Head of Commercial Operations

Job summary

Registers of Scotland (RoS) manages 23 land, property and other legal registers which are a critical asset for the Scottish economy. We aim to provide the best public service for Scotland and are on a mission to make some of the oldest public land registers in the world into some of the most modern. We are committed to providing the best service to our customers through the creation of award-winning digital services, supported by the latest in cloud and AI technology.

When working at RoS we support our colleagues by offering a range of modern work policies and workspaces, as well as encouraging an inclusive, diverse, and equitable work environment. We are proud to promote our We Invest in People Gold Award, Investors in Young People Silver Award and We Invest in Wellbeing Gold Award, alongside our zero gender pay gap and the fact we are a disability confident employer. To get a taste of what we do, our facilities and our hybrid working approach please see the following link for a short video;

About this role:
The Head of Commercial Operations is accountable for end-to-end operational leadership of RoS Commercial’s commercial delivery, ensuring Property and Land Information Service (PaLIS), Plans Reports and Operational Excellence operate as a coherent system that delivers sustainable income, strong customer outcomes and value for Scotland.

The role turns commercial ambition into scalable, resilient, well-governed operations, providing senior grip across RoS Commercial and enabling the Director to focus on growth, partnerships and strategic positioning.

Job description

Strategic & Operational Leadership
•Own the operational delivery of the RoS Commercial Strategy, translating it into a Commercial Operations Service Plan with clear priorities, milestones, resourcing and success measures.
•Maintain and evolve the Commercial operating model (service standards, governance, performance and prioritisation) to ensure consistent, resilient delivery.
•Lead delivery with a strong continuous improvement focus, protecting customer outcomes while scaling new services and managing cost.

Leadership & Culture
•Lead and develop the senior leadership team across the Property & Land Information Service, Reports, Operational Excellence and Sales, with clear accountabilities and priorities.
•Build a high-performing, inclusive culture focused on customer outcomes, learning and continuous improvement, supported by effective coaching and performance management.
•Use evidence and insight to make sound decisions in complex, ambiguous environments, balancing pace, quality, governance and colleague wellbeing.

Commercial Performance & Financial Management
•Own performance against income, cost recovery, unit cost, productivity and service KPIs, taking timely action to protect customer outcomes and commercial performance.
•Act as budget holder for Commercial Operations, accountable for forecasting, in-year financial management, financial controls and benefits realisation, ensuring services are resourced sustainably and delivered within agreed budgets.
•Exercise delegated financial authority, approving spend and commitments in line with scheme of delegation and procurement requirements, ensuring robust audit trail and value-for-money decisions.
•Use insight to prioritise investment, optimise capacity and make clear commercial trade-offs to improve value for money and delivery of the Service Plan.

Governance, Risk & Assurance
•Put in place governance, assurance and risk management across Commercial operations, meeting RoS standards and public sector accountability.
•Anticipate and manage operational and commercial risks, escalating where needed.
•Act as Senior Responsible Owner for significant change initiatives.

Stakeholder & Customer Engagement
•Work across organisational boundaries, influencing governance forums and partners to embed a customer lens and value-for-money discipline in commercial decisions.
•Build strong partnerships with Digital, Finance, People & Change, Policy and Corporate Services to enable effective delivery.
•Act as a senior ambassador for RoS Commercial with customers, partners and stakeholders, building credibility, trust and reputation.
•Use networks with Business Development to identify and progress growth opportunities.
•Contribute to the wider RoS senior management team, modelling collective leadership and shared accountability across directorates.

Person specification

Experience/Technical:
We will assess you against the following Experience and Technical skills during the application and assessment process:

• A relevant higher education qualification in a business-related discipline & evidence of continuous professional development. • Leading complex, multi-disciplinary operational services using a customer-led delivery model, with clear accountability for end-to-end outcomes and service standards. • Owning the delivery of a commercial strategy shaped by customer insight (and, where appropriate, co-design), translating it into operational plans, priorities and measurable results. • Driving performance against income, cost recovery, unit cost, productivity and customer measures, supported by clear MI/dashboards and effective performance conversations. • Commercial budget-holder responsibility, including forecasting, in-year management, financial controls and value-for-money decisions. • Delivering measurable continuous improvement (e.g., Lean/QI/service design) to improve quality, resilience and productivity. • Leading senior managers through significant change, with strong governance, risk management and assurance in a public sector context.

