Commercial Lead

INNOVA SEARCH; Kingswinford; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Innova Search is recruiting a Senior Estimator / Commercial Lead for a specialist engineering and manufacturing business in the West Midlands. You will own the estimating function from enquiry to quotation, drive pricing models and margins, and partner with production and engineering to ensure smooth handover.

The role offers genuine autonomy, exposure to bespoke metalforming projects, and the opportunity to shape commercial processes and profitability within a growing SME.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in estimating, commercial estimating or technical sales within an engineering or manufacturing environment.
• Reading and understanding engineering drawings and cost build‑ups.
• Strong commercial judgement and cost awareness.

Responsibilities

• Preparing accurate quotations for bespoke engineering and manufacturing projects.
• Interpreting engineering drawings, specifications and production requirements.
• Pricing materials, labour, machine time, tooling, subcontracting, transport and costs.
• Assessing technical and commercial risk and ensuring appropriate margins.
• Managing the quotation pipeline, priorities and deadlines.
• Developing and improving pricing models, quotation templates and estimating processes.
• Comparing estimated costs against actual job performance.
• Monitoring quotation turnaround, conversion and margin.
• Working closely with production and engineering teams to ensure effective handover.
• Providing regular commercial reporting to the leadership team.

Skills

Estimating

Commercial acumen

Technical sales

Excel skills

Attention to detail

Tools

Excel

Job description

The Opportunity

Innova Search is working exclusively with a well-established specialist engineering and manufacturing business in the West Midlands to appoint a Senior Estimator / Commercial Lead.

This is a key role with genuine autonomy and the opportunity to take ownership of the company's estimating and pricing function, while helping to improve commercial processes and profitability.

The business has an excellent reputation, long-standing customers and specialist expertise in bespoke metal forming and engineering.

The Role

You will be responsible for managing the estimating process from initial enquiry through to quotation and handover into production.

Key responsibilities include:

• Preparing accurate quotations for bespoke engineering and manufacturing projects.
• Interpreting engineering drawings, specifications and production requirements.
• Pricing materials, labour, machine time, tooling, subcontracting, transport and associated costs.
• Assessing technical and commercial risk and ensuring appropriate margins.
• Managing the quotation pipeline, priorities and deadlines.
• Developing and improving pricing models, quotation templates and estimating processes.
• Comparing estimated costs against actual job performance.
• Monitoring quotation turnaround, conversion and margin.
• Working closely with production and engineering teams to ensure effective handover.
• Providing regular commercial reporting to the leadership team.

About You

You will have proven experience in estimating, commercial estimating or technical sales within an engineering or manufacturing environment.

Experience in any of the following would be advantageous:

• Section bending
• Plate rolling
• Press braking
• Structural steel
• Metal fabrication
• Architectural metalwork
• Heavy engineering
• Bespoke manufacturing

You must be comfortable reading engineering drawings and understanding manufacturing processes and cost build-up.

Strong Excel skills and good commercial judgement are essential. You should understand the difference between winning work and winning profitable work.

The Person

We are looking for someone who is:

• Commercially astute and technically capable.
• Practical and hands-on.
• Accurate and organised.
• Confident challenging assumptions and protecting margin.
• Comfortable working within an SME environment.
• A strong communicator with excellent attention to detail.
• Improvement-focused and capable of introducing greater structure and consistency.

What's on Offer?

This is an opportunity to join an established specialist engineering business and make a genuine commercial impact.

The successful candidate will have the autonomy to improve the estimating function and, with the growth of the business, there is potential for the role to develop into Commercial Manager / Head of Estimating.

This is a confidential appointment being handled exclusively by Innova Search.