Commercial Manager - ToR

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

These Terms of Reference (ToR) should be read in conjunction with the overall ToR for the Public Finance Resource Centre and Adam Smith International's technical proposal.

Background:

The Public Finance and Tax Department (PFTD) within the FCDO's International Finance and Tax Division (IFTD) is establishing a UK Centre of Expertise for Public Finance to help partner countries access technical expertise as part of HMG's broader offer to developing countries. The Centre will provide access to world class peer-to-peer support and expertise from globally recognised UK institutions.

A new advisory offer, the 'Public Finance Resource Centre' has been developed as part of this Centre of Expertise. The Resource Centre will enable the FCDO to respond quickly and flexibly to deliver high quality technical advice on tax, public financial management and broader macro-fiscal and debt management support in response to demand identified by FCDO Posts. Work with all ODA-eligible countries will be potentially within scope for the programme without restriction based on region.

The desired outcomes of Resource Centre are:

• More effective and equitable tax policy and administration, including:
  • More effective revenue administration systems
  • More evidence-informed policy decisions
  • More equitable tax collection
• More effective public financial management, including:
  • Increased debt management capacity in government
  • More effective public expenditure management systems
  • More effective management of public investments
  • Increased revenues are spent in an equitable and sustainable manner, consider inclusion and accessibility, and do not create or exacerbate barriers to inclusion.
• Transparent and open procurement processes
• Improved transparency and accountability in public expenditure.

Recipients of support will be:

• Partner country governments (e.g. Ministries of Finance, Public Procurement Agencies, Revenue Authorities and Supreme Audit Institutions) including subnational government entities;
• FCDO Posts (political economy analysis and scoping studies); and
• Regional organisations working on tax and public financial management.

Adam Smith International will manage the delivery arm of the Resource Centre - identifying and mobilising flexible, demand-led technical assistance in the form of short-term (up to 6 months), medium (6 to 12 months) and longer-term (including multiyear) advisory support in the fields of tax, public financial management and broader macro-fiscal work, including debt management. Adam Smith International will directly deliver short-term interventions and will run competitions to select sub-contractors to deliver medium and longer-term interventions. The programme budget is likely to fall within the range of £24 million to £65 million over a period of seven years depending on demand and funding availability.

Role and responsibilities

The Commercial Manager will be a part of the commercial team of PFRC which comprises of Commercial Lead, Commercial Adviser and Assistant Manager. Their responsibilities will include:

• Day- to-day management of commercial function of PFRC with advisory support from Commercial Adviser, oversight and review by Commercial Lead and procedural support from Assistant Manager.
• Conflict of Interest Management: The Commercial Manager has responsibility for ensuring that appropriate COI procedures are carried out in relation to every procurement, including developing a COI Management Plan whenever ASI or TPP is bidding on a medium or long-term intervention. They will work with the Commercial Lead who is responsible for providing assurance, oversight into investigating any breach of COI procedures and briefing all members of the evaluation panels on their CoI responsibilities.
• Maintain PFRC's procurement manual during the implementation phase;
• The Commercial Manager will be responsible for managing the procurement of medium- and long-term interventions. They will be supported through advisory inputs by commercial adviser and oversight by commercial lead. This will likely involve:
  • Ensuring that the supplier portal remains current in terms of the pipeline of upcoming opportunities;
  • Facilitating Early Market Engagement Sessions for interested suppliers;
  • Developing the Procurement Implementation Plan for each intervention - ensuring that the procurement approach chosen for each intervention is appropriate and in line with the principles set out in the programme's procurement manual;
  • Contribute to the identification of appropriate technical evaluation criteria for each competition, and lead on the development of commercial evaluation criteria;
  • Coordinating the development of the ITT pack to be sent out to potential suppliers and producing certain aspects of the pack (e.g. guidance to suppliers; the evaluation criteria section; the commercial pro formas; draft sub-contract; etc.);
• Participate in bid evaluation panels, with responsibility for reviewing commercial proposals for compliance, consistency with bidders' technical proposals, and identifying any abnormally low tenders; and
• Engaging with sub-contractors in relation to performance management (e.g. performance against KPIs) and any required contract amendments.

Requirements

• University degree;
• Professional qualifications/accreditation in procurement and commercial management; MCIPS highly desirable
• Atleast 15 years of experience in running large scale Public Sector Procurements - Frameworks, DPS, OJEU/FTS and sub threshold procurements.
• Experience in determining optimum routes to market/preparing and assessing commercial strategies, commercial programme pipeline planning and tracking, commercial risk management,
• Experience in drafting Contracts, negotiating Terms and Conditions, preparing Contract Variations;
• Experience in creating tools for tender management;
• Experience in creating tools for Commercial Pipeline management;
• Experience working with FCDO (or the former FCDO or DFID) highly desirable;
• UK public sector procurement experience essential.

Location

The Commercial Manager position is anticipated to be a hybrid position, with their default place of work being their home base but some requirement expected for attendance at client meetings (with the FCDO in London or East Kilbride) and for occasional in-person working with other members of the core PFRC team.

Accountability

• ASI will maintain the contractual relationship with the Commercial Manager;
• For contractual and operational matters, the Commercial Manager will report to ASI's Senior Programme Manager; and
• The Commercial Manager will be accountable to the Team Leader and Commercial Lead for their performance in relation to these ToRs.