Behaviours
At application stage, you will be scored against all behaviours and against all Behaviours for the assessment:

Seeing the big picture/ Leadership (Cluster)
•develop and maintain an understanding of economic, social, political, environmental and technological developments to ensure activity is relevant
•ensure plans and activities in your area of work reflect wider strategic priorities and communicate effectively with senior leaders to influence future strategies
•adopt a government wide perspective to ensure alignment of activity and policy
•bring together views, perspectives and diverse needs of stakeholders to gain a broader understanding of the issues surrounding policies and activities
•promote diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity, respecting difference and external experience
•welcome and respond to views and challenges from others, despite any conflicting pressures to ignore or give in to them
•stand by, promote or defend your own and your team’s actions and decisions where needed
•seek out shared interests beyond your own area of responsibility, understanding the extent of the impact actions have on the organisation
•inspire and motivate teams to be fully engaged in their work and dedicated to their role

Changing and improving
•encourage, recognise and share innovative ideas from a diverse range of colleagues and stakeholders
•give people space to take initiative and praise them for their creativity
•create an environment where people feel safe to challenge and know their voice will be heard
•make changes which add value and clearly articulate how changes will benefit the business
•understand and identify the role of technology in public service delivery and policy implementation
•consider the full impact of implementing changes on culture, structure, morale and the impacts on the diverse range of end users, including accessibility needs
•identify early signs that things are going wrong and respond promptly
•provide constructive challenge to senior management on change proposals

Making Effective Decisions / Managing a quality service (Cluster)
•demonstrate positive customer service by understanding the complexity and diversity of customer needs and expectations
•deliver a high quality, efficient and cost-effective service by considering a broad range of methods for delivery
•ensure full consideration of new technologies, accessibility and costings
•make clear, practical and manageable plans for service delivery
•ensure adherence to legal, regulatory and security requirements in service delivery
•proactively manage risks and identify solutions
•establish how the business area compares to industry best practice
•create regular opportunities for colleagues, stakeholders, delivery partners and customers to help improve the quality of service
•clarify your own understanding and stakeholder needs and expectations, before making decisions
•ensure decision making happens at the right level, not allowing unnecessary bureaucracy to hinder delivery
•encourage both innovative suggestions and challenge from others, to inform decision making
•analyse and accurately interpret data from various sources to support decisions
•find the best option by identifying positives, negatives, risks and implications
•present reasonable conclusions from a wide range of complex and sometimes incomplete evidence
•make decisions confidently even when details are unclear or if they prove to be unpopular

Communicating and influencing
•communicate with others in a clear, honest and enthusiastic way in order to build trust.
•explain complex issues in a way that is easy to understand
•take into account people’s individual needs
•deliver difficult messages with clarity and sensitivity, being persuasive when required
•consider the impact of the language used
•remain open-minded and impartial in discussions, whilst respecting the diverse interests and opinions of others
•introduce different methods for communication, including making the most of digital resources whilst getting value for money
•monitor the effectiveness of own and team communications and take action to improve where necessary

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £80,716, Registers of Scotland contributes £23,383 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).

• · Work with purpose: working for the people of Scotland to set the bar for land and property registration worldwide.

  · Flexible and hybrid working: depending on the role and team requirements, work when and where it’s best for you and your stakeholders.

  · Benefits: enjoy pay progression, pension contributions of up to 28.97%, up to a year’s parental leave, and 42 days annual holiday.

  · Investment in professional development: we invest in all our people so that they have the right skills to be productive and confident in their job.

  · Diversity and Inclusion: We are an ‘Investor in People’ and a ‘Disability Confident’ employer. We are inclusive, stronger together, and committed to putting our people first.

  · Positive work culture: RoS is an agile, digital organisation using leading-edge technology. Colleagues understand their role in achieving our strategy and have the autonomy to deliver.

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

Stage one - Application Process

To apply, click on 'Apply now' and complete the online application form.
You will need to submit:

1. A CV outlining your career history and how you meet the Technical/ Experience criteria (max 4 pages).

2. A Statement of suitability (1000-1500 words) detailing how you meet the behaviours for the role. Please use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) in your examples.

3. Your CV and Supporting statement should be submitted as a single MS Word file.

Please note:

· If we receive a high volume of applications, we may complete an initial sift on the Technical/ Experience Criteria.

· We reserve the right to invite candidates to participate in a telephone interview prior to being further assessed.

· We reserve the right to invite candidates to participate in a telephone interview prior to being further assessed.

· Applications that are not accompanied by CVs will not be scored or statements over 1500 words will not be considered.

· We would strongly recommend that your statement is written in the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action & Result) and suggest preparing your answers using software such as MS Word or Google Docs, and then uploading the file.

· We strongly advise you review our policy on responsible use of AI in the application process. RoS may check answers with an AI detection tool and will contact you for a pre-screening call to verify your responses.

· Applications and appointments are subject to a strict merit-based assessment process, in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles.

Stage two – assessment
If successful at application stage, you will be invited to an in person interview in our Edinburgh which will include the following:

· Behaviour based interview

· A further exercise

Behaviour-based interview questions will be shared with candidates 15 minutes before the assessment begins. This will allow you time to review them and think about the examples you want to use, and how to position them.
You are permitted to bring brief notes from your preparation into the interview to support your responses.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a 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 : Talent
• Email : talent@ros.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Talent@ros.gov.uk