Contract Specialist

Contract Specialist

Ref: 357633

Salary: £51,685 - £58,105

New entrants are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.

A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Location: Lowestoft, Weymouth

Closing date: 11:55pm on Monday 22 July 2024.

Job summary

The Commercial Advice Team (CAT) are a customer facing, professional team responsible for Cefas' contractual and legal documentation. This primarily involves reviewing, drafting, negotiating and advising on various types of contractual/legal documentation and identifying associated commercial risks. For this role we are looking for someone who is able to review and draft various complex legal/contract documents, highlight commercial risks and provide pragmatic commercial advice to various areas of the business to achieve the following:

• Ensuring mitigation of risks through the most effective/appropriate type of Contract or Agreement whilst adhering to internal policies and Government regulations.
• Interpretation of legal terms to project teams to ensure compliance with contract terms.
• Protection of Cefas' interests through contractual arrangements whilst enhancing the chance of winning successful funding contracts.
• Implementation of consistent commercial advice and approaches throughout Cefas.
• Input and delivery of the Commercial Advice Team yearly strategy including development/mentoring of team members.

The successful candidate will use their extensive knowledge of drafting contract terms and conditions to develop complex contracting arrangements with a range of UK and international partners (including government, public bodies and commercial partners). They will also develop close relationships with various parts of the organisation enabling transfer of knowledge on commercial matters across the organisation to ensure Cefas is able to achieve successful delivery of projects and science in support of the UK Government's global environmental objectives.

Job description

The main duties of the successful applicant will be to take the lead in constructing complex legal arrangements with multiple partners. This will include collaborating with both internal project teams and external organisations to advise, draft and negotiate suitable contract terms which meet the needs of the project whilst also protecting the interests of Cefas. The successful applicant will also liaise with Portfolio Leads and project teams to provide commercial advice on a variety of topics during both bidding and delivery phases of the project. These topics include highlighting commercial risks and mitigations for input into bidding go/no go decisions, review of final bidding documentation, advising on legal aspects within contracts, explanation of contract terms and conditions to project delivery staff, advice to project delivery staff on addressing contractual issues should they arise, commercial risk mitigation and representation of the CAT on various internal boards.

Where necessary the successful applicant will liaise with external lawyers to obtain advice that is outside the current field of CAT expertise (e.g. international law) and interpret the external legal advice for the project delivery team or senior managers to provide recommendations which support decision making. The successful applicant will work with various types of organisations including government, universities, commercial and international partners to draft and agree appropriate collaborative agreements. In addition, there is also a strong drive within the team to improve and streamline procedures and documents to ensure they comply with the latest standards.

The successful applicant will be expected to work closely with the Head of Commercial Advice to create the Commercial Advice Strategy, focussing on improving the team's delivery of services and the development of both the team and others within Cefas in commercial/contractual matters. The successful applicant will support the Head of Commercial advice by taking an active role in driving the implementation of the strategy and ensure that the team is effective in its delivery of services.

In addition, Cefas reserves the right to ask staff to take on additional duties and responsibilities which are commensurate with their grade. Team Leaders and management will have a discussion with staff to explain the changes that are to be made. A new job description will be issued if required.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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.

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.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction.