The client is looking to recruit a Commercial Manager for a 12 month temporary contract, which is a home based assignment. The client is based in London. The successful candidate will have a valid DBS. Please Note; This assignment sits inside of IR35.

A number of exciting opportunities exist for ambitious construction commercial management professionals to join the New Prison Capacity Programme with the public sector client.

The New Prison Capacity Commercial Team is part of the larger clients Commercial and Contract Management Directorate, which employs over 200 commercial professionals managing over £4bn of contracted spend per annum across an impressive breadth of categories. The wider team is responsible for unique justice contracts such as prisoner escort services, electronic tagging and probation, whilst also providing services to maintain the wider department such as IT, uniforms, prison food and construction. Being part of a larger commercial team provides great opportunities for sharing best practice in addition to future career development opportunities.

These roles support the Commercial Lead with a range of pre and post-contract activity to deliver 18,000 new prison places, working across all stages of the contracting cycle across a large and diverse site portfolio, often undertaken in challenging operational environments.

Successful candidates can expect to work across an exciting portfolio of sites and construction contracts. There are both pre and post-contract roles available, each posing its unique set of commercial challenges and opportunities. Training/support

The public sector client has one of the largest and most complex estates within Central Government with 150 prisons. Following the Government’s commitment to put another 20,000 police on the streets, the 2020 Spending Review confirmed £4bn funding to create another 18,000 prison places. The New Prison Capacity Programme is responsible for delivering circa 3,500 of these places through the construction of HMP Five Wells and a new prison at Glen Parva which are in-progress. A further 13,000 places will be delivered over the next six years in the form of a prison at Full Sutton and three other new builds as well as the addition of house-blocks and refurbishment to existing estate.

This is an exciting programme and forms a key element of Government’s infrastructure strategy. In order to deliver these places, the team make use of a number of frameworks and contract forms including NEC3, NEC4 and PPC2000. Typical contract values range from £1m-£300m. The team is supported by a range of professional service providers.

Essential:

• A proven track record working in the infrastructure/construction or property environment
• Relevant contract, sourcing and commercial management experience with a solid understanding of procurement and/or contract management processes
• The ability to successfully influence senior internal and external stakeholders
• Excellent communication skills
• Demonstrable success working as both part of a team and independently (remote-working)

Desirable:

• Use of NEC3/NEC4 or PPC2000 forms of contract
• Client-side experience
• Regulated (Procurement Regs, OJEU) experience
• Experience working with projects of a similar scale and complexity (c.£20m schemes as a minimum)
• Life cycle experience; pre-contract strategy, managing procurement, post-contract experience (if possible)
• Good working knowledge and experience of Procurement systems (e.g. Oracle and/or Bravo) and file management systems (e.g. 4Projects)

Commercial Responsibilities: 
• Post-contract award administration of a range of construction and professional service contracts, including developing and managing variations/change control and other contract mechanisms.
• Support Senior Commercial Manager and where within experience provide commercial advice and support to relevant Stakeholders in developing procurement strategy.
• Analysis and Issue resolution – make effective decisions and risk mitigation, escalating to Senior Commercial Manager where necessary. Drive continuous improvement of processes.
• Management of procurement process for Projects that deliver value for money solutions
• Preparing tender documents; including the development of payment, performance, incentive mechanisms;
• Tender period management;
• Tender evaluation and price analysis;
• Development of award recommendations and management of governance;
• Support negotiations with suppliers to vary or change contracts, obtaining and managing input for operational colleagues and others as directed
• Comply with all Departmental controls relating to commercial practice and otherwise, including strict adherence to their delegated authorities, governance, legislation and policy as appropriate
• Support the operational project sponsors to deliver and maintain their procurement pipeline
• Use electronic sourcing and management systems appropriately to ensure all commercial decisions are evidenced
• Leading conflict and issue resolution with suppliers and stakeholders, seeking support from the Senior Commercial Manager where appropriate
• Managing sensitive information in a confidential manner.

Collaboration:

• Develop and maintain positive relationships with relevant stakeholders, e.g. estates, operations and finance.
• Proactively work with service providers to develop innovative commercial solutions and value -added proposals.

Essential:

• A proven track record working in the infrastructure/construction or property environment
• Relevant contract, sourcing and commercial management experience with a solid understanding of procurement and/or contract management processes
• The ability to successfully influence senior internal and external stakeholders
• Excellent communication skills
• Demonstrable success working as both part of a team and independently (remote-working)

Desirable:

• Use of NEC3/NEC4 or PPC2000 forms of contract
• Client-side experience
• Regulated (Procurement Regs, OJEU) experience
• Experience working with projects of a similar scale and complexity (c.£20m schemes as a minimum)
• Life cycle experience; pre-contract strategy, managing procurement, post-contract experience (if possible)
• Good working knowledge and experience of Procurement systems (e.g. Oracle and/or Bravo) and file management systems (e.g. 4Projects)

Qualifications:

For all roles, candidates must have one of the below essential criteria:
• Member of the relevant professional body, e.g. RICS, CIBSE, BIFM, CIPS, IACCM;
• Relevant degree, such as in surveying, engineering, law, finance or MBA;
• Relevant industry experience.