Locations available: Manchester, Liverpool, Telford for this role.

HMRC are delighted to have an opening to recruit an Interim Associate Commercial Specialist, within the Commercial directorate to lead the Digital Service and Testing Applications procurement team. The role, reporting to the Deputy Commercial Director for IT, is to lead a procurement team of 6 commercial professionals, responsible for the commercial strategy, implementation, and ongoing procurement of over £200m per year of testing and automation technology to support HMRC’s tax platforms. These procurements, range from highly complex and mission critical services to transactional procurements. You will be responsible for the development of the core team and be a leader to support the development of HMRC’s commercial function. You will develop the skills of the team, lead the procurement and sourcing activity and refresh the category strategy. Your stakeholders are the directors in the IT Division - CDIO

HMRC’s commercial team of 250 people, is split across the lifecycle of commercial: Category Management and Sourcing, Contract Management and Strategic sourcing. This role is within the pre award team or IT Applications, in the Category management and sourcing section of the directorate. It is one of 4 pre award teams, the others being IT Infrastructure, People and Professional Services and Corporate Services.

The IT Applications team (CIPS finalists in 2024) is split into 3 key areas, Customer Engagement technology, Digital, Service and Testing applications and Core business Applications and Innovation. This team of 24 is supported by 3rd party and internal HMRC support for key programmes.

If you want to support one of the most complex Government departments, delivering transformational technology change through your commercial expertise, to deliver the UK’s Government missions, we would be delighted to talk to you.

Reporting to a Commercial Deputy Director, you will lead a portfolio of IT Applications commercial specialists with a team of 6 sourcing specialists, consisting of a 2x Commercial Leads, 2 Senior Executive officers and 1 Higher and 1 Executive Officer.

You will be accountable for the overall category strategy ensuring that it delivers innovative, competitive, and compliant commercial outcomes that are aligned to HMRC objectives and maximise value for money.

You will also develop highly effective and trusted relationships with key senior internal and external stakeholders, most specifically in HMRC’s CDIO technology Division. As part of the Extended Senior Leadership Team, you will be responsible for providing leadership to your Category Team and wider Commercial Directorate, whilst taking a proactive approach in talent development within your area of responsibility and beyond.

Role responsibilities include:

· Lead and provide direction for an overall category plan and future requirements, in-conjunction with key stakeholders across all functions, overseeing the procurement process across the category scope.

· Develop and maintain strategic stakeholder relationships across relevant business areas providing focused commercial and category advice.
· Using commercial acumen and extensive category knowledge, influence business needs, organisational objectives, and policy, ensuring market and sector intelligence is maximised and emerging and/or innovative solutions and suppliers are considered for all commercial activities.

· Using and well-established pipeline, proactively identify opportunities across micro and macro environments, which are then to drive improved value through innovative solutions.

Working collaboratively with the business customer, as a business partner and with our colleagues in Commercial Contract Management to provide a seamless strategic commercial service that includes analysis to support make or buy decisions, market engagement/ development and delivery of the competitive processes used to select/ appoint suppliers and award contracts for all goods and services.

Person Specification

MCIPS or equivalent professional experience.

Driving and leading delivery of the Category Strategy, you will have end-to-end.

multiple category lifecycle experience within complex business environments.

Develop specialist category knowledge of market, suppliers, commercial models and value levers as well as responsibility for ensuring procurements comply with HMG & HMRC policies and regulations. · Demonstrate strong team leadership, stakeholder relationship management, risk management and planning skills. · Responsible for overseeing the procurement process in relation to the category including Category specific pre-market engagement.

Essential Criteria

The ability to work in a complex stakeholder commercial environment, and to be a trusted business advisor and partner.

Ability to balance commercial risks and opportunities and to understand margins of error in developing recommendations for Customers and/or key stakeholders.

Experience of having had a leading role in complex commercial activities, with demonstrable experience across the commercial lifecycle.

Experience in driving commercial strategies to deliver significant up skill and commercial benefit for an organisation.

The ability to challenge senior stakeholder decisions, work under pressure, and deliver multiple projects within agreed timescales.

Experience in the development of strategies for high value/risk, critical/complex procurements and playing a leading role in the implementation and end to end delivery of these.