Associate Director of Commercial

Job summary

About the Department:

DBS was established under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 on 1 December 2012, working from two sites, which are Liverpool and Darlington. We operate on behalf of government delivering Disclosure functions in England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and Barring functions for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. We function within a framework of legal and regulatory requirements and that includes work with a range of external organisations including other government departments, regulators, and trade bodies.

We provide a service that enables organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make better informed, safer recruitment and other decisions. We do this by providing information to enable them to determine whether individuals are unsuitable or unable to undertake certain work, particularly with occupations involving regular contact with vulnerable groups, including children.

Our Strategy:

Our current Strategy sets out our purpose, vision, and the impacts we want to achieve. Our strategy was co-created with our staff and has been supported by insight from our various partners, and throughout, you will find our ambitions to be achieved. Everything that we do within DBS, from developing our strategic intent, to the day-to-day operational delivery of our services, is underpinned by constant considerations of safeguarding, quality, sustainability, value for money, and diversity and inclusion. Our strategic objectives aim to enhance our effectiveness, influence, and customer satisfaction while fostering a supportive environment for everyone.

Equality, Diversion, and Inclusion at DBS

DBS is committed to fostering an environment that values individual differences and ensures fair treatment to unlock the full potential of staff and better support customers. Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are core to driving organisational success and we have developed specific equality objectives for DBS.

Every decision and activity will be considered through an EDI lens, aiming to build an inclusive culture, improve policies and practices, gain external assurances, and become a leading voice of good practice in EDI.

Read More:

For further information, please see below for a collection of DBS strategies and business plans:

• DBS strategies - GOV.UK

• DBS business plans - GOV.UK

Job description

The post of Associate Director - Commercial (Technology and Innovation) is primarily responsible leading the T&I Contracts side of the Commercial team and for partnering with stakeholders across the organisation to understand the business needs.

As a key member of the Finance and Commercial Leadership team, the post holder will work collaboratively with colleagues to ensure customer and stakeholder needs are met, and that all commercial activity is delivered compliantly with public accountability expectations, the procurement regulations (including the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and regulations that pertain to the Procurement Act 2023 as appropriate), government policy and professional standards.

As the DBS is a member of the Home Office family, you will work closely with other members of the Home Office Finance community. Building relationships with people in Home Office will be key to ensuring DBS and Home Office expectations, systems and processes are aligned.

You will play a pivotal role in the development of the DBS Commercial Roadmap and associated Category plans, to support delivery of the DBS 2028 Strategy and will lead and support a team of 7 in implementing a T&I Commercial Business Partnering Model to ensure effective resource capacity and capability is in place to support the delivery of these strategies.

Corporate Duties:

As an Associate Director for Commercial, you will lead the development and management of senior relationships to support the organisation in reducing unnecessary spend and delivering Value for Money through commercial activities. You will be responsible for liaising at appropriate levels across the organisation to offer early-stage specific advice to assist in managing commercial activity.

• Proactively building effective and influential relationships with senior stakeholders including Directors and DMTs both within DBS and across the Home Office and Cabinet Office commercial community, to support the provision of clear and considered advice on organisational, commercial and procurement matters, policy, planning and strategy and the development of innovative routes to market.
• Develop and implement the DBS Commercial Roadmap, a variety of Category plans and development and implementation of a multi-year strategic procurement strategy with associated assurance methodologies to set the commercial direction in alignment with the organisation’s strategy; devise the appropriate communication strategy to enable G7s and below to drive awareness in the business.
• Drive the Commercial Teams development in understanding service supply markets, categories and business context, enabling innovation in approach; providing options and opportunities for new ways of working from a commercial perspective.
• Plan, lead and oversee the procurement of services across all relevant categories, ensuring effective commercial management of key suppliers compliantly with Disclosure Barring Services, Home Office and Cabinet Office policies and assurance processes ensuring full compliance with the Procurement Regulations, the Procurement Act 2023 and any applicable EU procurement law.
• Lead the team in developing and implementing procurement strategies, defining and negotiating contract terms, and engaging the market in delivery Category plans, including the future technology category.
• Lead the team in identifying and mitigating contractual risk, reducing the risk of service failure and reputational damage. Developing the G7s to engage with other Commercial professionals across Government on broader supplier and market risks to understand broader exposure and mitigate risks, by leading through example. Ensure escalations to SCS across the DBS, Home Office and Cabinet Office commercial community are managed appropriately.
• Setting the strategic direction to commercial activities around the commercial life cycle including leading the team’s approach to strategic planning and timetabling, market development, market engagement, tender document preparation, tender period management, tender evaluation and price analysis, award recommendations and governance.
• Managing and overseeing the mobilisation of new contracts from a commercial perspective; handing over to SSRM, T&I and contract management teams in accordance with the Contract Management Professional Standards.
• Support G7s in driving awareness of and compliance with any developments in procurement law, government accounting and best commercial and procurement practice as identified by government policy, standards and toolkits.
• Support G7s in ensuring that the Commercial teams maintain a Commercial pipeline of procurement activity, forecast and enable savings; and identify and manage all commercial and contract risks to protect DBS from risks of service failure and reputational risk.
• Ensuring positive relationships with relevant internal, pan government and external stakeholders, including suppliers are developed and maintained; building and maintaining effective working relationships at strategic, organisational leadership levels with key suppliers.
• Ensure compliance to and awareness of developments in procurement law, government accounting and best commercial and procurement practice as identified by government toolkits; lead compliance with all Departmental, Home Office and Cabinet Office Commercial Controls for DBS that relate to commercial practice and otherwise, including strict adherence to their delegated authorities, governance, legislation, and policy as appropriate.
• Act corporately and make a contribution to Pan Government Commercial Function Agendas and wider objectives.
• Analysing and resolving escalated contractual issues, where strategic management of the resolution is required; otherwise oversee G7 and SEO/HEO management of issues.
• Providing leadership, management and guidance to an integral internal team of commercial professionals.

