19073 - Assistant Commercial Manager
| Posting date: | 18 June 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £35,335 to £42,859 per year |
| Additional salary information: | The national salary range is £35,335 - £37,847, London salary range is £40,014 - £42,859. Your salary will be dependent on your base location |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 06 July 2026 |
| Location: | UK |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 2 days per week |
| Company: | Ministry of Justice |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 19073 |
Summary
Job Title: Assistant Commercial Manager
Job Grade: HEO
Job Location: National
Contract Type: Permanent
Business Area: Ministry of Justice Commercial
Working pattern: Full-time
Number of Posts: 4
Commercial
The Ministry of Justice has one of the largest and most complex spending profiles in central government. Each year we spend more than £5 billion with our suppliers and it’s our job to help coordinate the sourcing of what we need. We support the management of our contracts across the department, its agencies and non departmental public bodies.
Commercial is responsible for coordinating procurement and contract management across the MoJ, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies. Commercial is organised into category teams, each with an interesting portfolio of contracts and diverse customers and suppliers to manage. We also have systems, programme management office, supplier relationship and risk management teams who work across all areas.
Role Summary
In this role you will be expected to contribute to delivering commercial excellence for the department, providing a customer-focused service, understanding the business need 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.
You will be expected to support across the overall commercial life cycle. You will contribute to strategy and policy development, analyse data and use market insight to support the sourcing options, and work across the procurement process.
You will work as part of a larger team but will be expected to work independently by prioritising and managing your own workload to deliver to deadlines and to respond to changing operational demands.
This role is designed to be flexible and may support a broad range of commercial activity across the organisation. The postholder will contribute to contract management, procurement and wider commercial delivery in line with business priorities.
This role requires flexibility, and you may work across different pieces of work over time to meet changing business needs and priorities.
Why Join Us?
Be part of a team that helps deliver important services for the justice system
Work on interesting projects and help make a difference
Get support and training to develop your skills
Key Responsibilities
This role is varied, and individual remit is subject to both size of category, and/or level of complexity, value and risk within a category. Typically, key responsibilities for a commercial professional in this role may include (but are not limited to):
Strategic delivery and management within a category:
Supporting development of specifications to deliver requirements that are in line with business needs, and existing category strategy
Engaging, where required, with the relevant lead ensuring that business requirements are in line with existing category strategies
Contributing to the development of category strategies
Carrying out analysis, research and requirements gathering to feed into demand forecasting and category strategies
Tracking progress against category plans and working to deliver key tasks
Understanding relevant sourcing options and analysis, delivering positive outcomes through the procurement process:
Working independently across end-to-end strategic sourcing activities for the department
In some cases, leading on low value/low complexity procurements, with support from senior commercial colleagues
Engaging with key stakeholders across the department to support the team develop a clear and agreed view of business requirements
Advising and providing professional guidance throughout the sourcing process, supporting the evaluation of a range of sourcing models
Gathering inputs and at times leading development of commercial input into business cases, evaluating the benefits, value and risks of projects
Providing a procurement service to the department which delivers demonstrable value for money and compliant goods and services contracts as part of a team of procurement professionals on larger procurement activities
Understanding, and being able to advise on, sourcing compliance and frameworks
Ensuring effective commercial contract and supplier management within the category:
Day-to-day management of one or more low to medium value/risk/ complexity contracts within the category, with support from senior commercial colleagues
Managing one or more contracts/suppliers, ensuring effective stakeholder management, governance, performance management frameworks, escalation, risk management, issues resolution, financial management, change control and compliance
Contributing to the management and administration of the whole supply chain portfolio, including the implementation of supply chain management and supplier relationship strategies
Supporting the administration of change control notices, data/spend analysis, management information and reporting
Tracking and owning risks relating to specific contracts, taking steps to mitigate commercial risks
Identifying perceived areas of risk, and supporting analysis of suppliers for risk and assurance purposes
Building and maintaining key relationships across the department and with important external stakeholders:
Developing effective working relationships with supplier organisations to establish appropriate governance and relationship arrangements, ensuring the effective management of clarifications and change requests
Engaging and working closely with the relevant senior business lead, ensuring that business requirements are supported by category strategies
Identifying key suppliers and articulating management and engagement level required to assure the supply chain
Job Grade: HEO
Job Location: National
Contract Type: Permanent
Business Area: Ministry of Justice Commercial
Working pattern: Full-time
Number of Posts: 4
Commercial
The Ministry of Justice has one of the largest and most complex spending profiles in central government. Each year we spend more than £5 billion with our suppliers and it’s our job to help coordinate the sourcing of what we need. We support the management of our contracts across the department, its agencies and non departmental public bodies.
