Senior Commissioning Manager – Children’s Services

Hackney is ambitious, pioneering, and proud. We are looking for a dynamic and experienced senior leader to join our Children’s Integrated Commissioning Service.

The Children’s Integrated Commissioning Service is the architect of a system that supports our children to thrive. We don’t just manage contracts; we design the entire network of services for children and families. We bring together health, education, social care and VCS partners to work as one, ensuring every child gets the right help, at the right time, in the right way.

We are looking for passionate, creative, and determined people to join our team and to lead wider strategic thinking across the Council and the NHS, aligning the developments within children’s and education services to wider corporate plans and cementing relationships with providers both within and beyond our community.

About the Role

As a Senior Commissioning Manager, you will work with the Head of Children’s Integrated Commissioning as a key leader within our integrated service, responsible for the development and delivery of commissioning, transformation, and service improvement, ensuring we achieve better outcomes and value for money from our available resources.

You won’t just be managing commissioning projects and programmes of work; you will be the architect of our future, translating bold ideas into tangible, life-changing realities for the people we serve.

This is your chance to ask the big questions: How can we build a system that is truly preventative? How do we break down organisational silos to create seamless user journeys? How do we harness technology and community power to create lasting positive outcomes?

As Senior Commissioning Manager, you will:

• Lead from the front: Drive a portfolio of high-impact, high-value commissioning and transformation projects from concept to completion, ensuring they deliver on our strategic vision.
• Champion innovation: Rethink how we commission services, moving beyond traditional models to foster genuine co-production, partnership, and innovation.
• Connect the system: Work with senior leaders across health, education, social care, and the voluntary sector, uniting them behind a shared purpose and a single, ambitious plan.

• Inspire a culture of change: Act as a catalyst and a coach, building momentum and empowering our teams to embrace new ways of working.

• Driving Our Values: Ensuring all commissioning activity is embedded in Hackney’s systemic, trauma-informed, and anti-racist approach to working with children and young people.

Who are we looking for?

You might be an organisational powerhouse, a data whizz, a natural relationship builder, a strategic thinker, or a creative problem-solver. Whatever your background, you are driven by a relentless desire to make things better for children. You are curious, brave, and you believe in the power of collaboration.

You will bring:

-Exceptional Leadership: Proven ability to provide vision and direction, motivating and empowering teams to achieve ambitious goals.

-Strategic Commissioning Expertise: Significant experience in evidence-based commissioning, procurement, and contract management, with strong analytical skills to develop innovative service solutions.

-Financial & Commercial Acumen: A clear understanding of public sector budget management and the ability to manage a significant, multi-million-pound portfolio to deliver value for money and financial savings.

-A Systems-Wide View: A strong understanding of the public sector context and how health, social care, and education services function and intersect. Experience working across agencies (especially Council and NHS) is essential.

-Commitment to Our Values: A deep and demonstrable commitment to anti-racist practice. You will be able to think creatively and apply a systemic, trauma-informed approach to your leadership, processes, and policies.

-Resilience & Communication: The ability to thrive in a complex, fast-paced environment, with highly developed communication skills to influence senior stakeholders, partners, and providers.

Why Hackney?

-Our Systemic, Trauma-Informed and Anti-Racist (STAR) practice model informs everything we do.

-Following on from our Anti Racist Summit in October 2023 we remain committed to dismantling systemic racism, discrimination, injustice and making anti-racism a foundation of our practice.

-We provide wide-ranging and excellent training and development opportunities; we will help you to develop excellent practice, leading to career advancement at your own pace.

-We are an innovative borough where we collaborate to support change for the children and families we work for and for each other.

Ready to build the future with us?

If you’re ready to move beyond the ordinary and do work that truly matters, we want to hear from you.

For an informal chat about our vision, please contact Kiyanni Okonta-Romulus, Service Coordinator at kiyanni.okonta-romulus@hackney.gov.uk or 0208 3563836

Further reading:

Children’s Integrated Commissioning Strategy 2025/26-2026/27

As a Council, our most outstanding asset is our staff, who are highly dedicated to serving our residents and committed to our goals as an organisation.

If you want to work in a place where you can represent our values so we achieve the best for our residents, please click on the apply button below.

We operate a fair and open anonymous selection process. Therefore, we do not accept supporting statements or CV’s.

To proceed with your application, you will need to create an account and submit your application.

As part of the application process, you will need to complete a number of competency based questions. These questions allow you to demonstrate your suitability for the role and provide examples of your skills, knowledge and experience outlined in the job description.

We understand the benefits of using AI in the workplace. However, if you are thinking of using this tool to submit your application, we ask you to think about what value it will add. AI tools tend to lack the personal touch and authenticity we value in candidates. We encourage you to showcase your unique knowledge and skills using your own voice.

This application process replaces a supporting statement.

Closing date for applications: 23 November 2025 (22:59)

Interview dates: 10, 11 and 12 December 2025

We are also working towards our vision, which is to be a place for everyone; where residents and staff can be proud; a place that celebrates diversity and where everyone can feel valued, included and involved. In order to achieve this, we look for people who are: Proud; Ambitious; Pioneering; Open; Proactive; Inclusive.

Hackney Council works to eradicate discrimination on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. We also recognise that people can be disadvantaged by their social and economic circumstances, so we will also work to eliminate discrimination and disadvantage caused by social class. We also welcome those interested in flexible working. We particularly welcome applications from disabled people, as this group is currently under represented in our workforce.

The Council has a dedicated employment support service (Hackney Works), which offers Hackney residents guidance in relation to applying for jobs. If you are thinking about applying for a job, please contact the Hackney Works team to find out what support is available: hackneyworks@hackney.gov.uk

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