Commercial Assurance Manager

About DFT Operator

Join Our Team at DFTO

DFTO is the government’s public sector rail owning group. Its purpose is to bring all currently privately-owned train operators into public ownership in advance of the creation of Great British Railways in 2027 - and deliver improvements in the here and now by unifying and integrating train operations under common public ownership.

DFTO has over 30,000 employees, runs over 11,000 services a day and delivers over 930 million customer journeys across its networks every year. 7,000 people joined the railway family in the last year

Major improvements are being delivered by DFTO train operators (TOCs) that are already under public ownership - these are LNER, Northern, Trans Pennine Express (TPE), Southeast... and others.

We work closely with the DfT but operate independently with our own governance and leadership teams. Our priority is ensuring efficient, dependable rail services for everyone.

The Commercial Assurance Manager is responsible for supporting and leading, when appropriate, effective and independent commercial assurance, governance oversight and procurement assurance support across DfTO's portfolio. The role ensures commercial activities are compliant, robust, transparent and deliver value whilst supporting strategic objectives across Train Operating Companies (TOCs).

The postholder will support and lead, when appropriate, assurance activities, support commercial governance frameworks, conduct reviews, provide commercial insight and work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to strengthen controls, improve processes and drive continuous improvement across DfTO's portfolio.

The Commercial Assurance Manager will also contribute to the development of Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) and supply-chain risk management strategies, working across their full lifecycle and supporting the delivery of associated activities and objectives, as required.

• Support and lead, as and when appropriate, commercial assurance reviews across rail procurements, commercial projects, contract management activities and governance processes.
• Support and provide, when appropriate, independent challenge to ensure commercial decisions are compliant, evidence-based and aligned with organisational objectives.
• Support the development and maintenance of commercial assurance frameworks, governance controls and reporting mechanisms.
• Support governance boards through preparation of assurance reports, assessments and recommendations.
• Monitor implementation of assurance actions and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Review procurement strategies, sourcing approaches and award recommendations to ensure compliance with organisational policies and relevant procurement legislation.
• Support assurance of TOCs procurement activities.
• Review procurement documentation, governance submissions and commercial evaluation approaches.
• Ensure procurement processes are transparent, auditable and deliver value.
• Support the development and maintenance of assurance document library (including templates for sourcing strategies, contract award, goods and services agreements d procurement and evaluation templates).

• Support the identification, assessment and monitoring of commercial, contractual and supply chain risks when appropriate.
• Maintain assurance oversight of commercial controls and risk mitigation activities as required.

• Support commercial strategy development through analysis of market, supplier and contract data.
• Support and provide, when appropriate, assurance input into TOCs procurements activities using lesson learnt and…