Manager, Commercial and Contracts

EL2L

Location: Melbourne (preferred) or All Bureau capital city locations will be considered

Salary: $135,402 - $152,073 plus an additional 15.4% superannuation

Working at the Bureau

The Bureau represents a dynamic and exciting opportunity. At the Bureau you will:

• do meaningful work that brings real benefits to the Australian community, businesses and government.
• work with dedicated experts and professionals who constantly seek to improve the services we provide to our customers.
• work in excellent workplaces in a variety of great locations. You'll have access to the latest technology in a diverse, safe and inclusive environment for everyone.
• experience our commitment to learning, growth, training and clear career pathways. You'll receive competitive salary and benefits.

Position overview

The Manager, Commercial and Contracts is responsible for leading the Bureau of Meteorology's commercial, contract and vendor management activities consistent with legislation, Government policy and enterprise processes. The role plays an integral part in the overall effectiveness of the Procurement & Contracts function, providing thought leadership and authoritative advice on a range of complex commercial issues ensuring both strategic priorities and governance requirements are balanced to support delivery of Bureau strategy.

The role is responsible for leading and managing the Commercial, Contracts & Vendor stream and will be responsible for ensuring the Bureau's contract managers understand and comply with the defined frameworks leading activities for uplifting the Bureau's contract and vendor management capability.

The successful candidate will also provide expert commercial advice to support RFT and statement of requirements development, commercial evaluation, negotiation, and drafting of resulting statements of work and commercial negotiation terms through to contract execution and / or contract variation of existing agreements, across a range of strategic, complex IT systems integration and managed services based RFTs and agreements.

The role reports to the Procurement & Contracts Lead and will need to demonstrate high level critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and influencing skills in order to ensure strategic and governance requirements are met for the Bureau. The successful candidate will develop and maintain productive relationships with the Bureau Executive and Managers to ensure strategic priorities are delivered in conjunction with maintaining ongoing Bureau operations.

Role responsibilities

The responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:

• Complying with all Bureau work, health and safety policies and procedures, and taking reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of employees, contractors and visitors who may be affected by your conduct.
• Lead the formulation of commercial principles, leveraging specialised expertise to shape commercial positions that contribute to a robust and effective commercial framework.
• Drive key aspects of the procurement process, ensuring the delivery of timely outcomes that align with project timelines.
• Provide valuable commercial support throughout all stages of the procurement process.
• Offer strategic, commercial and financial advice to address complex issues that may arise during the project.
• Engage with stakeholders, manage expectation and solicit input effectively as needed.
• Input into government approvals processes.
• Pro-actively identify, plan for, resolve and present complex commercial and strategic issues
• Effectively oversee the administration of the Bureau's contracts, in compliance with policies, procedures and the contract management framework.
• Establish and maintain strong business relationships with stakeholders and suppliers including effectively managing contract enquiries, issues, disputes, variations, risks and undertaking negotiations with suppliers as required.
• Support the commercial evaluation of complex and strategic RFT responses (subject to volumes), the development of negotiations strategy, deal parameters and briefing papers for Delegate approval prior to commencement of negotiations.
• Where required, lead, support and contribute to Bureau negotiations team across a number of complex and strategic RFTs and / or variations to existing agreements, in accordance with the approved deal parameters, including updates to negotiations gap lists and associated documentation.
• Collaboration with negotiations team members including technical subject matter experts, Legal advisor and legal support, pricing and financial analysis, Procurement and Probity advisors.
• Provide input as necessary to executive briefing and approval papers necessary for finalisation and agreement execution.

Qualifications & experience

• A degree or diploma of an Australian educational institution, or a comparable overseas qualification, which is appropriate to the duties; OR other comparable qualifications, which are appropriate to the duties.
• Minimum 5 years experience leading strategic or complex procurements or managing contracts for large, complex, distributed programs and/or organisations.
• Strong commercial, legal and contracts and vendor management acumen.
• Demonstrated experience managing strategic procurements and or major contracts in industries such as (but not limited to) Government, Utilities, Mining or Transport.

Merit pool

The selection process will establish a merit pool that may be used to fill similar positions within 18 months.

How to apply

Applications can be lodged through the Bureau of Meteorology Careers.

Your application will consist of resume, contact details for two referees and a ‘800-word pitch’ that considers:

• position overview
• job responsibilities
• selection criteria