Assistant Head, Army Commercial Contract Management

Job summary

We are recruiting for an Assistant Head, Contract Management for the first-generation outsourcing, Army Collective Training Service (ACTS) contract. Collective Training is a high profile, critical service for the Army and the contract is expected to be let early in 2026. The contract value will be around £2.5bn, over a contract duration of 15 years. ACTS will be an especially complex contract with many existing contracts and services due to transfer into it in the early years.

If you are looking for a challenging, fast paced role, where you can join right at the beginning of a new contract and play a key role in how Army receives an outstanding, value for money service, this could be the role for you!

Army Commercial is one of four Front Line Command teams, alongside Navy, Air and Cyber & Specialist Operations Command, responsible for working closely with the British Army to deliver innovative solutions to Defence requirements. We play an important role in supporting Defence by contracting for and managing a diverse portfolio of requirements. These range in value and complexity from long term commitments in specialist capability areas, to low value short term support contracts. We also contract for sales contracts generating income and supporting wider Defence engagement priorities.

The Army Contract Management team sits within the Army Commercial Team and is spread over several UK locations. The team are responsible for the commercial contract management of a wide-ranging portfolio of work. This ranges from several very high-value and complex contracts, to those of medium duration, value or complexity, and to lower value, shorter duration contracts.

You will also be a member of the Army Commercial Extended Leadership Team. This post provides an excellent opportunity to build on your existing skill set across a number of commercial disciplines and to raise your profile, with the support of the GCO to enable you to grow.

Job description

The role of Assistant Head, Contract Management is a key position within Army Commercial and will be the commercial lead for the management of the Army Collective Training Service (ACTS) contract, acting as the focal point for all contract management issues.

The requirement of the role is to deliver effective contract and supplier performance, while developing and sharing best practice and unlocking financial savings, benefits and / or performance improvements in the ACTS contract.

Key to achieving this will be the leadership, management and development of the brand new, ACTS Contract Management Team of four.

The role also includes working closely with the Army customer, in particular the Land Warfare Centre based in Warminster, and other stakeholders to understand their changing needs.

Please note that in the early years this role is planned to be responsible solely for the ACTS contract. However, over time the role may evolve to take on additional Army contracts and responsibilities.

Locations
The successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. When selecting your location listed in this job advert please be aware that this will be your contractual base location with a requirement to spend a minimum of 60% of your working time in this organisational workplace.

Your time spent on official duties at workplace locations other than your contractual office such as supplier, customer or partner locations required to perform your role is included in the 60% attendance.

This requirement will however take into consideration any reasonable adjustments agreed upon appointment for people with a disability, flexibilities agreed for those with specific caring responsibilities, or other similar temporary flexibilities.

Person specification

The successful candidate will:

• Manage contract and supplier performance, negotiating high value, strategic changes while ensuring value for money and compliance with policy
  
  
• Assess the continued delivery of value for money against the ACTS contract, including examining the demand model and benchmarking to unlock savings, benefits and performance improvements
  
  
• Develop excellent relationships with key supplier personnel and Army customers, working closely with them to address emerging issues and ensure that contract and benefit delivery is maintained
  
• Develop and improve commercial acumen across the non-commercial community involved in managing or supporting the ACTS contract
  
  
• Strategic Leadership and Resource Management - Align team operations and activities with strategic goals, ensuring prioritised resource allocation and effective performance management
  
• Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration - Build and maintain key relationships across the Army, MOD, and external partners to support delivery of commercial support
  
  
• Capability and Team Development - Drive professional (including qualification attainment) and personal development, capability enhancement across teams, investing in staff, addressing skills gaps and maintaining awareness of future needs and changing requirements
• Information and Data Management - Ensure that the team meet the required standards for recording information and data, and that all data reporting requirements (scheduled and ad hoc) are met
  
  
• Support the Commercial Functional Leadership objectives
  
  
• Work collaboratively with peers across the Commercial Function in the delivery of outputs, where required
  
  
• Team Contribution – take part in wider activities that form part of the overall objectives of the Army Commercial team.

Technical skills

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

• Ability to manage risk and reward mechanisms in contracts and key performance indicators and to develop commercial recommendations for customers
• Ability to effectively manage complexity, ambiguity and insufficient data when making high value and high-risk commercial decisions, escalating as may be required
• The ability to challenge senior stakeholder decisions and non-delivery of contract benefits, while operating under pressure and delivering multiple workstreams within agreed timescales
• The ability to actively develop and manage strategic relationships across suppliers, customers and other stakeholders to maximize contract outputs and benefits
• The ability to provide practical advice and strategic direction to customers. To evaluate whether a contract and supplier is delivering maximum output and benefits, to then identify where improvements are required and adopt appropriate strategies

Benefits

As a valued employee of the Government Commercial Organisation (GCO), you will have access to all the benefits the centre has to offer; including flexible working, generous benefits, Career Coaches, Mentors, L&D, a Commercial College, active talent management and, most importantly, access to commercial projects that will far exceed the scale and complexity on offer elsewhere in the UK.

For existing Civil Servants: For full details of the impact on any move across the civil service on your existing terms and conditions, please read the candidate pack. Please note that any move across the Civil Service may have implications on your ability to continue to claim childcare vouchers.

Kindly refer to the following link for the GCF Rewards and benefits page.

https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/gcf-benefits/

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

Your application will be reviewed by a panel and should you be successful at sift we will invite you to attend a Virtual commercial Assessment and Development Centre (VADC). The panel will review results of the VADC and determine which candidates will go through to a subsequent final panel interview.

Please be advised that the Virtual ADC is taking place on 5th February 2026 and will require a full day's attendance.

If you are invited to attend a virtual ADC, but for any reason are unable to meet the date outlined then please get in touch with the team on commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible. The ADC is booked and paid for in advance by departments, therefore it is only in certain circumstances we are able to accommodate alternative dates.

For full details of our process, and a likely timeline, please read the attached candidate pack.

Throughout our selection process, we will make decisions about your capability to do the job, based on evidence you provide against the Technical Skills (essential criteria) and your Job History (CV) that you will be asked to provide during the application process. Further help and advice on our application and selection process can be found at this web address https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/gcf-how-to-apply/

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/artificial-intelligence-and-recruitment/

IMPORTANT: If you do not receive an acknowledgement of your application within 2 working days please contact: commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Hayley Parfitt
• Email : commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should direct this to the Head of Commercial Resourcing Hub at the following email commercialresourcinghub@cabinetoffice.gov.uk quoting the vacancy reference number (if applicable) and the details of your complaint. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission via the following web page: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitm…

Attachments

Guaranteed Interview Schemes (GIS) Opens in new window (pdf, 70kB)429322 - Candidate Pack - MoD - Assistant Head, Army Commercial Contract Management Opens in new window (docx, 761kB)