Guidance

Commercial Strategy - Associate Commercial Specialist

Published 8 July 2024

Job Pillar
搁辞濒别听颁辞尘辫辞苍别苍迟
STRATEGY AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT
Commercial Strategy
Commercial Professional Level Associate Commercial Specialist
(Grade 6 equivalent)
Role Summary In this role you will promote the delivery of commercial excellence through the planning, development and management of commercial strategies for your department as well as contributing to the development and implementation of business unit strategies. 听

You will lead a team, building their confidence and commercial capability to drive performance and manage setbacks. The role will also require you to use your commercial expertise to identify opportunities for improvement and implement these changes at a local level by working with affected parties to identify and overcome challenges.
Key Responsibilities Typically, the key responsibilities in this role will include (but are not limited to):

鈼徧鼶eveloping and maintaining business unit strategies
鈼徧鼶evising suitable commercial strategies for complex, high value procurements and contracts
鈼徧齅anaging, developing and maintaining commercial strategies and creating and implementing agreed sourcing plans
鈼徧鼴uilding strong relationships with senior stakeholders to include senior officials and ministers across various functions
鈼徧齇verseeing and collating data and information required to inform the development of commercial strategies
鈼徧鼸nsuring relevant issues are fed into strategy and big picture considerations
鈼徧齀dentifying, tracking and escalating the need for a third party provision in your area of responsibility in order to prioritise and manage contracts in the pipeline
鈼徧鼳pplying an understanding of the importance of prime contractors in managing and assuring their own supply chain in particular security of supply and contingencies
鈼徧鼵onsidering the long-term resilience of supply chains and taking opportunities to mitigate the risks and develop opportunities
鈼徧齀dentifying routes to market, conducting early market engagement and undertaking a proportional delivery model assessment
鈼徧鼳pplying strong negotiation skills
鈼徧鼸stablishing dialogue/negotiation strategies with clear parameters
鈼徧齋eeking to maximise benefits for the project through effectively executing the commercial strategy
鈼徧齋ecuring and acting on insights into customers, citizens, services, communities and markets affected by their area and the wider public sector context
Essential Criteria Strategy and Policy Development:
鈼徧鼿as practical experience in implementing government and department commercial policies across a range of different delivery models
鈼徧鼿as expertise in the development and implementation of business unit strategies through supply chain management and has the ability to challenge risk averse behaviours where appropriate
鈼徧鼿as experience in developing resource and implementation plans in line with policy objectives and has the ability to expertly apply procurement rules

Commercial Focus:
鈼徧鼿as a strong practical understanding of market and commercial drivers as well as contract law
鈼徧鼶emonstrates the ability to draw conclusions from a wide range of complex data from different sources
鈼徧鼿as a practical understanding of the concept of 鈥榲alue for money鈥� and can articulate what a successful return on investment looks like for a particular project/programme

Risk and Assurance Management:
鈼徧鼶emonstrates the ability to take calculated risks in an area of responsibility in order to implement efficient and innovative solutions
鈼徧鼶emonstrates the ability to conduct analysis of options, risks and margins of error to provide assurance on decisions and manage subsequent trade-offs

Commercial Ethics:
鈼徧鼳bility to influence stakeholders to take active steps to eliminate corruption, fraud and unethical behaviour in supply chains, taking appropriate actions in the event of any alleged breach of standards

Team Management:
鈼徧鼶emonstrates the ability to manage a team, understands their commercial capability and where they have development gaps and can build their confidence to deal with setbacks
鈼徧鼿as an understanding of the cumulative impact of implementing change in their business area to include: culture, structure, service and morale

Build Relationships:
鈼徧鼶emonstrates strong stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to show resilience in interactions with suppliers in order to defend the department鈥檚 position
鈼徧鼶emonstrates the ability to present technical issues to senior stakeholders in order to help them arrive at decisions by acting in an advisory capacity
Civil Service Behaviours Ability to show examples across all of the following behaviours for level 4 of the :

Seeing the Big Picture:
鈼徧鼶evelop and maintain an understanding of economic, social, political, environmental and technological developments to ensure activity is relevant. Ensure plans and activities in your area of work reflect wider strategic priorities and communicate effectively with senior leaders to influence future strategies. Adopt a governmentwide perspective to ensure alignment of activity and policy. Bring together views, perspectives and diverse needs of stakeholders to gain a broader understanding of the issues surrounding policies and activities

Making Effective Decisions:
鈼徧鼵larify your own understanding and stakeholder needs and expectations, before making decisions. Ensure decision making happens at the right level, not allowing unnecessary bureaucracy to hinder delivery. Encourage both innovative suggestions and challenge from others, to inform decision making. Analyse and accurately interpret data from various sources to support decisions. Find the best option by identifying positives, negatives, risks and implications. Present reasonable conclusions from a wide range of complex and sometimes incomplete evidence. Make decisions confidently even when details are unclear or if they prove to be unpopular.

Developing Self and Others:
鈼徧齈rioritise and role-model continuous self-learning and development. Identify areas individuals and teams need to develop in order to achieve future objectives. Support colleagues to take responsibility for their own learning and development. Ensure that development opportunities are available for all individuals regardless of their background or desire to achieve promotion. Ensure individuals take full advantage of learning and development opportunities available to them, including workplace based learning. Encourage discussions within and between teams to learn from each other鈥檚 experiences and change organisational plans and processes accordingly

Leadership:
鈼徧齈romote diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity, respecting difference and external experience. Welcome and respond to views and challenges from others, despite any conflicting pressures to ignore or give in to them. Stand by, promote or defend own and team鈥檚 actions and decisions where needed. Seek out shared interests beyond own area of responsibility, understanding the extent of the impact actions have on the organisation. Inspire and motivate teams to be fully engaged in their work and dedicated to their role
Department Context To enhance the generic commercial role profile, additional information can be added by a department to outline the specific nature of the role. This may include:

鈼徧鼳n additional short paragraph in the role summary
鈼徧鼳dditional key responsibilities based on the department context
鈼徧鼴espoke essential skills/experience required for the role