Grants Hub Specialist

Details
Reference number

434757

Salary

£44,720 - £52,130

National pay locations: Durham, Liverpool, Manchester, Peterborough, Sheffield £44,720 - £47,850

London pay locations: Croydon £48,720 - £52,130

GBP

Job grade

Senior Executive Officer

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

HO - Chief Operating Officer Group

Type of role

Commercial

Working pattern

Full-time

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

Croydon, Durham, Liverpool, Manchester, Peterborough, Sheffield

About the job
Job summary

The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, fire, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.

The Chief Operating Officer Group works closely with the Home Office's policy and operational commands to enable us together to deliver the department's priorities. The group is comprised of different teams and professional functions, including Commercial, Finance, People, Portfolio and Project Delivery, Security, Estates and Information and Digital, Data and Technology.

The Home Office spends approximately £3bn each year with third party suppliers and £4bn on general grants and this is managed by Commercial Directorate, a team of procurement contract management professionals, and grant making professionals. The range of goods and services acquired and grants awarded is huge and includes services to complex programmes that are unique in Europe with multi-million pound contracts as well as high value and complex grants that support the government's 5 Missions.

Grants are funding mechanisms that support the delivery of a Home Office policy objective and deliver benefits for the wider public good. Grant recipients are often charitable organisations or other public sector bodies and profit is not payable, whereas for contracts, the Home Office benefits from consumption of the goods or services procured and profit is therefore payable to the supplier.

In 2023/24 Home Office awarded circa 1400 grant agreements to various organisations. Commercial Grants Team supported policy teams in that process, providing vital commercial advice and ensuring processes and procedures were compliant with the Functional Standard for Grants.

At the Home Office, you will have the chance to make a real and tangible positive impact to the country's future structure, impacting the lives across the UK. We have a number of roles within Commercial Grants Team, which support the Missions of the department, including in Migration and Borders, Public Safety and our Homeland Security, Science & Technology, the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme and Digital Data & Technology.

So, whatever your background, either public or private, if you are passionate about delivering first class outcomes then come and join our journey.

Job description

The Home Office Commercial Grants team is part way through a programme of change which has recruitment across all grades. We are seeking an enthusiastic individual to work at SEO level to provide critical activities to support the delivery of Commercial's objectives. These roles could be of interest to individuals who have worked in a commercial environment and are looking to broaden their commercial skills and grants knowledge in a central commercial function or to existing commercial staff who would enjoy taking on a new role. Should you be successful you will receive a programme of development with the opportunity to study towards professional commercial qualifications and a grant specific learning pathway.

Responsibilities

Duties include but are not limited to:

• Acting as Commercial Lead to support Grant Holding Units (GHU) on Hub processes for Gold and Silver grant schemes. Providing initial advice and guidance and ensure adherence to the Grants Hub Process and governance requirements.
• Championing the functional standard for grants and associated minimum requirements across grant schemes.
• Providing high-quality commercial advice and guidance on the drafting of relevant Business cases and arrange commercial approval of the final version of Business cases via the Grants Challenge Panel or via Out of Panel approvals as appropriate.
• Ensuring that commercial risks are identified, understood and managed at all stages of the process and recorded.
• Providing a positive customer experience, understanding the different requirements of different schemes, and delivering a quality service that is responsive to feedback.
• Acting as Commercial Lead for grant competitions, ensuring that competition documents are prepared which reflect current best practice, timelines, evaluation/moderation is conducted in accordance with published criteria.
• Managing grants competitions ensuring that they are open and transparent and apply the rigour of good commercial practice, ensuring that Jaggaer is used as appropriate and that all competitions are advertised on Find a Grant. This includes supporting GHUs through the competition process including evaluation, moderation and award stages.
• Reviewing all Grant Agreements to ensure they are correctly drafted prior to signature and that a signed copy is received from the GHU.
• Building and maintaining relationships with key internal and external stakeholders to develop a clear and agreed view on the needs of the business and target outcomes.
• Working with the Commercial Lead (G7) to develop strategic category or business focussed plans to address key commercial Grant challenges, such are building commercial capability of Grant managers and Hub Specialists or looking for synergies across the commercial grant portfolio that will deliver greater benefits or efficiencies.
• Working with business colleagues to ensure that grants are closely monitored and all milestones are delivered as required, with funds released as appropriate.
• Providing commercial guidance to peers or senior colleagues that draws on relevant Functional Standard for Grants, procurement legislation, policy, information, supply market knowledge, and commercial experience. Maintaining awareness of developments in procurement policy and commercial case law.
• Working with policy teams to understand and follow grant management guidance and best practice to ensure that grants are closely and effectively monitored, milestones and key performance indicators are achieved, funds released as appropriate and grant schemes are evaluated.
• Ensuring that commercial risks are identified, understood, recorded and managed at all stages of the grant management.
• Gathering lessons learned from competitions and ensuring these are documented to inform future projects and influence improvements in commercial processes, systems and skills.

