Senior Commercial Manager (Power)

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Any of our UK sites - Lancashire, West Yorkshire, West Sussex, Lincolnshire, Hampshire, Midlands, Glasgow or Cumbria

Senior Commercial Manager

Your New Company

The UK's Utility sector is ever evolving and expanding to meet increasing customer requirements. At Ipsum it's our vision to be the leading customer service focused provider of specialist utility and infrastructure solutions, operating on both public and private networks.

To support our continued growth we are looking for a Senior Commercial Manager to join our team. We are looking for someone who is passionate, not just about the industry, but also about supporting our teams to in delivering essential services 24/7/365 that really make a difference to local people and communities.

What we offer

We are committed to supporting and developing our people to achieve their full potential. As a fast-growing ambitious business, we can offer our people opportunities to acquire a wide range of skills and gain broad and varied experience to enable them to progress in their career. Investing in our people and enhancing our expertise and flexibility enables us to deliver the highest standard of service to our customers.

Our benefits

We really value our people and so we like to look after them. If you work for us, you'll enjoy a great range of employee benefits:

• Career development including professional qualifications and accreditation
• Health & Wellbeing Benefits:
  • Employee Assistance Programme including mental health support and access to counselling
  • Access to 24/7 virtual GP
  • Occupational Health support
• Tax efficient benefits via salary exchange (salary sacrifice):
  • Cycle to Work
  • Group Personal Pension Scheme
• Employee Discount Scheme - discounts on hundreds of retailers including supermarkets, mobile phone/broadband providers, gym memberships and more!
• Established local social committees with calendar of regular social events
• Life assurance cover
• Flexible working
• Long service awards
• Opportunities to volunteer and make a difference via local community projects and initiatives

Your new role

Our Senior Commercial Managers take ownership of ensuring that the group commercial strategy is implemented within their relevant division, they build strong relationships within their businesses and with customers to help us deliver safe, good quality, profitable services. They act as the conduit between operations and finance, mitigating risks and driving performance wherever possible.

They also business partner with their divisional Managing Director to support them in delivering their plans for the organisation.

Principal Accountabilities:

Tendering

You'll be the commercial lead in relation to any tenders associated to your division, this includes;

• Working with your team to ensure all deadlines are achieved.
• Ensuring accurate models to are produced to estimate the costs of delivering the services which are being tendered.
• Responsibility for ensuring terms and conditions are reviewed against our internal group policy, and then negotiated to the best position for Ipsum.
• Delivering presentations to the board to get approval for submitting the tender back to the client.

Pricing

You'll take ownership of developing, implementing, and managing adherence to a pricing policy.

• A lot of the work we do needs to be priced efficiently, without large amounts of red tape delaying operations ability to work with our customers.
• You'll ensure there is a suitably efficient and thorough sales process in place for your division to manage the three stages of approval (authority to tender, authority to submit a price, and authority to enter contract).
• You will take responsibility for your team developing tools for use by the sales representatives which can be utilised to generate prices.

Project & Contract Performance

Once larger projects and tenders are won, you will be responsible for ensuring controls are in place so that margin is maximised.

• Your team will meet with project managers to track the progress of work and discuss potential changes to the scope.
• You will ensure contractual notices such as early warnings for additional costs are issued on time.
• You will support in developing the group policy for these reviews which you'll then help us to implement across the division.
• Forecasts for future revenue, costs and cashflow will be required - you'll check and challenge them before they are issued to finance, identifying opportunities for improvement.
• You'll deal with any customer disputes to resolve them, seeking the best possible outcome for Ipsum.
• You'll make sure suitable controls are in place to mitigate contractual risk which have been identified e.g. Liquidated Damages

Working Capital Management

Our Senior Commercial Managers are responsible for the working capital cycle of their division,

• You will ensure that invoicing is completed accurately and in a timely manner.
• You will be responsible for ensuring that WIP is accurately reported in the accounts.
• You will set monthly billing targets and track performance against this - educating the team around you to understand the importance of cashflow.
• You'll report on the ageing of WIP (work complete not invoiced), and develop the relevant tools and strategies to ensure this is minimised across your division.
• For some jobs and contracts your team will take responsibility for submitting applications to our clients to seek approval for invoicing (you'll ensure our job management software is utilised to complete this process where possible)

Other Miscellaneous

You will naturally become a business partner within your divisional Managing Director, and we want you to become the go to person to support your division with any commercial questions or issues.

• You will need to construct, manage, and develop a highly performing commercial team.
• Ensure consistent approaches are taken throughout the divisions.
• You will develop and implement new process to improve the commercial controls across your division.
• You will oversee the management of subcontractors, helping to ensure they are correctly onboarded and then ensuring they are paid correctly and on time.
• You will build strong relationships with customers and focus on their needs, to support our growth strategy.
• You will help us to track future order book pipeline, so that we know how achievable our forecasts are.

About you

Essential qualifications/ skills/ experience:

• Bachelor's or master's degree or equivalent qualification.

• Demonstrable experience within a similar commercial or financial role.
• Experience of operating in a multi-divisional organisation would be beneficial.
• Up to date knowledge of contractual law and commercial practice.
• Proven negotiation experience.
• A track record of managing and developing high performing teams.
• Values - A commitment to drive outstanding Health, Safety and Environmental performance.
• Accountability - Takes personal responsibility for outcomes, and does what they say they will do.
• Leadership - Recognises and build on the capabilities of their team, motivates others and delegates effectively.
• Character - Keeps a level head in challenging times, and displays drive and commitment.
• Trustworthy - Communicates well, and does the right thing.
• Humility - Puts the company's needs ahead of their own, and is highly collaborative.
• Self-Awareness - Aware of their strengths and weaknesses, accepts feedback, and can flex their style when needed.

Ipsum is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, transgender status, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity.