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General information

Posting ID
PIP4626
Type of employment
Contract
Organisation
Ministry of Defence
Contract duration
6 months
Location
Bristol
Workplace Type
Hybrid

Description & Requirements

On behalf of the MOD, we are looking for a Category Group Manager Inside IR35


The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is a central government department with a mission to protect our country and provide the ultimate guarantee of its security and independence, as well as helping to protect its values and interests abroad.


The MOD is one of the biggest public procurement organisations in Europe and the single largest customer for UK industry. It currently manages approximately £20 billion of spend on capital investments in equipment and infrastructure every year. Over the next decade the MOD is committed to spending over £190 billion on equipment and support. The MOD’s customers include both the armed forces and national security agencies, and it has a diverse range of requirements, including military fighting vehicles, education services, nuclear submarines and facilities management.


The MOD’s aim is to provide its armed forces with the best capabilities to enable them to protect the UK’s security and advance national interests, both now and in the long term.


To do this the MOD has an annual budget of almost £53 billion and a workforce comprising 197,000 people. of which 54,000 are civilians working for the UK MOD.


The work really matters; the MOD offers a range of engaging roles which have a direct impact on the quality of services they provide, in many locations across the UK. We support teams working in HR, Primary Health Care, Corporate Services, and many others.


Role Purpose:

In the role of Category Group Manager you will be responsible for providing senior level thought leadership and experience across the Portfolio and associated categories, driving up the maturity and quality of category strategies and their adoption within the portfolio categories.


You will be responsible for building and directly leading a team of (c2-5) Category Management staff, building their confidence and commercial capability and deep category expertise to drive performance and manage setbacks. The role will also require you to use your commercial expertise to identify opportunities for improvement and implement these changes at a local level by working with affected parties to identify and overcome challenges.


You and your team will contribute to delivering commercial excellence for a category group aligned to a capability portfolio, through development and implementation of category strategies (for categories that include large complex platforms, equipment, support contracts, Infrastructure, FM, corporate services, digital services and commodities) across the commercial lifecycle.


You will engage with Senior Leaders across MOD and be a core member of the Portfolio and Category Management leadership teams, providing a customer-focused service, understanding the business needs and stakeholder drivers, with the aim of becoming a trusted commercial advisor. You will also develop relationships with the department’s key and strategic suppliers, driving ‘value for money’ and risk management excellence across the category.


For clarity, ownership of the implementation of agreed strategies will sit with the respective Delivery Organisations with the Category Management team supporting as required.


SC Clearance is an essential requirement for this role, as a minimum you must be willing & eligible to undergo checks. Please note, due to the exceptional requirements of this position (due to the nature of this role and speed at which we require a postholder in situ) preference may be given to candidates who meet all of the essential criteria and hold active security clearance.


The main duties and responsibilities of the Category Group Manager would be to:

  • Champion Category Management across your category group and capability Portfolios.
  • Developing with senior stakeholders, including Portfolio Directors, the vision for the category group.
  • Cascade the vision and translating into delivery objectives for the sub category teams aligned to Portfolio priorities.
  • Conduct annual category planning to develop a prioritised pipeline of category opportunities within your category group area and Portfolio.
  • Undertake quarterly reviews to dynamically prioritise opportunities in-year. Ensuring category group plans are incorporated into annual planning and budgeting cycles.
  • Develop an overarching portfolio plan for your category group, consolidating and aligning the sub-category workstream plans, incorporating risk and quality in support of Portfolios.
  • Initiate and conducting opportunity analysis for identified opportunities within your category group engaging with all relevant stakeholders. Producing Opportunity Assessment reports to feed into category planning and prioritisation processes.
  • Support business cases, where necessary, to demonstrate coherence, integration, through life support, value for money, benefits and risks across platforms and Portfolios Building and maintaining key relationships across the department and with important external stakeholders
  • Influence MSHQ, NAD Options and Commissioning to shape future portfolio priorities adopting Category Management principles.
  • Identify and mapping key stakeholders for category group and specific sub categories. Cultivating and managing proactive relationships with internal and external stakeholders including industry to implement category management directly and through the supply chain.
  • Bring the best practices and learning from the external market to the department through leveraging industry and Allies experience to develop deep market insights and knowledge.
  • Encourage and empowering others to adopt best practices, driving collaboration and innovation across the Defence enterprise to demonstrate continuous improvement.
  • Develop, sharing and promoting best practices and lessons learned to create a culture of learning and good practice that supports continuous improvement to optimise category delivery. Driving category change based on Lessons Learned.
  • Identify capacity and capability requirements across the category group.
  • Provide regular management reports and/or updates to Head of Category Management, Portfolio Director, other senior stakeholders and forums as required.


Essential:

  • Credible and assured to command the confidence of a range of senior stakeholders.
  • Proven leadership experience.
  • Ability to think strategically, act decisively and respond quickly.
  • Strong commercial awareness including an expert understanding of the commercial lifecycle.
  • Track record of delivering benefits (full range of non-financial and financial benefits) through category management interventions within a complex project/programme delivery environment.
  • Understanding of the Defence Industry, supply chains and/or deep knowledge in related categories e.g. autonomous systems, weapons systems, sense decide & communicating systems, power propulsion & auxiliary systems, would be an advantage.
  • Has an expert understanding of the principles of end-to-end commercial lifecycle management and a track record in the successful delivery of Category Management in a complex project-oriented environment.
  • Has a strong practical understanding of market and commercial drivers
  • Demonstrates the ability to draw conclusions from a wide range of complex data from different sources
  • Experience in leadership roles in complex organisations, with demonstrable knowledge of category management and its successful delivery across the acquisition value chain.
  • Has a practical understanding of the concept of ‘value for money’ and can articulate what a successful return on investment looks like for a particular project/programme
  • Has a focus on delivery of benefits (both financial and non-financial); total lifecycle costs, platform availability, resilience, innovation, speed.
  • A strategic thinker, successful track record in operational delivery, financial control and strategic risk management at senior levels.
  • Experience in implementing, reviewing and developing Category Management capabilities.
  • Demonstrates strong stakeholder engagement skills with the ability to demonstrate resilience in interactions with suppliers in order to defend the MoD’s position.
  • Demonstrates the ability to present technical issues to senior stakeholders in order to help them arrive at decisions by acting in an advisory capacity.


Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.


Disability Confident 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, the MOD guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.


Armed Forces Covenant

The MOD guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.


In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following “this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different.