We recognise the challenges that people with (multiple) protected characteristics may experience on the job market and in their career progression. We are fully committed to being an inclusive employer and ensuring equal opportunities. We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as possible, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including ethnic minorities, people with a disability, and people with gender diverse identities.
The Strategic Road Network (SRN) is one of the most critical pieces of national infrastructure connecting people and places. Nearly all of us are users of the SRN. The government has invested £27bn in the second Roads Investment Strategy (RIS) and plans are underway for RIS3.
The Roads and Project Infrastructure Delivery (RAPID) directorate client and sponsor the work undertaken by National Highways (NH) on behalf of the Department for Transport, including:
* Specifying the outputs to be delivered,
* Overseeing efficient delivery,
* Monitoring safe operations and,
* Ensuring that wider government missions and goals are delivered through the investment.
The Head of Commercial Sponsorship within RAPID is to protect the Secretary of State’s commercial interests in the RIS and allied commercial interests. This includes a vital role in government and delivering DfT’s assurance and governance for commercial matters, including sponsoring the development and delivery of NH Tier 1 projects procurement, and ensuring that multi-million pound contracts are procured and managed effectively.
The role reports to the Deputy Director managing the Tier 1 Project Sponsorship Division and includes line management of a small team. Effective engagement with RAPID Project Sponsors and NH Project Sponsors, Cabinet Office Commercial Business Partners, as well as DfT commercial, property, finance, analyst and legal colleagues, is vital for success in the role.
This role covers an exciting range of commercial activity and will provide invaluable experience to apply and improve commercial and project delivery skills.
Areas of responsibility include:
Contract Management: Leading the team to provide oversight and commercial and contract management of the M25 DBFO and M6 Toll contracts, as well as overall responsibility for the procurement and management of consultancy and legal contracts. This includes strategic and tactical interventions to enable delivery and prevent breach of obligations by either the Department or its contracting counterparts. It also includes the preparation, review and clearance of ministerial submissions and correspondence responses.
Tier 1 Projects: Providing scrutiny of the commercial aspects of projects in development and delivery stages and engaging with Project Sponsors in RAPID and NH as necessary and helpful. This will involve attendance at governance forums, and business case, commercial and procurement strategy reviews, to maintain positive collaboration between DfT and NH while maintaining appropriate check and challenge.
Tier 1 Procurements: Engaging with NH and DfT commercial colleagues to provide check and challenge to NH procurement plans and provide support and engagement through DfT’s governance process plus cascading the NH pipeline of work within RAPID to ensure appropriate engagement. The activities and requirements are similar to Tier 1 projects related work but the governance pathway is slightly different. This involves drafting elements of investment papers and Cabinet Office and HMT engagement.
RIS 3 planning: Input with a commercial lens to the wider RAPID team’s preparation for the next regulatory period and responsibility for appropriate delegations in the RIS plus inclusions in the NH Protocol, Licence and Framework Agreement documents, as applicable.
Team: Lead, manage and nurture the commercial team, managing workload pressures and demands, creating a positive culture of continuous improvement and learning and development to enable team success.
Capability: Support the upskilling of Commercial and Project Sponsors on sponsorship and commercial matters by knowledge sharing, development of commercial guidance, coaching and mentoring.
Please view the attached Role Profile for an in depth view of the post.
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About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .