Contract & Supplier Management Centre of Excellence Lead

Job summary

The Cabinet Office and HM Treasury (COHMT) operate at the strategic center of the UK Government, managing a portfolio of circa £5bn to deliver critical policy outcomes. The COHMT Commercial Team’s vision is to be a top-performing function that sets the standard for excellence across the Civil Service.

The COHMT commercial team has recently undergone a strategic evolution, transitioning into a highly specialised Commercial Delivery and Operations model. The directorate comprises of two delivery clusters and a third cluster containing central strategy, performance and all enabling functions as well as non-category delivery and commercial portfolio management.

The COHMT Commercial team operates with our core values in mind which are:

We are Curious, Collaborative and Kind, we act with Integrity and are Focused on value for money.

Job description

Your role will have a significant impact providing the enabling services, governance, and infrastructure to allow the Directorate to provide an effective and efficient commercial service. The role will lead on designing, developing, and delivering a newly established Centre of Excellence (CoE) for contract management and supplier relationship management (SRM) across COHMT. You will ensure that external supplier networks, departmental partnerships, capacity-demand reporting, and continuous improvement activities are strategically aligned to support the broader team. The role will ensure that functional performance in contract management and supplier relationship management is robust and continually evolving. You will also step into support other commercial leaders in challenging contract and supplier issues and provide sound commercial advice.

This role will you will work with the Senior Leadership Team to lead the overarching strategy, framework, and continuous improvement plan for contract management and strategic SRM across the directorate. You will oversee the delivery of functional initiatives, ensuring robust assurance regimes, performance tools, and data integrity exist to monitor critical contracts and department spend.

You will provide authoritative advice and guidance on contract and commercial best practice across the Directorate and wider departments. You will act under your own initiative to influence senior stakeholders, defend the department's commercial position, and manage the cumulative impact of structural and cultural change across the function.

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:

• Design, develop, and deliver a comprehensive Centre of Excellence for contract management and supplier relationship management (SRM) in COHMT Commercial, establishing standard frameworks to drive systemic best practice and operational excellence.
  
  
• Drive performance, provide sound advice and oversight to deliver critical commercial capability in the contract management and SRM area.
  
  
• Oversee contract management governance and operational reporting activities; establish robust assurance regimes to review critical contracts, mitigate departmental risk exposure, and resolve supplier underperformance.
  
  
• Implement structured, category-wide SRM approaches across a wide-ranging portfolio of suppliers; analyse critical spend to drive continuous innovation, collaboration, and value-adding initiatives beyond baseline contractual agreements.
  
  
• Provide specialist, targeted intervention and expert advice to delivery teams to troubleshoot complex commercial challenges as required, support in resolving contract disputes, and manage high-profile escalations securely and efficiently.
  
  
• Develop, deliver, and facilitate departmental contract management and SRM knowledge networks, actively championing continuous improvement and sharing standard methodologies across the wider business.
  
  
• Provide advice as required on contract exit strategies, transition management, and complex contract renegotiations, ensuring absolute business continuity and security of supply during transition phases.
  
  
• Work collegiately as an influential member of the COHMT Commercial Team, contributing to the broader direction of the commercial function while championing diversity, inclusion, and a high-performance workspace.

Technical skills

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

• Demonstrates the ability to analyse risks and understand margins of error in developing recommendations and making effective decisions
• Has excellent understanding of the principles of end-to-end commercial lifecycle management
• Demonstrates the ability to manage and build confidence in a team in order to deal with setbacks, resolve internal issues and can implement change at a local level by working with affected parties to identify and overcome challenges
• Evidence of influencing key senior stakeholders and suppliers towards commercial solutions in a complex commercial environment
• Has the ability to practically apply procurement rules and link them to the implementation of policy objectives
• Has strong stakeholder engagement skills and can present technical advice successfully in order to influence internal and external decision making

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 Wednesday 9th 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-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 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 : 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, 64kB)2026-10-19 - OFF SEN - 486877 - CL2675 - Contract & Supplier Management Centre of Excellence Lead - CO - Candidate Pack.docx Opens in new window (pdf, 426kB)