Head of Procurement, Sourcing and Delivery Function

Great British Energy will be a publicly owned, operationally independent energy company, designed to drive clean energy deployment, boost energy independence, create jobs and ensure UK taxpayers, billpayers and communities reap the benefits of clean, secure, homegrown energy. Setting up Great British Energy is one of government’s first steps for change and we will do this in a way that means it will have both an early impact and long-term success.

Through its five functions (Project development, Project investment, Local Power Plan, Supply chains and Great British Nuclear), Great British Energy will speed up the deployment of mature and new technologies, as well as local energy projects, to support the government’s aim of decarbonising our electricity system by 2030 whilst also ensuring we can meet future demand as we further decarbonise the economy.

To this end and as an example of what it can achieve, we have already agreed a major partnership between Great British Energy and The Crown Estate to accelerate deployment and support UK supply chains. Great British Energy will work collaboratively with industry, local authorities and communities, and other public sector organisations such as the National Wealth Fund, to spread skilled jobs and investment across the country. Great British Energy will be backed by a capitalisation of £8.3 billion of new money over this Parliament.

In recognition of Scotland’s leading role in the UK’s clean energy revolution, Great British Energy will be headquartered and run from Scotland. More details can be found in the Great British Energy founding statement.

Roles in what will become Great British Energy will initially be undertaken in shadow form within the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. They will then be transferred to Great British Energy when the Great British Energy Bill becomes law and the company has the necessary procedures and systems in place to employ people directly.

Responsibilities

In this role, you will play a pivotal role in creating Great British Energy (GBE)'s new commercial function, leveraging processes developed by DESNZ and ensuring they are operational from day one. This includes setting up commercial systems, embedding governance and reporting regularly to the GBE Programme team and DESNZ Commercial team. Building strong relationships across GBE will be critical to ensuring commercial engagement and alignment with organisational objectives.

You will lead and own commercial, grant and procurement processes across GBE, ensuring excellence throughout the commercial lifecycle. Acting as a trusted Commercial Specialist, you will provide a customer-focused service that understands business needs and stakeholder priorities, while driving value for money and robust risk management across the organisation.

You will oversee the full contract and grant lifecycle, from developing category strategies and leading complex procurements to managing some of GBE’s most high-profile and strategically important contracts. Compliance with legislative frameworks and commercial assurance standards will be central to your role.

As a leader, you will also manage and develop a team of G7s and SEOs, building capability, confidence and resilience to deliver high performance. You will use your expertise to identify opportunities for improvement and implement change, working collaboratively to overcome challenges and embed best practice.

Within your first 12 months, you will also be required to gain a Government Commercial Function accreditation at Associate Commercial Specialist grade. This is a nationally recognised standard that will strengthen your professional credibility and open doors to future progression. Note, you will not be a Government Commercial Function employee.

Person specification

The activity in this role would be varied, and individual remit is subject to both size of the GBE business area you will be supporting and/or level of complexity, value and risk within that area. Typically, key responsibilities for a commercial professional in this role may include (but are not limited to):

• Strategic Delivery and Category Management: Develop category strategies for all relevant expenditure. Coordinate spend data and insights, owning demand management across the category. Ensure category management processes assess market capability to meet user and business needs.
• Procurement and Sourcing: Drive and lead sourcing activity, including strategic sourcing aligned to GBE’s strategic aims. Finalise and approve commercial arrangements (contracts, grants and non-contractual agreements), including leading negotiations. Prepare and commission business cases to demonstrate value, benefits and risk.
• Contract and Supplier Management: Maintain control of GBE’s spend and ensure critical contracts and grants are continually analysed to identify value-adding initiatives. Lead strategic supplier relationship management to drive performance, quality and continuous improvement. Ensure legal compliance and robust risk mitigation across all contracts.
• Internal and External Stakeholder Engagement: Build and own relationships with key stakeholders, developing deep understanding of their needs to deliver value. Provide commercial leadership and market insight across GBE to maximise value for spend.
• Enabling and Developing GBE: Bring best practice and market insights to GBE, leveraging external expertise. Implement standard procurement and grant policies, processes and SOPs within your category. Drive innovation and continuous improvement in category management.
• Leadership and Team Development: Lead and oversee all staff in the commercial function, including line management responsibilities. Assure team outputs and support professional development. Ensure adherence to agreed processes and accurate reporting requirements. As a line manager, you will be responsible for working with your members of staff to define their objectives, as well as managing their development and performance.

Key capabilities

• Category Management: Expert understanding of end-to-end commercial and grant lifecycle management, with evidence of taking a strategic lead on securing value for money in complex environments, influencing senior stakeholders and suppliers, and delivering transformational change at a strategic level.
• Procurement Management: Extensive experience running multiple end-to-end procurements, using central frameworks and open procedures, and managing concurrent requirements, with experience in public sector procurement regimes.
• Contract Management: Proven ability to manage medium and high complexity/value contracts, with a strong understanding of contract management principles and their role in the commercial lifecycle.
• Commercial Focus: Strong practical understanding of market and commercial drivers as well as contract law. Ability to interpret complex data from multiple sources and articulate what successful return on investment looks like for projects and programmes.
• Risk and Assurance Management: Skilled in analysing options, risks and margins of error to provide assurance and manage trade-offs. Demonstrates ability to take calculated risks to implement efficient and innovative solutions.
• Commercial Ethics: Ability to influence stakeholders to uphold standards that prevent corruption, fraud and unethical behaviour in supply chains, and take appropriate action when breaches occur.
• Leadership and Team Development: Experience managing and developing a team, building confidence and resilience to deal with setbacks. Ability to establish a new commercial function, balancing day-to-day delivery with longer-term process development, and understanding the cumulative impact of change on culture, structure and morale.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Strong ability to engage and influence senior stakeholders and suppliers, demonstrating resilience in negotiations. Skilled in presenting technical issues clearly to support informed decision-making.

Experience delivering under Public Contract Regulations 2015 and or Procurement Act 2023 regimes.

Behaviours

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Procurement Experience
• Complex Delivery

We only ask for evidence of these technical skills on your application form: Procurement Experience.

Alongside your salary of £66,925, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £19,388 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

• A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
• Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
• An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
• Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
• The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.