Lead Contracts Manager

Birmingham City Council

Reference: 4605859

Title: Lead Contracts Manager

Job Type: Permanent

Job Hours: Full-time

Industry: Public Sector

Location: United Kingdom - England - West Midlands - West Midlands Birmingham

Salary: £49,498 - 61,269 per year +

Lead Contracts Manager Vacancy with Birmingham City Council

Are you an experienced IT Contracts or Commercial Manager, looking for your next role? Are you looking to take on a commercially focused position, with senior stakeholder exposure and the opportunity to support and drive forward a commercial management team?

Hays Procurement are delighted to be partnering exclusively with Birmingham City Council to recruit for a Lead Contracts or Commercial Manager on a permanent basis, as part of a large-scale recruitment campaign. This role will be the strategic support role to the Leader of the Contract Management Team and will sit within the IT and Digital category and will be responsible for the pro-active contract and commercial management of digital and technology contracts and suppliers, working closely with the commissioning team to manage the transition from tendering to contract management, performance review and re-negotiation

This permanent vacancy comes with a salary of between £49,498 and £61,269 per annum (dependent on skills and experience), 30 days annual leave plus bank holidays, hybrid working pattern and a generous pension scheme.

About Birmingham City Council

This is an exciting time to be joining Birmingham City Council, Europe’s largest local authority, and specifically supporting the digital and technology categories. The Council are embarking on a transformative journey towards establishing themselves as a truly data-driven organisation. With unprecedented investment in people and technology, a solid strategy, empowering leadership and a newly redesigned service to get behind, they are building services centred on the needs of our citizens, business and communities that will deliver on Birmingham’s bold ambitions for the city of today and tomorrow.

The IT Contract Management team are part of and work closely within the multidisciplinary Digital and Technology Services (DTS) directorate, contributing to the transformation of public services for the UK’s second largest city. The team work across a multitude of areas, including hardware, software, infrastructure, networking, telephony, development, data and cyber security, and are key to delivering procurements within our major programmes and projects, to deliver essential services across Birmingham to over 1.2m citizens.

The Council are embracing and promoting a truly digital, human centred approach for the whole organisation, underpinned by collaboration, openness and innovation. The council takes advantage of unparalleled access to data, doing things at scale and new ways of using technology as an enabler to re-imagine the way services are delivered and build the digital council of the future. This bodes well for the procurement side of things, promising a dynamic and exciting environment for the right candidate.

Job Purpose

To support and deputise for the team leader, you will develop a robust framework for contract management across the DTS contracting portfolios. You will have lots of exposure to senior stakeholders, including Heads of and Assistant Director level, in terms of providing advice and guidance in relation to commercial and contract strategy development, business case assurances, negotiation of contract variations and regular status reporting. Co-ordination and development of the IT contract management function is a key to this role, and the successful candidate will be tasked with embedding best practice and performance management throughout the function. Ultimately, you will be responsible for supporting and maintaining an efficient, compliant contract management function, while championing the value of commercial across the team and the wider business.

The ideal candidate for this role will be an experienced IT contracts or commercial manager, ideally with a background in the public sector, who has had experience of managing complex, large-scale contracts within their previous roles and will be responsible for obligation tracking, management, and reporting in addition to managing supplier performance, monitoring KPI’s and achievement of milestones, the provision of commercial support in situations of under/non-performance.

Key attributes for this role

Technical knowledge and experience: Significant experience and detailed knowledge of contract and performance management, ability to identify and drive operational and cost optimisation opportunities. Considerable experience in policy development, implementation, delivery, and monitoring enforcement. Extensive experience in managing significant or multi-disciplinary contracts.

Commercial Knowledge: Proven track record of providing commercial, technical and contractual advice to a wide range of stakeholders, to include operational areas, projects and senior leadership.

Regulatory understanding: Significant knowledge of Public Sector regulations, business processes, procurement, contract and commercial governance e.g., contract and procurement compliance, planning, monitoring, and reporting.

Interpersonal skills: Significant communication, influencing and negotiation skills, with proven ability to build credibility with senior managers, partners/vendors, and external stakeholders. Ability to articulate highly complex contract issues to cross-functional teams and produce high-level reports for senior managers and partners.

Excellent analytical and strategic thinking abilities

Ability to work autonomously in a fast paced, dynamic environment

Team management experience: Ability to motivate and support team members, creating a positive environment which encourages open discussion and innovation, supports performance, builds capability, and empowers staff.

Systems experience: Knowledge and Experience in Digital, and technology contract management platforms e.g., ServiceNow, In-Tend and Oracle or equivalent.

Qualifications: WCC, CIPS or MCIPS qualifications or equivalent experience are required.