Commercial Manager (OFTO)

at  Ofgem

JOB SUMMARY

Are you a dynamic professional with a passion for commercial excellence? We are seeking an experienced Commercial Manager to join our team. As a key player, you will drive critical business decisions and contribute to our success.
In this role, you will be responsible for managing end-to-end commercial processes, from inception to execution. Your ability to make strategic commercial decisions will be pivotal in achieving our organizational goals. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment and have a proven track record of meeting challenging deadlines, we want to hear from you!
As Commercial Manager you’ll lead and optimise our commercial processes, ensuring efficiency, compliance, and alignment with business objectives. Provide project leadership, managing multiple workstreams simultaneously, demonstrating exceptional project management skills. Your ability to deliver results within tight timelines will be crucial. You will have analytical acumen, utilising both quantitative and qualitative analysis to dissect complex concepts. Translate data into actionable insights and recommendations for commercial decisions. You’ll also work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders, fostering strong relationships across teams. Your interpersonal skills will be essential in driving successful outcomes. Successful communication will be the key to articulate your ideas clearly through written and verbal communication. Your ability to convey complex information concisely will set you apart.
This is a unique position and would be suited to a Commercial/Procurement/Policy professional with expertise and experience of project management. Alternatively it could also suit a Project Management professional with expertise and experience of policy and commercial practices. Please note that this role aligns with our Project Management Delivery profession and is internally known as a Project Manager.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Please refer to the Candidate Pack and Role Profile attached for full details.
• Please refer to the Candidate Pack and Role Profile attached for full details.

Benefits
Alongside your salary of £32,498, OFGEM contributes £9,414 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
Ofgem can offer you a comprehensive and competitive benefits package which includes; 30 days annual leave after 2 years; Excellent training and development opportunities; The opportunity to join the generous Civil Service pension which also includes a valuable range of benefits; Hybrid working, flexible working hours and family friendly policies. Plus lots of other benefits including clean and bright offices based centrally, engaged networks and teams and an opportunity to contribute to our ambitious and important targets of establishing a Net Zero energy system by 2050. This exciting blend of professional challenge and personal reward identifies career opportunities at Ofgem as something to get excited about.
Things you need to know

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)

TYPE OF ROLE

Policy
Procurement and Contracts Management
Project Delivery

PURPOSE

The offshore transmission sector is changing rapidly to work towards the government’s ambitions to deliver up to 60GW of offshore wind generation by 2030 and be net-zero by 2050. The way in which Ofgem runs competitive tenders for Offshore Transmission Owner (OFTO) licences needs to be developed to account for these changes, but also to ensure that the regulatory regime that has been extremely successful in driving down consumer costs continues to deliver good competition that benefits electricity consumers.
The successful candidate will join at an exciting and pivotal time for offshore wind. The successful candidate will have ownership and responsibility for multiple offshore transmission projects and ensure key milestones within the tender and transaction process are successfully delivered. The successful candidate will also be expected to contribute to the development of policy for the competitive tender process of projects.
The post holder will draw on their experience in a commercial, finance or public sector policy role, to ensure that the tendering and transaction processes successfully achieve Ofgem’s purpose of ensuring strong competition in the award of OFTO licences to licensees with robust long-term asset management plans, at low cost to electricity consumers. Highly developed organisational skills are required to work across a range of activities, identifying priorities and risks, and addressing these directly.
The Major Projects Directorate’s work plays a key role in ensuring that appropriate regulatory arrangements are in place to facilitate the timely move to a low carbon energy sector whilst continuing to provide safe, secure, high quality network services at value for money to existing and future consumers. The OFTO team sits in the Offshore Network Regulation part of the Major Projects Directorate. These are fast-moving and high-profile areas with network costs and competition being increasingly part of the political debate over energy costs.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Contribute on the delivery of existing tender processes and developing future tender policy, including:
• Clear, relevant and concise internal management papers, briefings and presentations in order to support Ofgem senior management in making effective and timely decisions;
• Delivery of tender processes, including the design and preparation of tender documentation;
• Acting as a point of contact in commercial elements of the tender and transaction phase of multiple projects;
• Identifying risks, issues and concerns and helping to develop effective solutions to address these;
• Maintain existing relationships with internal and external stakeholders (such as offshore transmission licensees);
• assist in building new lasting relationships particularly equity investors and the wider finance community;
• Development, management and coordination of tender and evaluation processes for offshore transmission projects.
• Preparation and production of reports relating to the evaluation outcome recommendations for use in the decision-making process.
• Manage engagement with bidders, developers and other third parties during tenders and transaction stages.
• Managing project teams and external contractors and advisers.
• Oral and written briefings to senior management.

ROLE CRITERIA

Essential

• Experience of managing a commercial process (including but not limited to tender processes and contract management) and making key commercial decisions (lead criteria).
• Good project management skills with experience of leading multiple workstreams and a strong track record of delivery against challenging deadlines.
• Strong analytical and numerical skills– both quantitative and qualitative and proven ability to use these to analyse complex concepts and make recommendations on commercial decisions.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with experience of working within a team and working with a diverse range of stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Desirable

• Ability to take initiative, think creatively and work independently.
• Knowledge and experience of co-ordinating and managing tender and project delivery processes.
• Knowledge of the energy sector.