Commercial Lead - Chief Operating Office & Finance

Job summary

The Government Property Agency is the largest property holder in government, with more than £2.1 billion in property assets and over 55% of the government’s office estate.

We are transforming the way the Civil Service works by creating great places to work, leading the largest commercial office programme in the UK, working towards halving carbon emissions from government offices, and achieving greater value for taxpayers. And we are looking for innovative, solutions-focused people to join our commercial team.

Representing the best covenant in the UK – His Majesty’s Government – we are leading transformational programmes such as the Government Hubs Programme, Whitehall Campus Programme and Net Zero Programme, as well as delivering modern, cost-effective real estate service solutions.

Innovation and progress are at the heart of our behaviours. We foster a culture of lifelong learning, where curiosity and self-improvement are encouraged. And we’re dedicated to becoming a leading, inclusive employer both in the external market and throughout the Civil Service. Our strong emphasis on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) is not just about driving inclusion across our organisation, it is also about ensuring our services meet the needs of government departments and the civil servants who use our spaces.

Join our dynamic and diverse team that leads with purpose, improving sustainability, nurturing social value, driving inclusivity and flexibility, and kickstarting economic growth. We are driven by purpose, and you can be part of it too: where you make a meaningful impact; where you influence; where your voice really matters; where you help to shape our future direction.

Job description

The Commercial Lead for the Chief Operating Office (COO) and Finance teams is a pivotal role in the Government Property Agency ensuring commercial alignment and success across the agency’s central functions. The scope of the teams included in the Chief Operating Office include HR, Marketing & Communications, Corporate Performance and Corporate Security while the Finance Directorate includes Finance, Legal & Governance and Commercial. The Commercial Lead for this area acts as the commercial business partner for these functions, leading on sourcing and procurement activity for these areas. In addition, the Commercial Lead is responsible for GPA contractual arrangements for contingent labour including Public Sector Resourcing, permanent recruitment and learning and development. The current contract pipeline is valued at approximately £40m.

The Commercial Lead is responsible for managing procurement and contracts for the area. This requires building relationships with senior stakeholders across teams to ensure alignment and resource management. This will include creating joint business cases, developing specifications and bid packs and working closely to identify the most appropriate route to market for requirements. The Commercial Lead is also responsible for ensuring the appropriate governance has been completed before procurement activity and contract award, providing advice to stakeholders on the scope of the governance required and ensuring relevant approvers are engaged in the process.

The role requires consistent maintenance of the contracts pipeline and procurement system to ensure effective data and accurate reporting on spend and commitments for the team. There is opportunity to drive change for the GPA through the centrality of the role, and the ability to build subject-matter expertise on niche and strategic areas of GPA delivery.

This role requires a sound knowledge of Public Sector Commercial and Procurement policies and procedures, PCR 2015 and the Procurement Act 2023 and evidence of experience in utilising CCS Frameworks to enable policy outcomes.

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:

• Active management of the COO and Finance contract pipelines
  
  
• Regular engagement with senior stakeholders to assess delivery of existing contracts and managing future requirements
  
  
• Leading on end-to-end procurement activity for any requirements that emerge in the COO and Finance teams. This may include the use of frameworks and competitive procedures under the Procurement Act 2023
  
  
• Working closely with stakeholders from across teams to develop requirements and identify appropriate sourcing routes along with complete bid packs that are proportionate to requirements
  
  
• Build relationships with key suppliers to ensure consistent delivery and performance management
  
  
• Line management of team members, including fast stream placements, building commercial acumen and confidence in the commercial lifecycle
  
  
• Contribute to commercial policy and lead on relevant policy development for the GPA Commercial team, in collaboration with the Commercial Policy team, to provide insights on procurement processes and practical guidance for use in live procurements
  
  
• Input into reporting requirements to build and manage commercial data and ensure compliance across the contract portfolio
  
  
• Representing the commercial team at forums, working groups and away days, creating visibility and engagement from GPA teams.

Technical skills

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

• Identify risks to delivery, risks relating to fraud, works with stakeholders to minimise, manage, eliminate risks. Communicate risks effectively, ensuring colleagues inside and outside of commercial are cognisant of risks in their chosen approach
• Use data, evidence and knowledge to support accurate, expert decisions and advice, balancing a range of options, implications and risks of decisions to delivery outcomes
• Evidence of building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with stakeholders, through compelling messaging, collaborative working and effective delivery of commitments
• A good working knowledge of procuring services utilising a range of routes to market, and applying the commercial lifecycle in a range of scenarios
• Proficient procurement professional with applied and theoretical expertise in procurement processes, category management, strategic sourcing, supplier relationship and performance management, and specification, report and recommendation writing.

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 9th 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 : Patricia Krauss
• 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

443072 - Candidate Pack - GPA - Commercial Lead - Chief Operating Office and Finance.docx Opens in new window (pdf, 1376kB)Guaranteed Interview Schemes (GIS) Opens in new window (pdf, 70kB)