Senior Commercial Manager – Buildings Science in London

Salary - £82,600 - £100,938 + up to 15% PRP (on GCO Terms)

Locations - Birmingham B3 1AQ, London SW1P 4DF, Reading RG1 8DQ, Weybridge KT15 3DH, Bristol BS1 5AH, Peterborough PE2 8YY

Defra has an exciting ambition to deliver on four priority outcomes:

• The Environment: improving the environment through cleaner air and water, minimised waste and thriving plants and terrestrial and marine wildlife.
• Net Zero: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon storage in the agricultural, waste, peat and tree planting sectors to help deliver net zero.
• Floods and resilience: reducing likelihood and impact of flooding and coastal erosion on people, businesses, communities and the environment.
• Agriculture, food, fisheries, animal welfare and biosecurity: increasing the sustainability, productivity and resilience of agriculture, fishing, food and drink sectors, enhancing biosecurity and raising animal welfare standards.

The successful candidate will undertake a senior role responsible for effective spend management through innovation and transformation in order to meet the Defra strategic outcomes and the Weybridge Operating Model to ensure resilience of the building and laboratory assets at Weybridge.

The Buildings team, including Building Science, are responsible for c£350m spend per annum across multiple sub-categories including construction, construction related professional services, facilities management, utilities, estates management and sustainable power (EV charging, Solar PV etc.). The Defra and ALB estate is made up of offices, operational depots, fisheries, the Thames Barrier, high containment science laboratories, EU Exit border control posts (BCP’s) and Natural England visitor centers. The Science team are responsible for the capital delivery of the science estate to maintain operation of the Weybridge site and other regional laboratories, whilst NBC is in development including maintenance, refurbishments, extension of building life and adaptations.

The Senior Category Manager role will report directly to the Head of Category and will have the following capabilities and responsibilities:

• Lead, motivate and manage a professional commercial team to deliver corporate outcomes and to ensure continuous improvement in the field of procurement.
• Lead on the development of team members ensuring that agreed targets are met.
• Lead on commercial engagement on major projects and prescribed expenditure sub-categories or specialisms, leading on the end to end commercial DNA process on behalf of customers.
• Lead by example in our approach to sustainability and communicating its importance, influencing others to improve their approach.
• Provide strategic leadership on supplier relationship and contract management to deliver customer outcomes whilst recognising the importance of the supplier’s commercial drivers/objectives.
• Effectively influence customers across the network to deliver value for money, achieving savings targets and sustainable outcomes in the procurement of works, goods and services.
• Drive and promote DGC’s capability to key stakeholders such as Ministers, Directors and senior management peers to ensure commercial best practice is applied and is able to influence strategic decision-making.
• Promote commercial principles within the Defra network and wider Government, influencing where appropriate.
• Lead on Lean procurement to reduce unnecessary complexity thereby reducing inefficiency and cost, while increasing the quality of commercial outcomes.
• Provide expert advice on commercial risk management and deliver mitigation plans/strategies to manage identified risks at corporate level.
• Enable customer directorates to develop their commercial capability.
• Influence on driving innovation into the network.

For further information, please go to CS JOBS - ref number. Please be aware that LinkedIn easy apply will not be accepted and only applications submitted via CS jobs will be considered. Closing date: Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 8th February 2026.