Working patterns

Due to the business requirements of this role, it is only available on a full-time basis.

Person specification

Essential criteria

You must be able to demonstrate:

• The ability to provide high-quality support and manage a quality end-to-end service for a range of schemes each year.
• The ability to make informed, risk-based judgements about how grant schemes are designed and implemented.
• Experience of working in a Commercial team and a good understanding of Commercial best practice.
• Excellent organisational skills in order to manage competing priorities and deadlines.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. This is a non-contractual arrangement where all employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office

Things you need to know
Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

We will endeavour to conduct the selection process in line with the dates indicated below, but cannot guarantee that these will not, where necessary, be revised.

1. Application – by 11th November 2025.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

• A CV.
• Personal Statement (maximum 1000 words).

Your CV should consist of your career history, qualifications and skills/experience, including any key achievements in each role. Your CV will be scored against the experience required for the role as noted within the essential criteria.

The Personal Statement should be aligned to and demonstrate how you meet the skills and experience set out in the essential criteria, detailed in the person specification.

For guidance and information on how to construct your application (CV and Personal Statement), you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers website.

1. Sift – week commencing 17th November 2025.

The sift will be held on the Personal Statement and the CV.

1. Interview – week commencing 8th December 2025.

If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview that will be Behaviours (as listed in the job advert) and Strength based questions.

The interviews will be held via MS Teams.

For guidance and information on what to expect and how to prepare for an interview, you are encouraged to visit Civil Service Careers.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application; however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Problems during the application process

If you experience problems accessing this advert, or you think you've made a mistake on an initial application, please contact , including the vacancy reference, at least two working days before the vacancy closes. Further information can be found on our website.

Do not create or attempt to submit another application, online test or use a different Civil Service Jobs account to proceed as this would be in violation of the candidate declaration.

Further information

Location preference

You will only be able to select a single location preference so please ensure this is a location that you are prepared to travel to. If you are offered a role at your preferred location and you decline, your application will be withdrawn.

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made. There is no guarantee that being held on a reserve list will lead to a job offer. Further information can be found on our website.

Standards

All Civil Servants are expected to comply with the Civil Service Code, and its core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.

Additional Security Checks

As well as successfully obtaining UK Security Vetting clearance, candidates will be subject to a range of additional checks. The range of checks carried out will depend on whether you are a current Home Office employee, existing civil servant or an external new entrant as well as the role requirements. The level of Criminal Record Check required for this role is Basic. Further details are included in the Notes to Candidates.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Serviceon your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct.

If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre- stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the "Assistance Required" section in the "Additional Requirements" page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

See our vetting charter .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants
Job contact :

• Name : Home Office Resourcing Centre
• Email :

Recruitment team

• Email :

Further information

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Civil Service recruitment principles and you wish to make a complaint, then contact the Government Recruitment Service via If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

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