. This role will sit within the GCO, but based in our MOD commercial team delivering departmental objectives.

Job description

The Commercial Director, Supply Chain represents an extraordinary opportunity for a leader with significant commercial capability to strengthen the defence capability for building and maintaining strong, vibrant, and sustainable supply chains.

You will lead the approach in close working with the other Commercial Directors and senior stakeholders. You will need a combination of strong leadership, excellent change management skills, self-motivation, personal resilience, and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

In this role you will be:

• Responsible for a supply chain resilience programme across the Defence Enterprise ensuring MOD has visibility of its critical supply chains and can identify and manage identified risks;


• Overseeing the Strategic Partnering Programme (SPP) with our top 19 suppliers, ensuring we have a view of key supplier performance across the department and agreed strategies with suppliers for improvement;


• A critical interface with the Defence Industry, managing key engagements and forums to ensure partnership working between Defence and its key strategic suppliers at all levels from large Primes through to Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s), establishing approaches and ways of working to work collaboratively to improve the overall health of the Industry;


• The thought leader on contract management and supplier relationship management across the department, ensuring we have fit for purpose programmes in this area;


• Establishing and maintaining comprehensive measurement of the supply chain element of the overall MOD Commercial Function;


• Coordinating and working with other Commercial Directors as part of the Commercial Board of Directors to ensure effective working across the function;


• Providing robust leadership to a diverse and geographically dispersed organisation;


• Operational supply chain leadership – this role takes oversight of the entire Defence supply chain and must interact with all the operational roles involved in delivering;


• Network creation and maintenance – the Director is the key interface with industry and relationships with Defence and as such will have a lot of Ministerial engagement;


• Work collaboratively with other commercial directors to uplift functional capability and deliver commercial change, including any functional transformation programmes;


• Operational leadership for circa 100 commercial colleagues.

You will also:

• Be amongst the most senior members of the Government Commercial Function and play a role in the broader commercial reform programme led by the Government Chief Commercial Officer;

• Play a key leadership and change management role in developing a strong commercial function for the Ministry of Defence and across Government.

Technical skills

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

• Experience of managing complex supply chains and developing supply chain and supplier relationship strategies to manage risk and resilience;
• Strong leadership experience working at Board level and with a broad range of Board-level stakeholders;
• Working as a collaborative member of a larger team in a matrix structure, driving organisational change and with a track record of uplifting capability and understanding what best in class looks like;
• Ability to influence effectively at Senior Level in private and public sector.