Commercial is responsible for coordinating procurement and contract management across the MoJ, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies. Commercial is organised into category teams, each with an interesting portfolio of contracts and diverse customers and suppliers to manage. We also have systems, programme management office, supplier relationship and risk management teams who work across all areas.
Role Summary
In this role you will be expected to contribute to delivering commercial excellence for the department, providing a customer-focused service, understanding the business need 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.
You will be expected to support across the overall commercial life cycle. You will contribute to strategy and policy development, analyse data and use market insight to support the sourcing options, and work across the procurement process.
You will work as part of a larger team but will be expected to work independently by prioritising and managing your own workload to deliver to deadlines and to respond to changing operational demands.
This role is designed to be flexible and may support a broad range of commercial activity across the organisation. The postholder will contribute to contract management, procurement and wider commercial delivery in line with business priorities.
This role requires flexibility, and you may work across different pieces of work over time to meet changing business needs and priorities.
Why Join Us?
Be part of a team that helps deliver important services for the justice system
Work on interesting projects and help make a difference
Get support and training to develop your skills
Key Responsibilities
This role is varied, and individual remit is subject to both size of category, and/or level of complexity, value and risk within a category. Typically, key responsibilities for a commercial professional in this role may include (but are not limited to):
Strategic delivery and management within a category:
Supporting development of specifications to deliver requirements that are in line with business needs, and existing category strategy
Engaging, where required, with the relevant lead ensuring that business requirements are in line with existing category strategies
Contributing to the development of category strategies
Carrying out analysis, research and requirements gathering to feed into demand forecasting and category strategies
Tracking progress against category plans and working to deliver key tasks
Understanding relevant sourcing options and analysis, delivering positive outcomes through the procurement process:
Working independently across end-to-end strategic sourcing activities for the department
In some cases, leading on low value/low complexity procurements, with support from senior commercial colleagues
Engaging with key stakeholders across the department to support the team develop a clear and agreed view of business requirements
Advising and providing professional guidance throughout the sourcing process, supporting the evaluation of a range of sourcing models
Gathering inputs and at times leading development of commercial input into business cases, evaluating the benefits, value and risks of projects
Providing a procurement service to the department which delivers demonstrable value for money and compliant goods and services contracts as part of a team of procurement professionals on larger procurement activities
Understanding, and being able to advise on, sourcing compliance and frameworks
Ensuring effective commercial contract and supplier management within the category:
Day-to-day management of one or more low to medium value/risk/ complexity contracts within the category, with support from senior commercial colleagues
Managing one or more contracts/suppliers, ensuring effective stakeholder management, governance, performance management frameworks, escalation, risk management, issues resolution, financial management, change control and compliance
Contributing to the management and administration of the whole supply chain portfolio, including the implementation of supply chain management and supplier relationship strategies
Supporting the administration of change control notices, data/spend analysis, management information and reporting
Tracking and owning risks relating to specific contracts, taking steps to mitigate commercial risks
Identifying perceived areas of risk, and supporting analysis of suppliers for risk and assurance purposes
Building and maintaining key relationships across the department and with important external stakeholders:
Developing effective working relationships with supplier organisations to establish appropriate governance and relationship arrangements, ensuring the effective management of clarifications and change requests
Engaging and working closely with the relevant senior business lead, ensuring that business requirements are supported by category strategies
Identifying key suppliers and articulating management and engagement level required to assure the supply chain