Person specification

The successful applicant will need to be able to demonstrate the below ability and experience:

Essential Criteria

Ability

• Ability to design strategic MI required from a variety of sources for the purposes of DBS/Supplier meetings/negotiations and DBS, HO and CO governance. Skilled in understanding senior stakeholders MI needs.
• Skilled at balancing conflicting demands; to prioritise strategically to ensure DBS strategic objectives and corporate priorities are met and/or influence corporate re-prioritisation for the team.
• Effectively communicates with all levels of stakeholders both within DBS; with suppliers and with broader government; able to influence Senior Stakeholders.
• Able to flex leadership and communication style in line with strategic situational leadership thinking; leads team members, peers and senior stakeholders by example in Subject Matter Expert specific areas.
• Resilient under pressure able to work alone on strategic priorities/outcomes and/or lead the team to deliver successful outcomes at pace, against a backdrop of changing priorities both within the function and across the business.

Experience

• Strategically led complex portfolios/programmes involving novel and non-standard commercial and contractual mechanisms, with the ability to identify improvements that deliver greater commercial outcomes.
• Experience in leading the most strategic and key procurements and contracts for an organisation, delivering with and through others; reducing/mitigating potential reputational risk, ensuring security of supply and a focus in managing costs and driving best value.
• Experience in building optimal relationships with all levels of stakeholders and the most senior managers across the organisation and across government in a complex and strategic commercial environment, through highly effective communication skills, gravitas and personal impact.
• Experienced in developing and leading multiple teams to support organisational delivery, managing complex intra-team relationships.

Qualifications/Membership

• CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply) membership, qualified to Level 6 Diploma.

Desirable Criteria

• Experienced in managing compliance with the Gov.uk Sourcing Playbook, the Contract Management Professional Standards and all associated policies.
• Knowledge of MS Office based products specifically Excel, Outlook and SharePoint, whilst also demonstrating skills in utilising digital tools to support delivery of wider objectives.
• A decisive individual; uses judgement in prioritising for the function and DBS as a whole; helps develop DBS thinking at a strategic level and influences both commercial and broader organisational strategy.
• You can drive functional teams or teams of peers to seek continuous improvement and have experience in re-modelling strategic approaches to delivering outcomes and objectives; able to design and/or re-design business processes to support improvements.

Further Information:

To view the DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice, please click the link below:

DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

This privacy notice covers personal data collected during the recruitment, security clearance and on-boarding process

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £74,061, Disclosure & Barring Service contributes £21,455 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

The DBS offers a number of excellent benefits for its employees. These can include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Excellent maternity, paternity and adoption schemes (after a qualifying period)
• Commitment to the health and wellbeing of our employees
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Flexible working opportunities
• Eyecare voucher scheme
• Occupational Health Service including referrals for counselling and physiotherapy
• 24/7 Counselling and Wellbeing Service
• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

The DBS vision and purpose is to make people safer by being a visible, trusted and influential organisation, providing an outstanding quality of service to all our customers and partners, where our people understand the important safeguarding contributions they make and feel proud to work here. To do this, the DBS is committed to being an employer that is able to attract, develop, retain and engage diverse talent that is representative of the communities we serve, and to be an organisation providing outstanding service to all our existing and new customers, who are diverse and have a range of different needs. We want all our staff to be able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work.

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

To apply please submit your CV via our recruitment partners site at:

Associate Director of Commercial - JN-092026-7115784 , Michael Page

Recruitment Timeline

The following timetable outlines indicative dates.

Please note, these dates may be subject to change without prior notice:

Closing date: 08/11/2026 at 23:59

The initial candidate sift is due to take place week commencing 09/11/2026

First interviews will take place on the 18th and 20th of November

Second interviews will take place on the 23rd November

Interviews will be held virtually via MS Teams

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.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.

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

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 : Hannah Quinn-Hill
• Email : hannahquinnhill@michaelpage.co.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSPeopleSupportTeam@dbs.gov.uk

Attachments

JD - Commercial AD TI (1) Opens in new window (docx, 452kB)