Applicants sought for five-strong unit to work with ministers and senior civil servants

The crack squad of five commercial experts will be asked to negotiate with people both within and outwith Whitehall  Credit: PA

The Government Commercial Function (GCF) is looking to recruit a crack squad of negotiators to work across Whitehall’s major IT deals.

The GCF – a pan-Whitehall network of 4,000 procurement professionals – is recruiting for five IT deal specialists, and is offering a salary of up to £130,000 a head. The roles will form part of the organisation’s Complex Transactions Team, which GCF said is in greater and greater demand from central government departments.

The IT deal specialists will be asked to advise the Cabinet Office minister, as well as a range of high-level civil servants, including permanent secretaries, departmental technical and commercial leaders, and the government’s chief commercial officer. Successful candidates will also need to work with external suppliers.

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Their remit will be to ensure the government gets best value from its technology deal, with a particular focus on the continued agenda of breaking up large overarching contracts. Indeed, GCF would prefer candidates to bring with them “evidence of IT contract disaggregation expertise”. 

Applicants must also possess IT industry expertise, which GCF said is “likely to have been gained from working with or in blue-chip organisations”. A GCF Commercial Specialist accreditation is also required.

“[Candidates] will need to have deep expertise in delivering commercial IT deals and of a scale where they will have had senior stakeholder involvement,” GCF said. “Candidates can come from either a consultancy or company background, and we would be excited by individuals who are experienced in disaggregation work.”

The organisation added: “It is more about a candidate’s drive for success and appetite for being involved in such high-profile projects than their company career history. We are looking for candidates who can marry strategic stakeholder management and strong negotiation skills with the ability to make things happen.”