Commercial services

The Met's Commercial function is responsible for delivering end-to-end commercial lifecycle management and supporting the wider business in working with third parties.

The Met spends more than £840 million each year on a diverse range of goods and services, from large property service and construction projects to complex IT services, response vehicles to forensics equipment. Managing that expenditure well enables us to make it go further, with better outcomes, underpinning the delivery of our service to London and beyond.

The Commercial Services function’s ambition is to be the ‘to be the most influential public sector commercial function in the UK’ and is working to deliver the following strategic aims:

• maintain an ethical high performing commercial capability
• deliver sustainable value through engagement with our suppliers, customers, partners, and markets
• improve and simplify how we work.
• realise positive outcomes through commercial policy

Our commercial activity covers procurement where we buy goods and services as effectively as possible. We also manage the commercial relationships with all outsourced suppliers, working in partnership and through modern contract management practices.

The Commercial Services team is organised in a way to work in partnership with the different business areas across the Met, providing excellent service to our internal customers and stakeholders. Maximising revenue and ensuring value for money for the Met is our focus and this drives us to work with the business to define new ways of working that are more efficient, effective, and affordable.

Like most organisations the Met is transforming the way we both police London and run the business to meet ever more, demanding challenges. The Commercial Services function is a key enabler of these changes. 

Overview of the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) pillar

Relentless data driven delivery and innovation is integral to how the Met will prevent and fight crime now and in the future. As a key enabler to this mission, the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Commercial pillar team, within Commercial Services, plays a key role in supporting the DDaT department within the Met to meet this mission.

The DDaT Commercial team is service led and people focused. Procuring and managing some of the Met’s most strategic suppliers and critical contracts, including infrastructure services, cyber security, Command and Control, CONNECT, software, radios and body worn video. The team maintains a flexible resource model, working collaboratively across the organisation to lead commercial delivery across the entire commercial life cycle.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a team that is working at pace to shape itself and deliver a high-quality, end to end commercial service, supporting the Met in seizing the opportunities of data and digital technology to be a world leader in policing.

The role 

This is an exciting and varied role, which will give you the chance to support all aspects of the commercial life cycle within Met. You will provide essential commercial support to senior commercial staff within the Commercial team and the wider business, working on specific tasks within the software category. This role supports all aspects of category, sourcing and contract management within the Digital, Data and Technology pillar.

You will contribute to delivering commercial excellence for the Met, providing a customer focused service, understanding the business need and stakeholder drivers, with the aim of becoming a trusted commercial advisor. You will also support development of relationships with Met's key and strategic suppliers, driving value-for-money and risk management excellence across the category. 

The role will enable you to develop your skills, experience and knowledge of business, commercial and procurement principles, processes, and practices. It will also provide training opportunities for your continued professional development.

Primarily, your activity and support will be to sourcing, procurement and contract management teams and staff, working across the life cycle to give strategic advice on major programmes and helping to define the 'needs' on business-as-usual requirements, through the contracting process and onto commercial contract management. 

Key responsibilities

Your core duties will include, but are not limited to:

• with the support of more experienced commercial colleagues be the commercial lead on a number of sourcing activities across the software category
• provide commercial support and guidance to stakeholders you will be responsible for running the end-to-end sourcing process through market engagement
• assessing procurement routes, evaluating sourcing options, undertaking supplier negotiations, and agreeing contracts
• be responsible for a number of contracts and undertake contract management activities such as executing change control, monitoring supplier performance and managing supplier relationships
• use data from a range of systems to create insights to help drive value for money, improvements to efficiency and identify best practice opportunities