Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Technology Procurement Manager
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Bristol, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Reading, Warrington, York
Job Summary
Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.
Digital, Data, Technology and Security (DDTS) is the trusted team for digital across the entire Defra Group.
We have around 1000 colleagues across DDTS and our ambition is to make it easier and faster than ever for people to interact with Defra. If you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you. Join us and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.
Find Out More About DDTS
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Job Description
Digital, Data, Technology and Security (DDTS) is responsible for delivering secure, sustainable and reliable technology services across the Defra Group.
We are looking for an enthusiastic and commercially-minded Technology Procurement Manager to join our growing Technology Procurement Team. This is a unique opportunity to help shape some of the largest and most complex technology procurements in government, supporting services that underpin critical operational and digital capabilities across Defra.
Working closely with DDTS Service Owners, Supplier Managers, Defra Commercial, architects, security specialists and senior stakeholders, you will help deliver procurement activity covering areas such as cloud services, hosting, networks, collaboration platforms, service management tooling, cyber security and major digital transformation programmes.
The successful candidate will support procurement projects from initial market engagement through to contract award, mobilisation and supplier onboarding. You will also help develop standards, governance and best practice across DDTS, ensuring contracts deliver value for money, innovation, sustainability and long-term business outcomes.
Person specification
Responsibilities
- Supporting medium and large-scale technology procurements from strategy through to contract award. Developing procurement documentation, requirements, evaluation criteria and supplier engagement activities.
- Working with technical, security and service management teams to shape sourcing strategies and procurement approaches.
- Managing market engagement and supplier interactions to understand emerging technologies and best practice. Supporting evaluation, moderation and governance activities for complex procurements.
- Supporting the maintenance of the DDTS procurement pipeline and associated reporting.
- Helping to embed supplier management, social value and sustainability requirements within procurements.
- Supporting supplier onboarding, mobilisation and transition activities following contract award.
- Contributing to the development of the DDTS Technology Procurement knowledge base, templates and governance standards.
Skills And Experience
We are looking for someone who can combine commercial awareness with an understanding of technology and digital services. You will ideally have:
- Experience supporting procurement, contract management or supplier management activities.
- A strong interest in technology, digital services or IT-enabled business change.
- Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
- Experience working with multiple stakeholders to deliver outcomes in a complex environment.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret information and make recommendations.
- An understanding of supplier governance, risk management and value for money principles.
- Experience of working in a multi-supplier environment would be advantageous.
- Awareness of public sector procurement, commercial frameworks or contract management approaches would be beneficial.
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Selection process
The Civil Service marks each element of the selection process on a merit basis. You can visit the gov.uk website for further information on the Civil Service rating scale.
Ensure you have tailored your CV and Personal Statement to the'skills and experience' section of the job advert by providing examples on how you are suitable for the role using the STAR method.
Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your personal statement, how you meet these requirements, as the information you provide will form a key part when the panel is scoring your application.
For further information on STAR, you can check out our Hints and Tips document.
Application process
As Part Of The Application Process, You Will Be Assessed On Your Experience. This Will Be Evaluated By Looking At Your CV And Personal Statement, So Please Provide The Following And Ensure Your Experience Is Clearly Demonstrated
- A CV
- A 500-word Personal Statement: Referring to the 'skills and experience' sections of the job advert, please demonstrate how you are suitable for the role by providing relevant examples.
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Sift
Sift will begin shortly after the advert closes.
Should there be a large number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted using your personal statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment or interview.
Interview
If successful at sift, you will be invited to an interview where you will be assessed on the Behaviours and listed below, as well as Experience and Strengths.
Interview dates are to be confirmed. Please note that these may be subject to change.
Interviews will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams.
For further information on Success Profiles, you can visit the links below and watch our videos on DefraJobs.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Making Effective Decisions
- Seeing the Big Picture
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £42,665, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £12,360 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).
- 25 days leave (rising to 30 days over 5 years) plus bank holidays.
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
- A day off per year for the King's birthday.
- Access to a range of retail discounts (these include supermarket, tech, gym, holiday, phone and more).
- Flexible working options such as condensed hours, part-time and flexi time.
- 3 paid volunteering days per year.
- Funding for professional membership of a recognised professional body.
- Learning and development tailored to your role and budget for training or qualifications.
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
- Cycle to work scheme.
- Health cash plan to help you manage health costs for a reduced monthly fee.
- Access to the Employee Assistance Programme open 24 hours, 7 days a week, that provides support to you during any times of stress or difficulty.
- Free access to Headspace for wellbeing.
- Season ticket loan for public transport.
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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, Strengths and Experience.
Location
As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s).
Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.
Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.
The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.
Reserve list
A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.
Near miss
Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be considered for other positions in Defra which may be at a lower grade, but have a potential skills match.
Merit Lists
Where more than one location is advertised, candidates will be posted in merit order by location. You will be asked to state your location preference on your application.
Salary
Existing Civil Servants moving on level transfer will retain their current salary or move onto the pay range minimum, whichever is the higher. Staff moving on promotion will have their pay increased by 10% or move onto the pay range minimum, whichever is the higher. As a general rule allowances and supplements will not be recognised.
Reasonable adjustment
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
- Contact Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date
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