Commercial Manager Defence

Turner & Townsend; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Job summary

Turner & Townsend Defence is expanding its Commercial team in the UK. We seek Commercial Managers across procurement, quantity surveying and cost estimating to support Defence projects for MoD organisations and strategic Defence suppliers.

You will work on a range of programmes across air, land, sea, cyber and space, with hybrid working and opportunities to grow across pathways. You don’t need Defence experience, but strong commercial skills, public procurement expertise and a proactive approach

Qualifications

• Commercial professional able to advise senior stakeholders.
• Public procurement and contract management experience.
• Experience across procurement, QS and cost estimating.
• Familiarity with NEC4/JCT/FIDIC contracts.
• Ability to manage workload and provide clear recommendations.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the commercial workstream on client projects.
• Recommend commercial approaches balancing risk and value.
• Support market engagement, tendering, cost plans, and pricing.
• Manage contracts and supplier performance information.
• Support negotiations and governance compliance.

Skills

Public procurement experience

Contract management

Cost estimation

Quantification and costing

Risk management

Data analysis

Client advisory

Stakeholder management

Commercial judgment

Education

Professional qualification in commercial management or related discipline

Membership of professional body (e.g., MRICS, MCIPS, ICEAA)

Tools

NEC4 contracts

JCT contracts

FIDIC contracts

Estimating software

Job description

At Turner & Townsend, we’re passionate about making the difference. That means delivering better outcomes for our clients, helping our people to realise their potential, and doing our part to create a prosperous society. Every day, we help our major global clients deliver ambitious and highly technical projects in over 110 offices worldwide.

Turner & Townsend within the UK has a wide range of key clients in various sectors, including Health, Local Authorities, Higher Education, Highways, Utilities, Rail, and Defence. Our diverse portfolio of clients provides our team members with unique and rewarding opportunities to gain experience across a broad range of major programmes and projects.

Turner & Townsend Defence

Turner & Townsend are a key Tier 1 supplier of project and programme management services to the Ministry of Defence and strategic Defence suppliers in the UK. We play a crucial role in supporting the defence of the United Kingdom, whilst ensuring our clients achieve better outcomes

Turner & Townsend’s Defence South East Cost Centre provides support to Defence projects and programmes that range in complexity and size. Our service offering includes programme & project management, controls & performance management, cost management and procurement.

We are actively looking to expand the Defence South East team due to client requirements; we’re looking for talented individuals to join us to support the delivery of our growing client portfolio. These individuals should expect to further develop their careers through working on a range of complex and challenging commissions, whilst being part of an engaging and high performing team.

Turner & Townsend’s Defence South East Cost Centre provides support to Defence projects and programmes that range in complexity and size. Our service offering includes programme & project management, controls & performance management, cost management and procurement.

We are actively looking to expand the Defence South East team due to client requirements; we’re looking for talented individuals to join us to support the delivery of our growing client portfolio. These individuals should expect to further develop their careers through working on a range of complex and challenging commissions, whilst being part of an engaging and high performing team.

Turner & Townsend’s Defence South East Cost Centre provides support to Defence projects and programmes that range in complexity and size. Our service offering includes programme & project management, controls & performance management, cost management and procurement.

We are actively looking to expand the Defence South East team due to client requirements; we’re looking for talented individuals to join us to support the delivery of our growing client portfolio. These individuals should expect to further develop their careers through working on a range of complex and challenging commissions, whilst being part of an engaging and high performing team.

Important: Before applying, due to the sensitive nature of these projects, you must be a SOLE UK National who is able to achieve and maintain UK MoD Security Clearance (SC). See Security Clearance Section.

Job Description

We’re growing our Defence commercial team and want to hear from Commercial Managers across three professions: procurement, quantity surveying and cost estimating.

You’ll work for Turner & Townsend’s Defence clients. They include Ministry of Defence organisations such as Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), and strategic Defence suppliers, on programmes across air, land, sea, cyber and space.

We also deliver infrastructure work, including under NEC4, and more or less anything else our clients need commercial support with.

You don’t need Defence experience to apply. It’s a real advantage, but commercial skill, good decision-making and experience of public procurement carry across from other sectors.

New to consultancy? That’s fine too. If you’ve built your commercial skills client-side, in industry, in the public sector or in the Armed Forces, and you fancy a move into consultancy, this could be a great next step.

Pathways:

• Procurement: procurement and commercial strategy, defining requirements, market engagement, competitive and single source procurement, tendering and negotiation, commercial contracting, and contract and supplier management from mobilisation through to exit.
• Quantity surveying: quantification and costing, cost planning, procurement and tendering, contract practice under NEC4, JCT or FIDIC, change and valuations through to final accounts, and project financial control and reporting.
• Cost estimating (including cost engineering): estimate production from order of magnitude through to detailed estimates built up from first principles, estimating models that account for risk and uncertainty, estimating assurance, estimating support to major programme set-up, and data analysis and benchmarking.

Don’t fit neatly into one pathway? Many commercial professionals work across two or more of these areas. If that’s you, tell us about it when you apply.

About you

You’re a commercial professional who enjoys solving problems that matter. You can walk into a client’s team, understand quickly what they need, and give advice they trust.

