Associate Commercial Specialist - Construction

Job summary

The Government Commercial Agency (GCA) is the UK's central commercial and procurement organisation. As the single center of expertise for government commercial activity, GCA guides over 20,000 public sector customers to best value, shapes markets, and provides a gateway for suppliers of all sizes to work with the public sector.

Construction is a high-profile Category within the Government Commercial Agency which has shown exponential growth over the last 5 years. Part of the wider GCA’s Estates Category Team, alongside FM & Energy.

Developing and managing a range of innovative Construction commercial agreements, extensive supplier relationship management and market engagement. We are a supportive team of highly-experienced construction, procurement and category management professionals, who are passionate about driving policy, developing category and procurement strategies in support of delivering the Industrial strategy and Infrastructure Pipeline.

This is a key senior role within the Construction Category Team which provides an opportunity to be involved in some of the largest, complex Construction projects in the UK such as the Ministry of Justice new prison programme and the Defence Estates Optimisation Programme to name a few. Working with multiple government departments and wider public sector bodies to enable them to procure infrastructure projects and programmes of work ranging from £10k - £1bn >

The role provides opportunity to lead on industry specific areas of critical importance

If you are interested in how you can bring your Construction Sector knowledge and strategic commercial skills to the GCA’s Construction Category and how you can play a role in shaping industry and delivering against the Industrial Strategy and Government Missions then we would love to hear from you.

Job description

The Construction category team comprises 30 members of staff and the role holder will be responsible for line management of a small team within that.

Responsibility for conducting strategic category management to develop and deliver in collaboration with the GCA’s procurement operations team, new Construction frameworks to compliment the existing portfolio of construction works, offsite construction and construction professional services. Together with oversight of the existing portfolio in respect of framework management and compliance. Which have seen multi million pound projects being delivered such as the Ministry of Justice’s new prison programme.

In doing so you will be interfacing with multiple senior stakeholders across the GCA, other government departments and wider public sector, ensuring user requirements are incorporated, relevant policies are embedded and legal compliance is adhered to in line with PA23

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

• You will have responsibility for supplier relationship management in line with the GCA’s supply management policies and will strengthen supplier relationships via a robust SRM process, driving innovation and best practice from the market, this includes such as oversight of strategic focus groups to deliver value through areas such as social value and continuous improvement initiatives. Interfacing with the largest construction organisations in the UK, medium size organisations, SME’s and specialist organisations.
• You will lead on key aspects of GCA’s business plan and Estates category group priorities. Representing GCA at external events where required and contributing to GCA Enterprise wide and pan government wide initiatives where required.
• You will support customers with the development of procurement call off strategies for significant capital works projects and programmes bringing deep industry knowledge and expertise to enable best value commercial outcomes, building on the teams credibility of providing robust industry expert advice and guidance.
• You will be confident in leadership and change management in developing a strong commercial directorate within the Government Commercial Agency and provide strong leadership to ensure the Construction team delivers against business plan targets.
• You will line manage a small team of commercial staff and collaborate across the Estates Category Group and wider GCA on jointly delivering key GCA initiatives such as enhancing digital capability, robust L&D provision, approaches to category planning and continuous improvements.
• You will support the customer experience team in maintaining and developing relationships with central government departments and wider public sector users.
• You will actively monitor and report on the financial performance of the construction category’s commercial agreements.

Technical skills

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

• Deep leading edge market knowledge related to the Construction Sector such as key market players, market challenges, construction industry trends, emerging technologies within the construction sector.
• Experience in Construction framework procurement, strategic sourcing, and supply chain management. Good working knowledge of construction contracts and a deep understanding of the Construction Playbook.
• Gravitas and stature as both a leader and Construction technical expert.
• Lead and coach a team of procurement professionals, upskilling them in construction-related matters, including forms of contract, design phases, and commercial models.
• Shape government policy and commercial strategy via construction insight incl. developing project/programme sourcing strategies, commercial models, and contracts. Contribute to Construction Playbook refreshes and industry PPNs.

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 the 2nd of December 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 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 : Lynsey Munro
• 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)20261023 OFFSEN 487770 - Associate Commercial Specialist - Construction - Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 1539kB)