Assistant Head of Commercial, Scrutiny and Data – Defence Nuclear Organisation

Job summary

Welcome message from Rob Holland, Interim Head of DNE Commercial Function

This is an important time to join the Defence Nuclear Organisation (DNO) within the Ministry of Defence (MOD). You will be at the heart of critical defence issues, delivering against one of the Department’s top priorities.

Established in 2016, the DNO oversees all nuclear activity across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE), working with partners including the Royal Navy, Submarine Delivery Agency, UK Strategic Command, Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), and key industry suppliers such as BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Babcock.

An opportunity to work in DNO Commercial has arisen to lead the Scrutiny and Data capability of the DNE Commercial Portfolio. This will include leading on procurements, robustly managing contracts, and developing business cases to support the development of the nuclear warhead and submarines as well as developing data governance tools and commercial scrutiny enablement to ensure commercial strategies deliver for the public good. The candidate will need to demonstrate strong internal and external stakeholder management skills, excellent negotiation skills, and be capable of motivating a small but agile team of commercial professionals focused on both procurement and commercial acquisition transactions. Successful candidates will access opportunities for commercial and professional development within the Defence Nuclear Enterprise.

The role will be based across our sites in London, Bristol and Reading with attendance in office up to 3 days/week. The post will require travel between the sites (London, Bristol, and Reading), and, with notice, some wider UK and international travel.

This position will require individuals to hold DV or be willing to undergo the process of obtaining it before an appointment is made.

Job description

DNO Commercial is a dynamic and talented team working at the heart of maintaining the Continuous At Sea Deterrent (CASD) which deals with complex market forces and monitors the supply chain fragility of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE).

We conduct every part of the commercial lifecycle from identifying complex requirements to procuring sensitive material to managing billion-pound contracts and Category A programmes – the work we undertake is at a highly classified level. Throughout our work we manage a wide range of stakeholders with partners across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise ranging from the Submarine Delivery Group (SDG) to the Royal Navy, Babcock, BAE, Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) and Sheffield Forgemasters. We operate with an annual budget of circa. £10BN, working at the heart of government and protecting the UK’s most sensitive national security capabilities.

As a general commercial senior leader, the candidate is expected to operate across DNO Commercial, providing commercial advice to stakeholders, building relationships with delivery organisations and protecting the nuclear supply chain.

You will be an Assistant Head of Commercial, responsible for leading commercial assurance activity across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise, working closely with our Delivery Partners (AWE & SDG) and driving continuous improvement in their commercial capability.

You will lead a team of commercial professionals to provide strategic oversight, commercial assurance and evidence based commercial advice across the multi-billion-pound Defence Nuclear Enterprise portfolio, to assure commercial best practices are being applied, mitigating commercial risk and enable delivery of best value outcomes.

This role has significant strategic exposure, including regular briefings to the most senior leaders in the DNE.

You will be responsible for driving continuous commercial improvement within the DNE Commercial team, collaborating with AWE and SDG to upskill commercial capability across the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) through sharing of best practice.

You will lead relationship and engagement with AWE Supply Chain team, developing DNO and AWE commercial relationships with commercial colleagues across MOD and wider Government with particular focus on leveraging the commercial benefits of AWE’s transition to a Non-Departmental Public Body

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:

• Lead commercial assurance and scrutiny of Defence Nuclear Enterprise portfolio, primarily Atomic Weapons Establishment and Submarine Delivery Group, providing briefings with strategic commercial advice and recommendations to senior stakeholders and Defence Nuclear Enterprise / MOD governance boards.
• Grow and evolve the team’s approach to commercial assurance, working with key internal and external stakeholders to suggest and implement improvements to processes and controls and maintaining strong working relationships
• Maintaining a ‘live’ pipeline of Defence Nuclear Enterprise procurement / commercial activity to review investment approvals, sourcing strategies and contract award requests.
• Providing commercial advice across the whole commercial lifecycle, from make vs. buy decisions to dispute resolution. Provide expert leadership on commercial risk management, developing and delivering mitigation strategies at programme and corporate level.
• Developing an expert Contract Management capability within DNO and across Defence Nuclear Enterprise to strengthen and improve delivery performance on key nuclear contracts across the portfolio.
• Build commercial capability across the DNE Commercial function, in partnership with the Atomic Weapons Establishment.
• Drive continuous improvement across DNE Commercial, embedding and completing continuous improvement plans in support of Commercial Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework (CCIAF), developing effective tools, templates and processes and sharing best practice across the team to improve commercial capability
• Demonstrate working knowledge of Single Source Contracting Regulations and Intellectual Property Rights, and the Procurement Act 2023.
• Work across Government to foster and maintain positive working relationships with Other Government Departments, the rest of Ministry of Defence and its delivery partners
• Responsibility for ensuring DNE Commercial is aligned with and contributing to the priorities and policies of MoD Commercial and the Government Commercial Function
• Team leadership alongside senior leadership team for circa. 30 commercial professionals, at the heart of embedding change across the team. Responsible for leading a team of 6 people with a focus on coaching and professional development.
• Candidates must have minimum Level 4 CIPS and be willing to achieve MCIPS within 2 years of starting the role. After achieving MCIPS, they will be eligible for a commercial delegation of £50M - £75M.

The successful candidate will demonstrate:

• Exceptional resilience, operating effectively in a high-pressure national security environment and delivering against the UK’s most critical defence priorities.
• Demonstrate sharp commercial judgment to review commercial situations, solve complex problems and proactively manage risks. You will work across the government to drive improvements in high-profile projects, ensuring they deliver the best results for the public.
• Excellent communication skills and senior-level credibility. Experience giving clear, timely advice to senior leaders, up to ministerial/C-suite level. You are skilled at writing complex briefings and can persuade others to ensure government priorities and projects are delivered successfully.
• Experience operating in technically complex sectors, working alongside experts on single-source contracting, security and safety regulation, and environmental compliance.
• Strategy and policy development - From a sound commercial base being able to recommend the appropriate commercial strategy, followed up with the execution of strategy through effective policy implementation and rollout
• A strong track record of leading and delivering major, high-value commercial transactions, delivering to demanding timescales through the leadership of interdisciplinary teams. Proven experience overseeing commercial processes that offer great value and great customer outcomes
• Ability to develop market insights. You will have the ability to learn about the commercial dynamics of particular markets and to provide data driven commercial advice. Staying on top of key market information, such as new solutions and new suppliers
• Develop strong networks with senior officials and their offices across government. You will build excellent commercial relationships with senior stakeholders based in the UK and abroad, with the ability to be able to find common ground and develop mutually beneficial outcomes. To work collaboratively to share information, resolve live issues, and ensure different teams work toward the same goals.
• Strong leadership capability, with evidence of building and leading resilient, high-performing commercial teams through clear direction and an established culture.
• Experience building commercial capability in either the public or private sector. A proven and supportive leader who can manage and mentor staff. You also contribute to wider plans for the profession, such as spotting talent and ensuring the workforce has the right skills for the future

Eligibility and requirements:

• This role is reserved for British nationals and requires Developed Vetting (DV) and additional security clearances, including read-on to classified communities.
• Ability to attend stakeholder sites (London, Reading or Bristol) two days per week to support classified programmes.
• Willingness to travel internationally to engage with suppliers and visit manufacturing sites.

Technical skills

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

• Ability to review commercial situations before making and successfully executing commercial activity. Hold a commercial viewpoint when challenged by Perm Secretaries, Ministers, Military Chiefs. Works at pace, briefing demanding stakeholders
• The ability to review commercial strategies including sourcing strategies and contract award requests, providing strategic commercial advice and recommendations to senior leadership
• Proven experience overseeing complex commercial processes that offer great value and great customer outcomes
• Build strong relationships at senior levels, gaining credibility with stakeholders, including industry and public bodies, and internal stakeholders across Whitehall, inc. Government departments, to support delivery of programme outcomes effectively
• Skilled in building and leading a resilient, high-calibre commercial team by setting direction and culture
• From a sound commercial base, being able to recommend the appropriate commercial strategy across all elements of the commercial lifecycle, followed up with the execution of the strategy through effective policy implementation and roll out

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 note: Only candidates that achieve an A grade at ADC will be invited to interview for this role.

Please be advised that the Virtual ADC is taking place on Monday 2nd November 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-re…
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 basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (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

Open to UK nationals only.

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 : Marina Dura
• 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 Opens in new window (pdf, 70kB)482770 Candidate Pack - Assistant Head of Commercial, Scrutiny and Data – Defence Nuclear Organisation – G7 .docx (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 455kB)