Leeds City Council
Senior Commissioning Officer
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Job title: Senior Commissioning Officer
Salary: PO2 £39,862–£42,839
Hours: 37 hours per week
Contract: Temporary for two years
Location: Merrion House, Leeds, with flexible and hybrid working subject to service requirements
Role Overview
As a Senior Commissioning Officer, you’ll play a key role in strengthening property governance across Adults and Health. You will bring structure, clarity, and coordinated oversight to a varied portfolio of properties that support commissioned services, helping the directorate meet its legal, financial, and regulatory responsibilities.
Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region. We recruit and develop talented people who share our council values and ambitions and want to make a positive difference to communities across Leeds.
About You
As a Senior Commissioning Officer, you will bring to the role:
- Experience of commissioning, contract management, or managing complex projects and programmes to agreed outcomes and deadlines.
- The ability to develop productive working relationships across services, with partners, providers, and other stakeholders.
- Strong analytical and organizational skills, including the ability to interpret complex information, maintain accurate records, and develop practical governance systems.
- Knowledge of financial, information governance, data protection, and safeguarding principles relevant to commissioning activity.
- The confidence to communicate clearly, prepare concise reports, manage competing priorities, and identify constructive solutions.
About The Role
As our next Senior Commissioning Officer, you’ll be the central point of coordination for property-related commissioning activity. You will establish a clear framework covering leases, licences, tenancy arrangements, rent and payment processes, fire risk assessments, condition surveys, compliance actions, and associated records.
Working across Integrated Commissioning and alongside colleagues in Asset Management, Housing, Land and Property, Legal, Finance, and operational services, you will help clarify responsibilities, monitor actions and risks, and support informed decisions about the property portfolio. The role will also support current work with residents, families, and providers where property works or service changes affect people’s homes. By creating sustainable processes and reliable oversight, you will help reduce duplication, improve compliance, and ensure the directorate is better prepared for future change.
What We Offer You
We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:
- A competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays.
- Membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions.
- Flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements.
- A clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities.
- A range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further.
How To Apply
Please complete the online application form, clearly demonstrating how you meet the essential requirements for the role.
Please read the application guidance for further advice on completing your application.
If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role, please contact Michelle Cale, Commissioning Programme Leader, on 0113 378 8058 or email michelle.cale@leeds.gov.uk.
We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans, as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled, and care experienced people.
This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme, or having secured any other relevant work visa.
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If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visa route before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship, you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Please ensure you are eligible before applying.
Job Purpose
To assist the Commissioning Programme Leaders / Heads of Commissioning by undertaking aspects of cross-directorate commissioning and contract management at Principal Officer level.
To be responsible for the management of a portfolio of work which contributes to the delivery of one or more of the following:
- Service review, development, and innovation.
- Commissioning activity that contributes to the Directorate’s and Council’s priorities. Commissioning takes many forms and includes negotiating individual care packages, large scale reviews and procurements, and working with others to improve the service offer.
- Development of strategy and policy relating to services for key client groups.
- Programme and contract management to maximize outcomes and to ensure value for money and quality.
Responsibilities
- To support the strategic review of services, commissioning of new services, re-commission / decommission existing services, and to co-ordinate joint working within the Directorate, across the Council, and with external partners as appropriate.
- To develop a working knowledge and understanding of contracted services to inform commissioning.
- To develop and manage project meetings and provide meeting support to include key stakeholders in any commissioning outcome.
- To be responsible for the contract management of a portfolio of services, ensuring effective relationship management with partners, value for money, and achievement of quality standards and efficiency savings targets. Identifying and developing the capacity of providers across all market sectors.
- To be responsible for performance monitoring, including monitoring notifications of safeguarding and serious incident reports relating to provider organisations.
- To contribute to project and programme management of key areas of work, including working with Council colleagues and external partners to achieve desired outcomes to agreed (and often tight) deadlines.
- To support the development of key policy and strategy relating to the commissioning of services.
- Work effectively with the Corporate Procurement Team to ensure compliance with all relevant procurement procedures and to support the commissioning team to undertake its responsibilities in relation to the procurement of commissioned services.
- To contribute to the preparation and presentation of complex information in a variety of formats to a range of audiences at different levels, including preparing reports to support effective decision-making at a strategic and political level within the Council.
- To contribute to the delivery of collaborative partnerships and working relationships with providers, internal and external partners, elected members, and key stakeholders in the city to ensure the availability and delivery of quality services.
- Lead regular monitoring meetings associated with the portfolio of contracts and ensure that delivery is achieving expected targets and outcomes and remains compliant with the terms of the contracts and facilitating quality improvements and service development where necessary.
- To work on behalf of the team or represent the Commissioning Manager, on specified functional areas or work streams for the Directorate.
- To support PO4 Commissioning Managers in providing briefings, guidance, and support to senior officers, elected members, and staff across the Council in relation to one or more service areas.
- To develop a working knowledge of relevant Council, Directorate, and Partnership plans and priorities, including the implications for service areas.
- To undertake effective evaluation of projects and contracts, including data collection; collation and scrutiny and performance management information; benchmarking; report writing, risk analysis, and the implementation of practical outcomes and lessons learned.
- To undertake consultation and engagement with service users and other stakeholders ensuring that the outcomes are used to influence commissioning, service design, and delivery.
- To assist in maximizing resources for the City including supporting partnership and service area bids for resources and by working in conjunction with the relevant Finance Officers to monitor expenditure and ensure financial targets are met.
- To ensure compliance with any governance requirements relating to the work of the team, including those relating to commissioning, procurement, and financial management.
- To take a line management role of staff, including managing performance and attendance and assessing and meeting development needs through appraisals. To undertake supervision meetings, and to demonstrate strong and effective management in line with the Council’s values and standards.
- To be responsible for your own personal development and to assist the team to plan and develop activities which ensure up-to-date knowledge and skills within the team.
- To ensure due regard is taken of equality and diversity when designing, delivering, or reviewing policies, strategies, services, and human resources and ensure that any mitigating actions are delivered.
- The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.
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Essential Requirements
It is essential that the candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post. Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate that they meet all the essential requirements.
- Ability to effectively contract manage services delivered by commissioned providers.
- Ability to develop productive working relationships which create respect, trust, and confidence.
- Ability to coordinate performance management activities which improve service quality and supports a culture that drives up standards and performance.
- Ability to support financial management and work within a budget.
- Ability to engage effectively with a wide and diverse range of stakeholders including external partners and service users.
- Ability to provide support to the management of strategic partnerships involving various stakeholders to achieve positive outcomes.
- Ability to work flexibly across a range of simultaneous initiatives and as part of a larger team.
- Ability to develop systems and to analyse and interrogate a range of varied and complex data using a variety of methods, including relevant IT software, to inform future delivery and planning.
- Ability to support programmes and projects and support the functioning of project teams.
- Ability to develop and present reports to a variety of audiences.
- Ability to think creatively and to solve problems in a constructive way.
- Ability to work to strict deadlines and to manage personal work and time effectively.
- Knowledge of project / programme and/or contract management principles and processes required to ensure outcomes are maximized and value for money achieved.
- Understanding of commissioning principles and practice.
- A knowledge of key strategic plans
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