Commercial E Systems Lead - Commercial E-Commerce Systems and Compliance

The Government Property Agency is the largest property holder in government, with more than £2.1 billion in property assets and over 55% of the government’s office estate.

We are transforming the way the Civil Service works by creating great places to work, leading the largest commercial office programme in the UK, working towards halving carbon emissions from government offices, and achieving greater value for taxpayers. And we are looking for innovative, solutions-focused people to join our team.

Representing the best covenant in the UK – His Majesty’s Government – we are leading transformational programmes such as the Government Hubs Programme, Whitehall Campus Programme and Net Zero Programme, as well as delivering modern, cost-effective real estate service solutions.

Innovation and progress are at the heart of our behaviours. We foster a culture of lifelong learning, where curiosity and self-improvement are encouraged. And we’re dedicated to becoming a leading, inclusive employer both in the external market and throughout the Civil Service. Our strong emphasis on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) is not just about driving inclusion across our organisation, it is also about ensuring our services meet the needs of government departments and the civil servants who use our spaces.

Join our dynamic and diverse team that leads with purpose, improving sustainability, nurturing social value, driving inclusivity and flexibility, and kickstarting economic growth. We are driven by purpose, and you can be part of it too: where you make a meaningful impact; where you influence; where your voice really matters; where you help to shape our future direction.

The GPA is committed to representing the communities we serve by making Diversity, Equality and Inclusion part of everything we do.

To ensure that we are always recruiting and retaining a diverse mix of talent, we are particularly inviting applications from candidates who are disabled, ethnically or gender diverse, and people who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

The Government Property Agency (GPA) Commercial Team sits within the Chief Operating Officer’s (COO) Group and is responsible for the full range of commercial activity delivered across GPA. The COO and Finance Commercial Team are at the heart of the commercial function GPA. We are driving transformational change that underpins and supports the GPA wide Commercial Teams. The

GPA commercial activity is growing in confidence and maturity as it develops and strengthens its commercial remit. This team offers the opportunity to drive and make change, and this role will implement digital processes and systems to underpin commercial activity and generate data and MI to monitor activity, compliance and support governance and reporting.

You will need to be self-motivated,have an enquiring mind set and understand user needs to ensure outputs meet those needs. It would be helpful if you understand commercial activity in particular in a government context, but for the right candidate these skills can be learned. The successful candidate should have the ability to explain digital solutions to non digital stakeholders and have the ability to present data in a meaningful way. You will be practical and pragmatic. You will need to be a team player and work with a range of stakeholders both internally and externally to drive change and innovation. Contract management of suppliers would also be a desirable skill to demonstrate. The remit of the team is both transformative and operationally critical, providing support to a range of GPA teams, and this strategic position within the GPA Corporate environment provides opportunities to build close relationships across GPA

You will be responsible for the commercial E systems that underpin the commercial end to end lifecycle for procurements and contracts delivered across GPA. This role also links into governance, compliance and reporting against commercial activity in GPA, and would require you to work closely with Finance colleagues too.

The Commercial Systems Lead will have the scope and freedom to consider how to develop our systems and ensure we achieve full value from existing systems, whilst ensuring commercial activity demonstrates compliance with Procurement legislation.

This role will report to the Head of Commercial for COO and Finance and have line management responsibilities of one individual .

To ensure we comply with relevant Procurement regulations and align with business processes within GPA, we rely on digital systems including Proactis Rego, providing us with tools for Sourcing, Contract Management, Supplier Relationship Management covering the end-to-end commercial process. The a Commercial Systems Lead will take ownership of our digital platforms, work with users to develop the systems, applying Project Management techniques and meet government digital standards. GPA must leverage the right technology, processes and policies to achieve commercial objectives, and demonstrate how we are meeting GPA business plan through rich data and MI. This role requires an individual who is able to lead on application management, change management, user training, user support, reporting, systems integration and other related areas in line with regulation, governance and business processes. It will involve day-to-day activities, and also project work, in cases where we need to onboard a new solution or upgrade an existing one. The successful candidate will also work with a systems support officer, who will support them, and report into them.

The Commercial Systems Lead will play a critical role in monitoring compliance to drive commercial performance, and using the data from our systems to generate a range of reports and MI, this will require good financial understanding and analytical skills. You will use data to underpin our drive for continuous commercial improvement and transform utilisation of data and systems to deliver better commercial outcomes. This role requires an individual who is able to balance multiple priorities and improvement projects alongside assurance of BAU and operation stability, reporting and delivery of ad hoc projects as they arise.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop a long term strategy for the development of the commercial systems and implementation for GPA and its commercial team
• Oversee the design, implementation and integration of commercial systems, which may not but no be limited to proactis
• Ensure prevailing and new procurement legislation requirements are sufficiently understood to apply to commercial systems.
• Ensure commercial systems are optimised, and perform well to underpin GPAs’ commercial activity and reporting needs.
• Lead the management of E-system suppliers, applying governance, changing management principles to maximise performance and delivery, alongside meeting internal governance processes
• Lead the alignment of E Systems with central government commercial platforms ensuring data is pushed and pulled through the appropriate channels.
• Lead the assurance processes to ensure cyber security and GDPR is applied to the commercial e-systems.
• Lead initiatives to deliver improvements, including ideas for innovation and bringing your experience to this area, a continuous improvement philosophy
• Work with users to ensure delivery and improvements meet not only user needs but align with the commercial lifecycle, compliance reporting, and cabinet office central digital platforms.
• Act as an E Commerce expert for the commercial team and provide clear direction when possible.
• Support the team using E-Systems across the commercial lifecycle. This may include hand holding or upskilling Single Points of Contact in each of the commercial teams
• Support delivery of reliable systems infrastructure and effective data management in support of the full commercial lifecycle.
• Engage with stakeholders to capture new business requirements and evaluate the system's performance, risks, and opportunities.
• Develop and deliver systems data training and/or guidance to build the agencies and users' capabilities and skills. Producing guidance, how do I guides or videos to support understanding and self service against our commercial systems.
• Use stakeholder management and engagement techniques to leverage available data sets and systems to drive continuous improvement and underpin commercial performance reporting and dashboards for a range of stakeholders including senior management
• Develop dashboards and drive compliance and qualitative data accuracy
• Drive the improvements of data quality and management information usage across GPA commercial and the wider GPA agency.
• The ability to interpret dashboards and data to bring Data and Mi to life.
• The ability to work with a range of data including financial
• Lead the representation of GPA on relevant cross-government forums and functions and act as the single point of contact for E-Commerce, E-Sender communications and the broader Transforming Public Procurement programme roll out of digital platforms and interactions between GPA and Cabinet Office
• Oversee the development and, where applicable, lead the implementation of the data roadmap to drive data integrity and adherence to Data Governance standards
• Enable reporting and insights to inform commercial/category strategies and support robust decision-making. Measure and report GAP Commercial performance, fulfilling reporting needs including the GCF.
• Oversee the production of performance analysis (Scorecards, Dashboards and Reports)
• Provide outstanding leadership, enabling effective delivery and supporting professional and personal development. Contribute to creating a great workplace, championing diversity and inclusive ways of working.

This role will be responsible for ensuring commercial systems, data, and insights are used to drive performance improvement and support effective commercial strategies and decision-making.

The role will also support specific initiatives defined by the Head of COO and Finance Commercial. These could cover data and Mi for contract management, governance, and category management.

In this role, you will be required to act on your own initiative, lead and drive projects and services, and engage and influence key stakeholders within your areas of responsibility.

You will be expected to maintain solid relationships and provide advice and guidance on commercial best practice across the Commercial Directorate and wider department

You will be:

• Technical expertise in developing, designing and implementing commercial E-commerce systems.
• Demonstrable experience in data analysis and experience delivering within large-scale transformation programmes.
• Demonstrable experience in leading large scale systems and data change programmes.
• Ability to present, communicate and disseminate data and information appropriately and with high impact;
• Experience in selecting the appropriate medium to visualise data to tell compelling and actionable stories relevant to business goals.
• Strong analytical skills, including financial data.
• Strong project management skills.
• Demonstrable experience of stakeholder management and building strong and collaborative relationships cross functionally.
• Strong verbal communication skills with the ability to challenge assumptions and explain technical issues to stakeholders without the use of jargon;
• Experience balancing competing priorities/demands and working to tight deadlines;
• Experience in leading development of a range of clear and engaging products using data visualisation software for example Power BI.
• Contract management of 3rd party suppliers.
• Ability to use judgement to take a considered approach to situations or emerging new Most importantly we are looking for people with the right personal qualities: enthusiasm, energy, proactivity, and self-motivation while being flexible and adaptive to a demanding and changing environment.
• Knowledge of government digital standards.
• Have an understanding of the commercial lifecycle and commercial acumen.

Additional information:

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Experience & Technical Skills

Essential criteria:

• Clear communication skills.
• Experience developing and implementing E commerce products.
• Project Management skills.
• Stakeholder and Contract management skills.
• Well developed excel and data management skills.

Desirable criteria:

• Experience working in the public sector.
• Experience of developing guidance for users of online systems.
• Experience with governance and compliance structures.
• Commercial experience.

Qualifications and Accreditations

Desirable criteria:

• There is an opportunity to work towards CIPS Level 4 qualifications.

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

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing

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

• Customer Perspective
• Commercial Acumen
• Property Market Knowledge
• Innovation

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Generous annual leave

Job contact :

• Name : Jo Meaney
• Email : [email protected]

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]