Head of Contract Management

Job summary

The FSA is a non-ministerial department of over 1600 people. We play a critical role in protecting public health and consumers’ wider interests in food across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our vision is an important one - to drive change, delivering “food you can trust” and working towards a healthier and more sustainable food system.

This is a rare opportunity to shape and lead contract and supplier management at the heart of a national regulator with a clear public mission. As Head of Contract Management at the Food Standards Agency, you will set the strategic direction for how we manage major suppliers, drive value from significant public spend, and strengthen commercial capability across the organisation. This role offers senior-level influence, the ability to build a function from the ground up, and the chance to make a measurable impact on public outcomes and trust in food systems.

Job description

About the Food Standards Agency
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for ensuring “food we can trust.” While this mission is delivered through our people, third-party suppliers play a critical role in delivering our services and outcomes. Of our gross expenditure of approximately £140 million, around £85 million is spent on third-party services, making effective commercial and contract management central to our success. The Commercial Team enables the FSA to achieve optimal value for money from its procured services while managing risk and ensuring intended outcomes are delivered.

The Role
The Head of Contract Management is a newly created, high-impact leadership role responsible for establishing and embedding an organisation-wide approach to contract and supplier management. Reporting at a senior level, you will ensure robust governance, effective performance management, and joined-up commercial strategies are in place across the FSA. This role is pivotal in maximising value, strengthening supplier performance, managing commercial risk, and ensuring delivery of high-quality outcomes for the public.

Leadership and Strategy
You will set a clear vision and strategic direction for contract and supplier management across the FSA, aligning this with organisational priorities and the wider Commercial Strategy. Working closely with the Head of Commercial and colleagues across government, you will ensure a seamless link between sourcing, procurement, and post-award management to deliver whole lifecycle value. You will act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders on complex and high-value contracts while designing and implementing contract management frameworks that reflect government best practice, including the Government Functional Standard GovS 008 and the Contract Management Playbook.

Contract and Supplier Management
You will oversee the FSA’s portfolio of contracts, ensuring they are appropriately segmented, governed, and resourced according to their value and risk. Your leadership will ensure robust performance management arrangements are in place, enabling consistent delivery against contractual outcomes. You will lead the FSA’s strategic supplier relationship management approach, engaging with key suppliers to drive innovation, resilience, and continuous improvement. A core part of the role will be ensuring risks and issues are actively managed and that value for money is realised across the contract lifecycle.

Commercial Policy and Governance
You will establish and maintain a strong framework of contract management policies, standards, and governance aligned with Cabinet Office controls, Procurement Act requirements, and functional standards. This includes ensuring consistent application of commercial controls across the organisation, supporting audit readiness, and maintaining transparency. You will also lead the development of standard approaches to contract mobilisation, transition, change control, and exit planning, using data and insight to inform decision-making and improve performance.

Stakeholder Engagement and Influence
This role requires exceptional influencing skills to build trusted, collaborative relationships across the FSA. You will work closely with senior leaders to embed commercial thinking into decision-making, ensuring that risk, performance, and value for money are fully considered. You will act as a key link with central government commercial functions and represent the FSA in cross-government forums, sharing best practice and learning from others to continuously improve our approach.

People and Capability
You will establish and lead a high-performing contract management community across the FSA, strengthening capability in line with Government Commercial Function standards. This includes defining roles, responsibilities, and frameworks that enable strong “intelligent client” capability across the organisation. You will identify capability gaps and implement targeted development interventions, while supporting senior leaders to ensure roles are appropriately resourced and accountable. You will also build a culture of continuous improvement, promoting professionalism, collaboration, and the sharing of best practice across the organisation.

Why Join Us
This is a unique opportunity to build a function, shape strategy, and influence outcomes at national scale within a purpose-driven organisation. You will play a key role in ensuring that public money is used effectively and that critical services are delivered to a high standard, directly contributing to the FSA’s mission of protecting public health and maintaining trust in food.

Working pattern guidance

If applying as a job share partnership you should both complete separate application forms on Civil Service Jobs but should make it clear that you are applying as job sharers. Further details on job sharing can be found here JSF – What is the recruitment process for job sharers? , Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk)

Applicants who wish to work part time / compressed hours are welcome to apply - however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

Due to the nature of the role we are unable to consider requests for part time working of less than 30 hours per week.

