Contract Director, Allenby Connaught

Job Introduction

Following an internal promotion, we are now recruiting for this excellent and rare opportunity within Defence.

As Contract Director you will showcase your authentic and inclusive leadership skills operating at a senior level with success in developing your people, alongside exceptional customer focus with commercial awareness and financial/business acumen.  We are also seeking candidates who have an understanding of Defence and what it means to truly partner this segment.

About Sodexo Defence
Working in partnership with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) since 1986, Sodexo Defence provides a wide range of support services from catering, retail and leisure, clerical support and cleaning through to accommodation stores management, transport and security services to support British service personnel and their families.

We employ over 7,000 permanent employees across the UK, operating on 87 military bases including in Cyprus and in the Falkland Islands. We manage a wide range of MOD contracts from Garrison multiactivity contracts and simple cleaning contracts to providing complete facilities management through 35 year private finance initiatives.

Project Allenby/Connaught (PAC)

Is the largest infrastructure Privately Funded Initiative (PFI) ever undertaken by MOD.   The project is to provide modern, high quality, fully serviced, purpose built living and working accommodation for c 18,700 military personnel (20% of the British Army) across the Salisbury Plain (Larkhill, Warminster, Bulford, Tidworth and Perham Down) and in Aldershot Garrison.

The main contractor is Aspire Defence Ltd, a consortium of several major companies, who were awarded the contract for the project in March 2006.   The new build and refurbishment work is being delivered by Aspire Defence Capital Works (ADCW) and the services are provided by Aspire Defence Services Ltd (ADSL) – our client.

ADSL has contracts with several sub contractors and Sodexo Defence is a key supply chain partner.    Sodexo Defence provide catering, retail, mess management and cleaning services for Project Allenby/Connaught.

Role Responsibility

Accountabilities

• Strategy and Planning: You are accountable for the strategic development and business delivery of your Contract, creating annual operating plans which support the operational strategy set by the Divisional Director. You are required to develop and monitor strategies to ensure the long term financial viability of both your accountable contract and the wider Defence segment; keeping abreast of the external environment, the market and current trends relating to Sodexo’s products and services; anticipating future trends and client organisational change likely to impact on the business; providing considered advice to the Divisional Director, Defence UK on both an operational and strategic basis. You must also seek to develop leadership and progression to ensure our organisational capability is fit for future business needs.

• Relationship Management Client and Team: You are responsible for managing senior client and customer relationships and developing and maintaining strong business relationships with key internal people whilst continually driving exceptional service delivery. You must seek to understand the client’s business environment and drivers, developing strong relationships with senior decision makers and establishing a network of senior client contacts. You must develop an astute sense of political awareness and demonstrate relationship skills commensurate with a large and highly influential corporate client. You will manage clients pro-actively and professionally, ensuring Sodexo delivers service in line with client’s business objectives. You will understand the importance the Client places on partnering principles and endeavour to establish a dynamic and positive culture for future co-operative business relationships and improvements to service. You are responsible for managing a large diverse team and as such need to be able to understand the importance that culture plays in the workplace and be able adjust your style accordingly.

• Financial Management: You are responsible and accountable for the financial delivery and the development of annual budgets. You are also responsible for ensuring all financial targets are achieved within a framework of absolute financial control. You will lead and manage the monthly financial review process against KPI’s and ensure follow up on all improvement plans, alongside business planning to support delivery of budget at local level.

• Operational Management: You are responsible for overseeing the operations of the Contract and manage its compliance with legal, regulatory and company requirements. You will create and maintain internal controls for implementing and monitoring plans approved by the Divisional Director. You will effectively manage the operation through; providing line management to the senior contract management team and demonstrating best practice people management practices; set, agree and communicate business targets to the whole organisation; monitor financial and operational business results against budget and plans; taking corrective action where necessary and informing the Divisional Director of significant changes; ensuring robust health and safety procedures are implemented, regularly reviewed and reported on a regular basis.

• Contract Development; You are responsible at a senior level for ensuring changes to the contract are managed effectively, ensuring through your teams that changes made are within the governance of contractual change. Provide management information at an Executive Management level on any contractual exposure to manage and mitigate unnecessary risk and identify and develop contractual opportunities. You will partner the central support functions with Defence and Group on the development of commercial cases/operational solutions and relevant business approvals to ensure competitive success within approved parameters.

• Leadership and People: You will role model the company values and ensure they are reinforced at every opportunity. As the Contract Director you will set direction and drive the development of a highly motivated, profitable and best in class team of up to 1500 employees. You will provide leadership on all aspects of the business, operational and people plans, providing solutions to the Divisional Director, Sodexo Defence and your own team that deliver on business objectives. You will identify how people can best support the achievement of business aims, shaping and executing on a people plan and on the back of this, developing and maintaining a people plan to ensure future leadership capability.

• Risk, Governance and Compliance: You are accountable for full compliance and understanding of all company risk, reporting and governance processes, ensure that these are fully applied, complied with and adhered to within own business.  You will develop a health and safety culture that is closely aligned with that of the client, supporting all their initiatives and providing HSE advice as required. You will maintain up to date knowledge of all H&S legislation and be able to confidently articulate plans to the client on a quarterly basis.

The Ideal Candidate

Capabilities
• Exceptional leadership and communication skills, strong negotiation and influencing skills, high profile networking ability, client relationship management skills, change management, commercial management, strategy and planning,
• Law and ethics, supplier development and relationship management, contract management and development, P&L and budgeting process, risk management

Essential
• Comprehensive experience of managing a soft service business preferably with food, fixed pricing and retail experience
• Experience of implementing marketing strategies, control of purchasing and Catering/Leisure/Retail trading
• Able to demonstrate successful management of a team of 500+
• Strong interpersonal and relationships skills is a must with emotional intelligence and personal confidence being key
• Experience of managing a business with a turnover in excess of 5 million per annum
• Operational experience of leading team through both consolidation and growth
• Excellent customer and relationship management skills, including credibility and influence at senior levels.
• Strong leadership skills and the ability to effectively leverage relationships that drive results
• Strong commercial acumen
• Well-developed networking skills, stakeholder engagement skills and negotiation skills

Desirable
• MBIFM, HND in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Management, or Degree calibre
• Experience of working within the Defence sector and interfacing with senior members of HRM Royal Armed Forces
• Experience of managing a PFI

*Please note;  any change to employment contract / offer of employment is subject to successful MOD security clearance checks

Package Description

(large) Band C

£highly Competitive plus exceptional benefits

About the Company

In the UK and Ireland, Sodexo employs some 35,000 employees to deliver integrated facilities management services to clients at over 2,000 locations in the corporate, healthcare, education, leisure, defence and justice sectors. With an annual turnover of over £1bn, we provide everything from catering, cleaning and reception to security, laboratory and grounds maintenance services, enabling our clients to focus on their core business.