Contract Specialist

Contract Specialist

Ref: 357625

Salary: £39,150 - £43,280

New entrants are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.

A Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Location: Lowestoft, Weymouth

Closing date: 11:55pm on Monday 22 July 2024.

Job summary

The Commercial Advice Team (CAT) are a customer facing, professional team responsible for Cefas’ contractual and legal documentation. This primarily involves reviewing, drafting, negotiating and advising on various types of contractual/legal documentation and identifying associated commercial risks. For this role we are looking for someone who is able to read and draft various legal/contract documents, highlight commercial risks and provide pragmatic commercial advice to various areas of the business to achieve the following:

• Ensuring selection of the most effective/appropriate type of Contract or Agreement which adheres to internal policies and Government regulations.
• Mitigation of risks through appropriate legal contracts/agreements.
• Protection of Cefas’ interests through contractual arrangements whilst enhancing the chance of winning successful funding contracts.
• Implementation of consistent commercial advice and approaches throughout Cefas.

Through working on complex contracting scenarios, the successful candidate will build on their existing knowledge of drafting contract terms and conditions. They will also develop close relationships with various parts of the organisation enabling transfer of knowledge on commercial matters across the organisation to ensure Cefas is able to achieve successful delivery of projects and science in support of the UK Government’s global environmental objectives.

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 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

Job description

The main duties of the successful applicant will be to take the lead in advising, drafting and negotiating suitable contract terms. The successful applicant will liaise with Portfolio Leads and project teams to provide commercial advice on a variety of topics during both bidding and delivery phases of the project. These topics include highlighting commercial risks and potential mitigations for input into bidding go/no go decisions, review of final bidding documentation, advising on legal aspects within contracts, explanation of contract terms and conditions to project delivery staff, review of contract variations, commercial risk mitigation and representation of the CAT on at least one of the lower-level cluster boards.

Where necessary the successful applicant will work with various types of organisations such as universities and international partners to draft and agree appropriate collaboration agreements. In addition, there is also a drive within the team to improve and streamline procedures and documents to ensure they comply with the latest standards. The successful applicant will be expected to provide input to this and also to the Commercial Advice Strategy including developing others within Cefas in commercial/contractual matters.

In addition, Cefas reserves the right to ask staff to take on additional duties and responsibilities which are commensurate with their grade. Team Leaders and management will have a discussion with staff to explain the changes that are to be made. A new job description will be issued if required.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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.

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.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction.