Role: Commercial Director
Reports to: CEO
Team: Commercial Manager, Quantity Surveyors, Commercial Function
Sector: Specialist subcontracting / complex construction delivery
The Mandate
Our client is appointing a Commercial Director to own, lead, and future‑proof the commercial performance of the business. This is a senior leadership role with full accountability for commercial strategy, governance, risk, and capability across the complete project lifecycle.
The brief is clear: bring control, pace, and consistency, protect margin, strengthen contractual positioning, and build a commercial function that scales with the business.
This is not a hands‑on QS role. The successful candidate will operate at executive level while remaining close enough to projects to guide decisions, manage risk, and intervene where value or exposure is at stake.
Core Accountabilities
- Full ownership of the commercial lifecycle from contract review to final account
- Set and drive commercial strategy across the project portfolio
- Act as the business’s commercial authority on contracts, risk, and entitlement
- Lead CVRs, forecasting, reporting cadence, and margin control
- Embed disciplined execution of variations, notices, EOTs, and claims
- Maintain clear, real‑time visibility of risk, exposure, and opportunity
- Lead senior‑level negotiations and client commercial engagement
- Build, lead, and coach a high‑performing commercial team
- Drive adoption of systems, processes, and governance
- Ensure commercial decisions actively support delivery and business objectives
What Success Looks Like
- Improved margin protection and entitlement recovery
- Strong, consistent commercial reporting and forecasting
- Early identification and management of risk
- A confident, capable commercial team operating with clarity and ownership
- Commercial discipline embedded across delivery teams
- Reduced dependency on individuals and increased organisational resilience
Required Background
- Proven experience in a senior commercial leadership role, ideally within a subcontracting or complex project environment
- Strong track record managing upstream and downstream commercial positions
- Deep experience with CVRs, variations, final accounts, claims, and negotiation
- Comfortable overseeing multiple projects with differing contract forms and risk profiles
- Experience embedding systems, governance, and process discipline in a growing business
Technical Strengths
- Expert knowledge of construction contracts (NEC, JCT, bespoke forms)
- Strong commercial forecasting, cost control, and margin management capability
- Highly confident reviewing contracts, amendments, and international conditions
- Able to translate commercial data into clear executive‑level decisions
Leadership Profile
- Credible, decisive, and commercially rigorous
- Strong coach and developer of people
- Comfortable challenging, influencing, and holding others to account
- Clear communicator with non‑commercial stakeholders
- Strategic thinker who can drop into detail when risk or value demands it
- Calm under pressure; focused on outcomes, not noise
