Commercial Assurance and Systems Officer

We offer great working benefits including a world-class pension, flexible working options and a career where your learning and development is taken seriously. We are enormously proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We support candidates with adjustments throughout our recruitment process. Information about disability confidence and just some examples of the adjustments that you can request can be found in the reasonable adjustment section below.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy., The successful candidate will work as part of a Commercial Shared Service supporting DSIT and DESNZ. The role will predominantly work with the commercial assurance team but will provide additional support to the Systems & MI team.
The commercial assurance team provides assurance on all commercial transactions above £10m. This role will be integral to the organisation and management of the commercial assurance board and the support provided to senior committees across DESNZ and DSIT.
The successful candidate can expect to be working on a varied set of responsibilities within a fast-paced environment. Organisational skills are essential, and you will develop and maintain positive relationships with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders. You must be proactive, have excellent attention to detail, and bring new ideas to help shape the way the team(s) work, promoting continuous improvement, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.

Person specification
+ Provision of general team administrative duties.
+ Arranging commercial assurance board meetings including issuing diary invites and circulating board packs.
+ Allocation of commercial assurance board 'case slots' for applicant teams, ensuring the correct information and documentation is provided and received.
+ Liaising with internal and external stakeholders to arrange board panels and secure attendance.
+ Liaise with internal and external stakeholder to organise and manage observer attendance to commercial assurance boards.
+ Produce minutes or records of meetings as requested by the team and communicate outcomes to ensure any follow up action is taken.
+ Prepare papers and presentations as directed including the creation of reports following the commercial assurance board.
+ Monitoring and management of several excel team trackers requiring cross referencing, compiling and verifying complex data.
+ Ensuring that all documentation is correctly marked and filed to provide a full audit trail.
+ Management and ownership of the relationship with the Secretariats of senior approval boards.
+ Liaising with the Secretariats of the Portfolio and Investment Committee and the Investment Committee to receive forward looks and confirm commercial keyholder allocation.
+ Liaising with Personal Assistants to Directors, or deputies, to ensure attendance at numerous approval boards.
+ Management of the team commercial mailbox: action or redirect emails to wherever appropriate.
+ Supporting the Systems & MI team, including leading on the resolution of bulk data issues by working with subject matter experts and project / contract owners to update their records in commercial systems.
+ Provide a conduit between the team, staff and external stakeholders.
+ Liaison/co-ordination and monitoring of requests as they arise within the team, prioritise tasks/activities and interactions, pro-actively manages your time to reflect work priorities and key objectives.
+ Liaison/co-ordination and assisting with the drafting of responses to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and Parliamentary Questions (PQs)., We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Managing a Quality Service
+ Communicating and Influencing
+ Changing and Improving
+ Delivering at Pace
+ Working Together, As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and behavioural statements.
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Applications will be sifted on behavioural statements and CV.
In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the lead behaviour statement (Managing a Quality Service).
Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
The interview will consist of behaviour questions.
Sift and interview dates
Expected Timeline subject to change
Sift dates: w/c 23/06/2024
Interview dates: w/c 07/07/2024
Interview Location: MS Teams.
Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.
Further Information
Reasonable Adjustment
We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.
We fully support adjustments throughout our recruitment process and we encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.
We do not have an exhaustive list of adjustments that we support but just some examples include additional time to complete your application form, behaviour questions up to 72 hours prior to interview and having extra time at interview.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.
Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
Any move to the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
DESNZ does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).
DESNZ cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign.
DESNZ holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.
However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
Feedback
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
+ UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Mandatory skills and experience:
+ Excellent computer skills including experience of working with Office 365 applications. As a minimum, Word, Excel and SharePoint.
+ Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.
+ Capability to work proactively and to take ownership and accountability of your own tasks and work.
+ Proven capability in managing stakeholders and establishing relationships both internal and external to your team.
+ Ability to challenge the urgency and importance of requests on a daily basis and possess organisational skills and exceptional attention to detail.
+ Ability to review complex sets of data, cross-reference these and update internal team trackers and systems to ensure accuracy.
+ Proven capability of delivering projects to timelines.
+ Ability to work in a high pressured environment whilst juggling multiple tasks.
Desirable skills and experience:
+ Proven experience of governance, assurance and data analysis.
+ An understanding of risk, and the ability to identify, mitigate and escalate as appropriate.

Do you want a career where you can make a real difference? Do you want to work in a government department that is at the forefront of current policy making decisions that will impact the UK and beyond? If yes then a career at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) could be for you.
Here at DESNZ we are securing the UK’s long-term energy supply, bringing down energy bills and halving inflation. We are seizing the opportunities of Net Zero to lead the world in new green industries and encouraging greater energy efficiency across the UK. The work of the department has never been more timely or relevant, and by joining us you will be part of making that difference.
Our work is varied, interesting and most importantly it's impactful. Our DESNZ Values are interwoven into everything we do; we are Bold, we are Collaborative, we are Inclusive and we Learn. As a department we are committed to these values to build a culture where everyone can thrive.

Alongside your salary of £33,635, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero contributes £9,081 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 average employer contribution of 27%.
+ 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.
Office attendance
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.