Commercial Manager

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Job Description

Salary: £57,578 - £70,834 p.a. depending on experience

Hours: 37 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

The Team

Highways Maintenance sits within the councils Infrastructure team and is built on the success factors of inclusivity, diversity, support, and encouragement. We are a dynamic and motivated team that puts its customers at the heart of everything we do and strives to go beyond expectations. The team has an excellent record of delivering civil engineering projects across the city of Portsmouth and work with a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders both within and outside the council.

What is the role?

The role is that of commercial lead for PCC's Highway Maintenance Team and in that role, to be the Council's commercial expert in relation to the Highways PFI Contract. This includes the commercial and associated contractual aspects of the PFI contract to help ensure the travelling public and residents of Portsmouth receive best value for money.

You will report to the Highways Maintenance Team Leader and work in partnership with the Technical Manager and Operations & Performance Lead to be a highly effective senior member of the Contract Management Team.

You will provide leadership and guidance to the team with regards to commercial and associated contractual matters and work alongside the Technical and Operations and Performance managers to support the PFI Contract Manager to develop a scrutiny strategy and inspection/testing regime to ensure compliance with Hand-back requirements.

Post-Handback, the Council expects to procure on-going highway services for the maintenance, management and operations of the network. As the commercial expert, you will play a key role in contributing towards determining the Council's future strategy for delivering highway services.

Who is the person?

You will be a high calibre Commercial Manager who has excellent capabilities in managing commercial and contractual aspects of highway infrastructure projects, understanding financial models and has the ability to work collaboratively with contractors to achieve client objectives.

You will be a strategic thinker, an excellent negotiator and be capable of leading a commercial team while effectively scrutinising service delivery and applying the contract.

You will have good communication skills and be able to analyse and interpret commercial data and present that to officers, councillors, members of the public and external third parties in a clear and concise manner.

You will also be a person with vision, who sets high performance standards and achieves them. You will need to have a customer focus and be prepared to improve the journey for both stakeholders and customers alike.

We take pride in our work by valuing others, focusing on what's important so that we make a real and positive difference for the Council as a whole.

Importantly PCC is looking for someone who shares our values around Respect, Integrity, Inclusivity, Diversity and Collaboration. We put people first and ensure our customers are at the heart of everything we do. Our values guide all we do, they set out who we are, what we stand for and how we act.

To learn more, click the link.

Our values and behaviours - Careers Portal (portsmouth.gov.uk)

What you'll need to succeed

You will be educated to degree level or equivalent with significant client-side experience in managing commercial aspects of large highway maintenance contracts.

You will have a very good understanding of large contract financing (ideally PFI), legal frameworks and outcome based performance management; with a willingness to seek expert advice in financial and commercial matters where necessary. You will also have experience in client-side contract management of large highway maintenance contracts.

You will be aware of Asset Management principles, capital investment needs, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) service delivery, safety standards, operations of the highway network and the key statutes that control the delivery of highway services (e.g: Highways Act 1980, NRSWA and Health and Safety).

You will also have experience of leading successful commercial and contractual negotiations, holding contractors to account and applying appropriate sanctions where necessary to ensure effective performance management of service delivery.

Please review the job profile to understand all the aspects of the role.

What you'll get in return

We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potential with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:

• A generous pension scheme which allows you the opportunity to pay in more for that greater return.
• 27 days annual leave rising to 31 days after 5 years service plus bank holidays, pro rata for part time with the potential to purchase additional leave.
• A range of retail discounts via our reward portal offering discounts at popular high street retailers
• Discounted parking at the Civic Offices via a Park It card.
• Free Access to Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and wellbeing support
• Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships
• Business travel support and initiatives, including bike loans
• Hybrid working and flexible working options for a better work/life balance.
• Relocation support

Please check out the link here to view the benefits of working with us!

https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/working-for-the-council/

What next

We believe in actively building a work environment that's inclusive as well as diverse, where everyone can contribute their best work and be themselves. A workforce diverse in background and life experience produces trusted public services and better decisions. We believe difference is what makes us stronger and recognise the importance of our teams reflecting the communities we serve, so we welcome and encourage candidates from all backgrounds for this role.

If you would like to apply for this post, please upload your CV along with a Personal Statement (no more than 4 pages) which describes how you meet the requirements of the job profile; which you can find HERE

Also, we are very happy to have an informal chat so you can get to know us before deciding to apply. If this is something you would be interested in then please contact Fiona Armstrong, Recruitment Officer at Fiona.Armstrong@portsmouthcc.gov.uk.

Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact recruit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

We will email applicants from time to time; please ensure you check e-mail folders as sometimes our e-mails may go into spam/junk folders.