Commercial Practitioner
Job summary
The Integrated Corporate Services (ICS) is a shared corporate service. It provides corporate services (HR, Finance, Digital, Commercial, Security and Estates) across the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT).
Our team of over 400 professionals will be leading the way in how these functions will be delivered in the future. Our ambition is to be the leading provider of integrated corporate services for government and set the standard for quality, efficiency, and innovation in our field.
We offer great working benefits including a world-class pension, flexible working options and a career where your learning and development is taken seriously. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.
Find Out More
You can also follow our LinkedIn Careers Page: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/desnz-careers/
Job description
We are seeking a strong communicator and an enthusiastic team member, who can support the delivery of commercial objectives within ICS. The successful applicant will be responsible for supporting Digital Commercial activity across the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.This is a broad area covering customers in all policy teams across the Department and working with ICS Digital colleagues. The successful applicants will report to the Commercial Lead for ICS Digital. You will contribute towards the effectiveness and efficiency of Commercial, by supporting your team with varied tasks and help turn issues into opportunities.
In this role the Commercial Practitioner is expected to support the end-to-end sourcing of a range of requirements, providing commercial support to our operational procurements to enable them to build experience across the commercial team. The job holder is expected to evolve their commercial skills in all aspects of procurement, including tendering, supply, contract and supplier management and compliance, working closely with stakeholders.
Person specification
- You will support the end-to-end sourcing activities including market engagement, launching procurements on the e-sourcing portal, managing timelines and stakeholder expectations. You will work with a variety of stakeholders to support the development of clear business requirements to articulate these into sourcing activities. Building and maintaining relationships with a range of stakeholders.
- You will identify value for money ways to contract, leading end to end competitive and single source procurement activities.
- You will support the Commercial Lead and Associate Commercial Lead where appropriate throughout the commercial governance process.
- You will support the Associate Commercial Lead in Pipeline Planning, maintaining the Commercial Activity Log (Pipeline) for our up-and-coming projects and our Contracts Agreement Register.
- You will uphold and evidence commercial best practice and transparency through updating and maintaining of the commercial E-Procurement system, Jaggaer.
- You will support with commercial contract management for commercial issues or for variation and extensions requests.
- You will support the Commercial Lead and Associate Commercial Leads in the development of the overall category strategies and sub-categories.
- The job holder will need to be well organised and able to prioritise effectively, work independently and be required to work closely with stakeholders across the Department.
Essential Criteria
- Experience of supporting procurement process whilst ensuring compliance and adhering to set guidelines;
- The skills to persuade, influence and negotiate with internal and external stakeholders both written and oral
- Ability to work as part of a team and use initiative to deliver outcomes and meet commercial objectives
- Excellent administration and organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise tasks and manage risks and deliver tasks to time and quality requirements
- Excellent problem-solving skills, with strong attention to detail, planning and communication skills
Desirable Criteria
- Procurement experience in a Digital category
- Experience of using Public Procurement Regulations
- Experience of supporting effective contract management processes
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Delivering at Pace
- Communicating and Influencing
- Working Together
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £35,950, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £10,414 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).The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:
- A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
- Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
- A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
- An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
- Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
- A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need.
Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
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 and Experience.After submission of the first stage of your application you will be invited to complete a Civil Service Judgement Test and a Civil Service Styles Assessment Test. If you successfully pass the test, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application.
Please complete the online tests as soon as possible (within 24-48 hours is recommended), the closing date for the tests is 17th August 2026 at 23:55. If you fail to complete the online test before the deadline your application will be withdrawn. Guidance for the test will be available when you are invited to take the test. The tests are administered online and accessed via the CS Jobs website.
You will be directed to the Talogy - True Talent – Scheduled Maintenance Window Webpage for online tests during an outage.
Our online test supplier will be performing scheduled maintenance between 3pm and midnight on Sunday 2nd August 2026. You will be unable to access tests during this period.
If you are in the middle of a test when the maintenance begins, your progress will be paused. You will be able to resume your test from where you left off via your application centre once the downtime has ended. Please note that you will not be able to launch any new tests while the system is offline.
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and a number of behaviour statements. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Applications will be sifted on behavioural statements.
In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the lead behaviour statement (Delivering at Pace) only.
Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
The interview will consist of behaviour questions.
Please note - the CV incorporated into the application form is for information purposes only and will not be scored.
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Further Information
Reasonable Adjustment
We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.
Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DESNZ Candidate Guidance. A DESNZ Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.
We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.
Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.
Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
Any move to the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.
DESNZ does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).
DESNZ cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DESNZ holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service /Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.
However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email Info@disclosurescotland.co.uk
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
Feedback
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
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 : Amy Edwards
- Email : amy.edwards2@ics.gov.uk
Recruitment team
Further information
Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance DESNZrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: Click here to visit Civil Service Commission/ComplaintsAttachments
DESNZ TCs v1.2 Opens in new window (doc, 174kB)Salary range
- £35,950 - £42,700 per year