Head of Policy & Capability

Job summary

As Head of Policy and Capability within the Parliamentary Commercial Department (PCD), you will lead the development, delivery and continuous improvement of Parliament’s commercial policy framework, templates, processes and training offer. Reporting at senior level within a newly established joint department led by the Chief Commercial Officer, you will shape how commercial strategy enables Parliament’s wider organisational goals.

Job description

You’ll work across both Houses and joint departments, building strong partnerships with Commercial Leads and Subject Matter Experts to create a coherent policy landscape that reflects Parliament’s unique constitutional role. From embedding best practice and legal compliance to championing social value, sustainability and modern slavery prevention, your work will directly influence how Parliament secures value for money. This is your opportunity to set direction, champion best practice, and ensure commercial thinking sits at the heart of decision‑making across a truly unique organisation.

This role is offered on a hybrid working basis, with an expectation of you spending 40% of your time in the office.

Find out more about working at the House of Commons.

Person specification

If you have the following skills/experience, we would love to hear from you:

• A deep understanding of public sector procurement approaches and the policy, template, process and training needed to drive both compliance and excellent commercial outcomes.
• Experience developing guidance focussed on the application of commercial policy and procedure in a fast-paced, high-profile environment.
• Confident working with stakeholders at all levels of seniority and commercial expertise, and able to tailor content and style to best meet the needs of their audience whilst upholding our principles of equality, diversity and inclusion at all times.
• Demonstrable ability to identify process improvements and successfully manage changes that deliver great commercial outcomes.
• Experience designing and delivering training packages tailored to enhance commercial capability at all levels.
• Strong leadership capability, being able to illustrate how to successfully lead a team or manage a project and coach team members to develop their own skills and career plans.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £76,000, House of Commons contributes £22,017 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

In addition to your salary, we offer an attractive range of benefits including but not limited to:

• Generous annual leave starting at 30 days and increasing to 35 after one full working year.

• Enrolment in the excellent Civil Service pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 27%

• Flexible working options that help you find a balance including enhanced maternity, paternity, shared parental and adoption leave, caring leave and alternative working patterns.

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

• CV & Supporting Statement – If you would like to apply for this role, please submit your CV and covering letter with an 1000-word limit.

More information on the application process can be found here: Application process - UK Parliament

Please note that total salary may be comprised of a mixture of basic salary pay up to £68,159 (consolidated) and market sector allowances (non-consolidated). Remuneration is set based on skills, experience and relevant market comparators.

We may close the vacancy prior to the closing date stated due to a high volume of applications.

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 counter-terrorist 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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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

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 : Recruitment Team
• Email : recruitment@parliament.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@parliament.uk