7 Forces Commercial Services (Eastern 7)

Location of Role: 7 forces

Advert Closing Date: 29/05/2025

Starting Salary: £51,291.00 (pro-rata for part-time vacancies)

Part/Full Time: Full Time

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Pattern: Mon-Fri

Weekend/Evening Working: No

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced commercial professional to join our Strategic Commercial Solutions Management team, supporting the 7 police forces across the east of England (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, and Suffolk). This collaboration is responsible for third party spend of approximately £250m per annum, making the 7 Force Collaboration the second largest police procurement collective after the Metropolitan Police. Commercial influence on this scale has the potential to attract significant financial benefits through market shaping and economies of scale. This also enables the 7 Forces to seek to manage suppliers more strategically on a regional basis to secure savings and wider social, economic, and environmental benefits.

You will help resolve some of the most difficult commercial hurdles in law enforcement, helping forces to benefit from more efficient and innovative offerings from the market as well as stimulating markets in areas where competition is lacking. You will also be expected to lead and/or support complex commercial negotiations with key suppliers, promoting innovation and ensuring best value is achieved, as well as addressing and enforcing sanctions for poor performance, and assisting in defending the relevant Force(s) from contractual claims.

We are looking for someone with a strong commercial acumen, a track record of supplier relationship management and proven success in negotiations and resolving contractual disputes. The nature of the role means that you will need strong interpersonal skills with the ability to influence and negotiate. You will need to demonstrate that you can engage a range of key internal stakeholders at varying levels of seniority.

You should hold a procurement/commercial qualification at level 6 (degree) or able to clearly evidence your commercial experience, technical knowledge, and expertise by having worked in a senior commercial role resolving complex issues for a private or public sector organisation. You should possess significant knowledge and understanding of current contract law and the application of new procurement legislation.

Travel will be required across all seven forces.

In your application we will be looking for you to demonstrate:

Procurement/commercial qualification at level 6 (degree) or clearly evidence your commercial experience, technical knowledge and expertise having worked as a commercially focused professional for a complex, public, or private sector organisation.
A track record of supplier relationship management and proven success in negotiations and resolving contractual disputes.
Significant knowledge and understanding of current contract law and the application of UK procurement legislation.
Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to influence and negotiate at all levels.

For further information please contact Simon Fenning, 7 Force Head of Strategic Commercial Solutions: Simon.Fenning@herts.police.uk

This force is a Disability Confident employer. Should you require any reasonable adjustments for your application process, please contact the HR Service Centre on 01438 75(7777) or the manager for this role directly. We also offer the guaranteed interview scheme; this means that all candidates with a disability covered by the Equality Act 2010, who meet the minimum entry requirements for the role, will be invited to attend an interview.

All internal applicants must have successfully completed their probationary period in order to apply for this role.

You must have confirmation you are supported to undertake the role and will be released for a secondment by your local senior leadership team member.

Essex Police offer incremental increases within this salary band, therefore the salary for this position will rise to a maximum of £62,763.00.

For the Essex full job description please click here.

For the Kent full job description please click here.

Kent Police and Essex Police have separate salary grading systems therefore the salary for this position will be dependent on which home office force you are appointed to. This will be discussed with the successful applicant before a final offer is made.

Your application for this role will be shortlisted on the content you provide within the “reason for application” question, within the application form itself. CV’s, covering letters or attachments are not included in the shortlist. Within your “reason for application” answer, please refer to any experience, skills, and abilities you feel you have that will make you suitable for this role, based on the role criteria stated in the job advert or job description. Please provide as much detail as possible as insufficient content may mean you do not meet the shortlisting criteria, however please note this question is limited to 9000 characters and this system will count spaces and blank lines as characters. This count may differ from the Microsoft Word word count function therefore you may wish to use a different online character counter to check the characters used.

All of our posts require a level of vetting and security clearance. During the recruitment process you will be sent vetting information forms to complete.

Kent Police and Essex Police welcomes applications regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, sex, or employment status.

Please let us know if you require extra support at any stage of the application process, or for further information regarding this position, please email us at recruitment.business.services@ecis.police.uk stating ‘Application Support and Adjustments’ in the title of your email. Alternatively, you can call us on 01245 452833.

Where appropriate we will make adjustments to the selection process, working arrangements and/or the working environment provided it is reasonable in all the circumstances to do so.

If you’re not from the UK, you must be a resident in the UK and have lived here continuously for the last three years. You must also be free from restrictions with indefinite leave to remain. If you’re from the UK you must have lived here continuously for the last three years. This doesn’t apply to those serving abroad in the British Armed Forces.

Essex Police and Kent Police are an equal opportunities employer. Communications may be recorded for monitoring purposes.

Essex Police is a Disability Confident Leader, we:

have subjected our Disability Confident self-assessment to external challenge and validation
are taking an active leadership role in encouraging and helping other employers on their journey to becoming Disability Confident.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion are central to the values of our organisation. At Essex Police we value and embrace the unique experiences, identities and abilities that each of us bring to our roles. We strive to empower everyone to bring their authentic self openly and safely to work.

Through the dedicated commitment of our support networks, DE&I team and wider HR departments, we are on a journey to embed our DE&I commitments, ensuring Essex Police is an employer of choice; where everyone feels included.