Commercial Manager

To accommodate this rapid growth in the sector, in 2019 the UK Space Agency stood up its in-house commercial capability within the Investment Directorate. The successful candidate for the Commercial Manager role will therefore join a small, agile and friendly team with the opportunity to make a great impact on how we engage with the marketplace and meet the demands of our customers. This will include a blend of commercial assurance and delivery responsibility across the Agency’s strategic programmes and major projects, dealing with contracts and grant agreements. The priorities for the post holder will be to lead on providing commercial advice and recommendations to programme and project teams within the Agency, and to drive stakeholder engagement/collaboration to achieve the most effective commercial outcomes.
The role is seeking a commercial practitioner with the ability to deliver the following duties:
To support development of commercial and procurement strategies across a range of exciting and unique space-based initiatives such as the Commercial Spaceflight and International Partnership programmes
To engage proactively and provide commercial advice and support to ensure major project and programme teams can adopt a truly end to end commercial lifecycle approach. This activity will include reviewing supplier and grant recipient proposals, change requests and deliverables, providing recommendations, identifying risks and issues, and negotiating excellent and innovative commercial outcomes.
Support preparing briefs and guidance as required for a variety of internal and external audiences, including UK Space Agency teams, non-commercial specialists, senior government officials and potential suppliers.
To support the delivery of training and awareness for Agency staff in commercial matters appropriate to their needs.
Support the design and delivery of market engagement and strategic supplier management activity to ensure the Agency is able to capitalise on an increasingly dynamic marketplace comprising start-ups, disruptive tech companies and international firms.
Support the Commercial Leads to deliver against Agency policy and process standards for contracting and grant competitions reflecting government commercial principles while ensuring value-for-money solutions and effectively managing risks.
To support the Commercial Leads in undertaking oversight and assurance activity in accordance with Agency governance principles.
Maintain the contracts and grants database and help to enable our transition to automated ways of working.
Support audit activity in relation to the UK Space Agency Corporate Grant Policy to ensure optimum use of tax-payer funds.
The post does not currently include any line management responsibilities, but this may be required as the team continues to expand.
Person specification
Essential Criteria:
Experience of using commercial acumen to develop effective and value-for-money outcomes to meet business needs whilst identifying and mitigating commercial and procurement risks
Strong negotiation skills to drive excellent commercial outcomes including a proven track record of negotiating contract terms
Ability to analyse a complex delivery environment to make effective commercial recommendations (including the development of commercial and procurement strategies) and present compelling business cases.
Ability to consider and influence the needs of others while observing compliance with government commercial service standards.
Good working knowledge of EU procurement directives and public contracts regulations (including PCR 2015), as well as experience of delivering procurements via advanced purchasing techniques (e.g. OJEU).
Experience of working on complex projects or programmes.
Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to build strong relationships.
Ability to communicate clearly, succinctly and persuasively in writing, in meetings and in presentations.
Desirable Criteria:
MCIPS or working towards (any level).
Programme or project management qualification (such as from the Association of Project Managers, PRINCE2, Managing Successful Programmes or similar).
Experience of working on Grants and an awareness of the principles of the standards for Government Grants.