Person specification

Please read the attached Job Description to discover further details about the role, who we are looking for and the criteria we will assess against during the selection process.

We look forward to receiving your application and wish you every success.

Qualifications

MCIPS (or willing to work towards Level 6) or comparable qualification.

Technical skills

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

• MCIPS (or willing to work towards Level 6) or comparable qualification.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £72,469, Food Standards Agency contributes £20,994 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).

Please take a look at the Working for the Food Standards Agency , Civil Service Careers to find out about the benefits the FSA has to offer

Please also refer to the Terms and Conditions statement attached to this advert.

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 Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Application and shortlisting

You will be asked to provide personal details (not seen by the Panel) and to confirm your eligibility to apply for the role.

Technical: You will be asked a question to confirm that you meet the Technical requirements of the role.

• MCIPS (or willing to work towards Level 6) or comparable qualification.

If you cannot answer yes to this question – you will not be able to proceed further with your application.

You will then be asked to complete an application which will be used to assess you against the following essential criteria.

Essential criteria

Experience

• Lead criteria: Extensive experience leading contract and supplier management for complex, high-value and/or high-risk services within a public sector or regulated environment, including delivery of measurable value for money.

• Proven ability to design and implement organisational contract management frameworks and governance, including performance management (KPIs), supplier relationship management (SRM), and reporting structures.

• Strong understanding of public sector procurement and contract management principles and objectives, including commercial controls, governance, and transparency obligations, alongside knowledge of procurement regulations (e.g. Procurement Act / PCR), contract change mechanisms, compliance requirements, and commercial risk management.

• Demonstrable experience influencing senior stakeholders and shaping strategic decision-making, including aligning commercial strategy, contract performance management and supplier relationship management approaches to deliver organisational outcomes.

Technical

• MCIPS (or willing to work towards Level 6) or comparable qualification.

Lead Criteria An initial sift will take place on the Lead Criteria.

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, the minimum pass mark for the Lead Criteria may be raised at shortlisting stage. Candidates who apply under the DCS, GPTW or RIS schemes and meet the minimum requirements will be unaffected by the pass mark raise.

Interview

If successful at shortlisting stage, you will be invited to a final interview in whichwe will assess you against the following Experience and Strengths requirements of the role:

Experience

• Proven ability to design and implement organisational contract management frameworks and governance, including performance management (KPIs), supplier relationship management (SRM), and reporting structures.

• Strong understanding of public sector procurement and contract management principles and objectives, including commercial controls, governance, and transparency obligations, alongside knowledge of procurement regulations (e.g. Procurement Act / PCR), contract change mechanisms, compliance requirements, and commercial risk management.

• Demonstrable experience influencing senior stakeholders and shaping strategic decision-making, including aligning commercial strategy, contract performance management and supplier relationship management approaches to deliver organisational outcomes.

Strengths

We will also assess you against a number of Civil Service Strengths – these are not disclosed prior to interview.

Assessment exercise

As part of the interview process, you will be asked to prepare a seen presentation. The presentation title will be based on the following Experience criteria: Extensive experience leading contract and supplier management for complex, high-value and/or high-risk services within a public sector or regulated environment, including delivery of measurable value for money.

Further information will be provided to you in the invitation to interview email.

Expected Timeline

Advert closes: 19 July 2026

Sift: Expected to take place week commencing 20 July 2026

Final panel interview: Expected to take place either week commencing 03 or 10 August 2026

Interviews will be held remotely via MS Teams. (If you do not have the Microsoft Teams application installed on your computer, you can join on the web without installing the application).

Please note that indicated dates may be subject to change.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to the Food Standards Agency from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare.

Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reserve List

A reserve list will be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made.

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that the FSA does not offer visa sponsorship and cannot provide advice on visa applications

Making a complaint

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

If you feel your application has not been treated fairly in accordance with the principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should email the FSA’s Director of People at jo.bushnell@food.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

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.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.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 : Steven Churchyard
• Email : steve.churchyard@food.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk

Further information

If you wish to raise a complaint then please email hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk in the first instance.