Jobs in Sunderland, United Kingdom

Role: Commercial Lead (Estates)

Reporting to: Head of Category

Dept/Pillar: Estates, Energy & Equipment

Hours: 37 (potentially flexible)

Grade/Salary: From £51,721 (dependent on experience)

Contract Type: Permanent

Vetting Level: NPPV 3 & SC

The Estates portfolio is one of the largest in policing with an annual spend of circa £790m and covers Construction, Hard FM, Soft FM, Repair and Maintenance and Utilities. This role is based in the Estates Category and will focus predominantly on Construction and Repair and Maintenance projects. You will lead the management of high profile and complex commercial activities across blue light services including capital projects.

You will be responsible for delivering maximum value via commercial activities, influencing commercial strategy and demonstrating positive stakeholder management. You will collaborate with a variety of stakeholders, advising others as a commercial professional and procurement expert.

The role supports the wider BlueLight Commercial team with procurement and contract management activities, creating diversity and continuous professional development in this role. You will closely support senior management with, or personally lead on, specific work streams, making data-led, evidence-based recommendations and decisions.

No two days will be the same and the role offers scope for continuing professional development.

You will be an integral part of the commercial team where all the Commercial Leads work across multiple categories to balance workload and enable the team to deliver. For example, cross-functional activity in areas of sustainability and social value.

We are intent on optimising technology to plan and deliver work visibly, collaboratively, and efficiently. We are fully remote and agile, and being a team here is exciting and still a bit unique.

We care about your wellbeing and you will have opportunities to grow and progress your career with us.

What will I be doing?

• Providing on-the-ground overall commercial support for planning, implementation and monitoring of BlueLight Commercial led initiatives and activities
• Contributing to strategic plans and facilitating, delivering and making recommendations for action to stakeholders, ensuring adherence to procurement regulations and Government policy
• Leading contract and supplier management programmes including leading on supply chain improvement projects and supporting complex negotiations
• Leading and evaluating complex competitive tenders and proposals for the supply of goods and services for blue light services
• Working with stakeholders to identify issues and understand expectations to develop and deliver the best commercial options, gaining commitment at each stage of the commercial lifecycle
• Creating strong and effective relationships with key stakeholders and partners
• Managing stakeholder relationships with professionalism to facilitate the transition to new ways of working, mitigating risks, concerns and issues
• Working with financial processes and tools to evaluate options and ensure financial information and data are accurately reflected in commercial plans
• Ensuring adherence to legal, regulatory and security requirements in service delivery and building diversity, equality and social value considerations into plans
• Leading sourcing processes, ensuring that all stakeholder requirements are met within required timeframes and result in the most commercially attractive terms and conditions

Undertaking any other work as directed by your line manager in connection with your job as may be requested.

You are someone who has attained:

• CIPS qualified to Level 4 and/or a minimum of 3 years’ experience within a commercial environment i.e. commissioning, procurement, contract management
• Willing to work towards achieving Government Commercial Function (GCF) accreditation to Commercial Lead level

You are someone who has:

• Either previous experience pertinent to the role, e.g. working within the public sector and a working knowledge of Public Procurement regulations, Equality Act 2010 and Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012; or demonstrable private sector procurement experience together with a desire to gain public sector experience
• Experience in sourcing, implementing and managing new contracts and ways of working, including change management models
• Experience utilising JCT and NEC terms and conditions
• Experience of strategic commercial project management across multiple sites and stakeholders
• Experience of using the Government Construction Playbook
• Experience of PFI Contracts
• Proven success in leading the full end-to-end commercial cycle

You are someone who is:

• Excellent interpersonal & communication skills with the ability to influence in a collaborative manner
• Demonstrable relationship management skills, creating trusted relationships with partners and stakeholders
• Persuasive and capable of presenting different options and recommendations to achieve innovation and new market opportunities
• Highly numerate and analytical, able to assimilate and apply new techniques and knowledge quickly to deliver insights and solve problems
• Able to identify risks and understand risk management, anticipate issues and create innovative, commercially astute solutions to resolve problems in relation to project or service delivery

You are/have:

• Resilient, with the ability to manage multiple projects across categories with competing timelines
• Good commercial and financial acumen
• Committed to professional development
• Collaborative and team oriented
• Agile and flexible

• Be the best
• Be responsible
• Be a team
• Be open
• Be the difference

We foster a work environment that is inclusive and diverse, where our people can be themselves. We value every idea and perspective towards helping us to evolve and innovate.

• Starting salary £51,721 p.a. (DOE dependent on experience)
• Quality equipment for remote working (laptop, mobile phone, monitor, chair & desk) and a Welcome kit box
• 12% employer pension contribution
• Support for your development for your role and future career development (a framework to achieve this)
• Pension salary sacrifice scheme
• Life insurance 4 x salary
• 28 days annual leave (rising on service)
• Birthday Leave (1 extra day per year to be used in birthday month)
• Paid bank holiday leave
• Occupational sick pay
• Wellness – free vouchers for eye test and flu jab
• Employee Assistance Programme for health and wellbeing
• 1 x annual professional subscription
• Learning Management System – access to free training & e-learning (more than 80,000 resources)

CLOSING DATE: Tuesday 14 October 2025

POTENTIAL INTERVIEWS: 21, 22 or 23 October 2025

Note: Please let us know confidentially if you require any adjustments to participate fully in our recruitment experience.

The legal bit

The successful applicant will be subject to pre-employment checks including medical screening and vetting due to the nature of our business. As standard you will need to satisfy:

• Right to work in the UK
• Residency qualification (5 year checkable history in the UK; ideally resident in England or Wales for the last 5 years)
• Employment references (last 3 years or educational/personal reference where applicable)

NPPV3 Vetting process details available here. This level of vetting grants unsupervised, unrestricted access to police premises and systems and could include access to classified material up to SECRET and occasional access to TOP SECRET. Clearance at SC level sits alongside NPPV3.