Technology Procurement Manager

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 2 weeks

Procurement

Flexible

£42,665 - £46,765 per year

Job summary

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

Digital, Data, Technology and Security (DDTS) is the trusted team for digital across the entire Defra Group.

We have around 1000 colleagues across DDTS and our ambition is to make it easier and faster than ever for people to interact with Defra. If you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you. Join us and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.

Find out more about DDTS:

Defra digital, data and technology blog

Defra Jobs

We are Government Digital and Data Candidate Information Pack V3 - 1

Job description

Digital, Data, Technology and Security (DDTS) is responsible for delivering secure, sustainable and reliable technology services across the Defra Group.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and commercially-minded Technology Procurement Manager to join our growing Technology Procurement Team. This is a unique opportunity to help shape some of the largest and most complex technology procurements in government, supporting services that underpin critical operational and digital capabilities across Defra.

Working closely with DDTS Service Owners, Supplier Managers, Defra Commercial, architects, security specialists and senior stakeholders, you will help deliver procurement activity covering areas such as cloud services, hosting, networks, collaboration platforms, service management tooling, cyber security and major digital transformation programmes.

The successful candidate will support procurement projects from initial market engagement through to contract award, mobilisation and supplier onboarding. You will also help develop standards, governance and best practice across DDTS, ensuring contracts deliver value for money, innovation, sustainability and long-term business outcomes.

Person specification

Responsibilities:

Supporting medium and large-scale technology procurements from strategy through to contract award. Developing procurement documentation, requirements, evaluation criteria and supplier engagement activities.
Working with technical, security and service management teams to shape sourcing strategies and procurement approaches.
Managing market engagement and supplier interactions to understand emerging technologies and best practice. Supporting evaluation, moderation and governance activities for complex procurements.
Supporting the maintenance of the DDTS procurement pipeline and associated reporting.
Helping to embed supplier management, social value and sustainability requirements within procurements.
Supporting supplier onboarding, mobilisation and transition activities following contract award.
Contributing to the development of the DDTS Technology Procurement knowledge base, templates and governance standards.

Skills and experience:

We are looking for someone who can combine commercial awareness with an understanding of technology and digital services. You will ideally have:

Experience supporting procurement, contract management or supplier management activities.
A strong interest in technology, digital services or IT-enabled business change.
Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
Experience working with multiple stakeholders to deliver outcomes in a complex environment.
Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret information and make recommendations.
An understanding of supplier governance, risk management and value for money principles.
Experience of working in a multi-supplier environment would be advantageous.
Awareness of public sector procurement, commercial frameworks or contract management approaches would be beneficial.

Selection process

The Civil Service marks each element of the selection process on a merit basis. You can visit the gov.uk website for further information on the Civil Service rating scale.

Ensure you have tailored your CV and Personal Statement to the 'skills and experience' section of the job advert by providing examples on how you are suitable for the role using the STAR method.

Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your personal statement, how you meet these requirements, as the information you provide will form a key part when the panel is scoring your application.

For further information on STAR, you can check out our Hints and Tips document.

Application process

As part of the application process, you will be assessed on your experience. This will be evaluated by looking at your CV and personal statement, so please provide the following and ensure your experience is clearly demonstrated:

A CV
A 500-word Personal Statement: Referring to the 'skills and experience' sections of the job advert, please demonstrate how you are suitable for the role by providing relevant examples.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Sift

Sift will begin shortly after the advert closes.

Should there be a large number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted using your personal statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment or interview.

Interview

If successful at sift, you will be invited to an interview where you will be assessed on the Behaviours and listed below, as well as Experience and Strengths.

Interview dates are to be confirmed. Please note that these may be subject to change.

Interviews will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams.

For further information on Success Profiles, you can visit the links below and watch our videos on DefraJobs.

Behaviours
Experience

Strengths

Behaviours

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

Communicating and Influencing
Delivering at Pace
Making Effective Decisions
Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,665, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £12,360 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).

25 days leave (rising to 30 days over 5 years) plus bank holidays.

A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
A day off per year for the King's birthday.
Access to a range of retail discounts (these include supermarket, tech, gym, holiday, phone and more).
Flexible working options such as condensed hours, part-time and flexi time.
3 paid volunteering days per year.
Funding for professional membership of a recognised professional body.
Learning and development tailored to your role and budget for training or qualifications.
A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
Cycle to work scheme.
Health cash plan to help you manage health costs for a reduced monthly fee.
Access to the Employee Assistance Programme open 24 hours, 7 days a week, that provides support to you during any times of stress or difficulty.
Free access to Headspace for wellbeing.
Season ticket loan for public transport.

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 Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Location

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).

Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Reserve list

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Near miss

Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be considered for other positions in Defra which may be at a lower grade, but have a potential skills match.

Merit Lists

Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be posted in merit order by location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.

Salary

Existing Civil Servants moving on level transfer will retain their current salary or move onto the pay range minimum, whichever is the higher. Staff moving on promotion will have their pay increased by 10% or move onto the pay range minimum, whichever is the higher. As a general rule allowances and supplements will not be recognised.

Reasonable adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'contact point for applicants' section.

Security Clearance

All of these posts require the successful candidate to hold Basic BPSS security clearance. Job offers to these posts are made on the basis of merit. Security vetting will only take place after the receipt of a job offer.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website. Please be aware the levels of national security clearance are changing which may impact on the level needed for this role by the time of appointment. All efforts will be made to keep candidates informed of any changes and what that will mean in terms of vetting criteria. For more information please See our vetting charter.

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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.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

Salary range

£42,665 - £46,765 per year