Our culture is underpinned by three values: love a challenge, stronger together and bring out the best in everyone. If those sound like you, you’ll feel at home here.

We’re looking for people who are:

• Confident with clients: you can explain a commercial position clearly to senior stakeholders, including when it isn’t what they want to hear.
• Sound in judgement: you weigh risk, value and compliance, and recommend an approach you can defend. You’ll be trusted to manage your own workload, develop commercially sound recommendations and provide clear advice to clients and stakeholders.
• Trustworthy: you act with integrity, and clients and colleagues can rely on your advice.
• Curious: you’re keen to learn a new sector, client or contract model, and you ask good questions.
• Adaptable: you flex to what each client needs rather than sticking to what you already know, and you’re keen to build experience across the whole commercial lifecycle.
• Collaborative: you work well alongside project managers, engineers, controls and finance teams.
• Generous with knowledge: you support and develop junior colleagues and help create an inclusive and respectful environment where people feel valued and able to contribute.

You don’t need to tick every box. If you have relevant skills and experience and you’re excited by this work, please apply.

What you’ll do

No two commissions are the same. As a Commercial Manager (Professional), you’ll work across the commercial lifecycle wherever our clients need you, from market engagement and tendering to contract and supplier management, drawing on your existing experience while strengthening the areas that are newer to you. You can expect to:

• Contribute to the commercial workstream on client projects, taking on more of the lead as your experience grows.
• Recommend the right commercial approach for each situation, weighing the trade-offs and the risk mitigation it needs to achieve value for money.
• Support market engagement, procurement and tendering, cost plans or estimates, depending on your profession, adding your own commercial insight.
• Manage contracts and track supplier performance, using cost analysis, earned value and contract management information.
• Support negotiations and continuous improvement, and make sure commercial activity meets governance, compliance and legal requirements.
• Use programme, portfolio and project management tools to keep commercial activity aligned with project delivery.
• Build trusted relationships with client teams, including senior stakeholders, and gain their support for your recommendations.
• Share what you know with colleagues, and help raise commercial standards across the team.

What you’ll bring

Across all three pathways:

• Experience of delivering on medium to large-sized projects/complexity.
• Public procurement experience. For procurement, this means having worked under the Procurement Act 2023, the Public Contract Regulations or the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations, as either a client or a supplier. For quantity surveying and cost estimating, it means experience of working on publicly procured projects, for example preparing or pricing tenders, or supporting tender evaluation.
• A solid grounding in cost or commercial management, with a good working knowledge of its core concepts, tools and techniques.
• The ability to understand what a client or the business needs, and to bring senior stakeholders with you.
• Clear communication, and a genuine commitment to delivering a high-quality service.

Procurement:

• Experience of procurement, contract placement (sourcing) and/or contract management.
• Commercial experience in both single source and competitive markets, ideally within Defence.
• Knowledge of the main procurement routes and how to apply them to tactical procurements on projects of this size.
• A working knowledge of the procurement cycle to CIPS Level 4 standard: defining business need, commercial contracting, negotiation, supplier relationships, and ethical and responsible sourcing.
• An understanding of, and some experience applying, the tools used to monitor supplier performance through contract management and management information.

Quantity surveying:

• Experience of quantification and costing, cost planning, and project financial control and reporting.
• Experience of procurement and tendering, and of contract practice and administration, for example under NEC4, JCT or FIDIC.
• An understanding of, and some experience applying, cost analysis, earned value and contract reporting to track supplier and contractor performance.
• Experience of producing estimates and cost plans, from order of magnitude through to detailed estimates built up from first principles.
• Experience of working with estimating software packages.
• Experience of gathering, analysing and sharing cost data, including benchmarking.
• A working knowledge of core estimating methods, such as data collection and analysis, estimating techniques, and risk and uncertainty.
• An understanding of the main pricing methods, value engineering, earned value management and performance incentives.

It would be great if you also have:

• Experience in Defence, whether with the MOD, a prime contractor or its supply chain. Service leavers and veterans are very welcome.
• Experience of working with UK Government organisations.
• Experience of single source pricing and the Single Source Contract Regulations.
• Experience in the nuclear sector.
• Current or previous UK security clearance.
• Experience of working with NEC4 contracts, whichever pathway you’re in.
• An understanding of how projects change across their lifecycle, and how the commercial lifecycle runs alongside them.
• A sound understanding of risk management and how risks are actively managed.
• Confidence using data and digital tools to support commercial decisions.
• Familiarity with government commercial best practice, such as the Government Commercial Playbooks, the Contract Management Capability Programme or, for estimators, the IPA Cost Estimating Guidance.

Qualifications

• Professional qualification(s) in commercial management, business law, project management or a similar relevant discipline, or an equivalent level of relevant experience.
• 2+ years of relevant cost or commercial management experience, ideally within Defence or a sector closely related to Defence.
• Membership of your professional body, either achieved or with an appetite to work towards it:

Pathway

Minimum level (achieved, or an appetite to work towards)

Procurement

CIPS Level 4 or higher (e.g.Level 5, Level 6, MCIPS)

Quantity surveying

AssocRICS or higher (e.g.MRICS)

ICEAA PCEA or higher (e.g.CCEA), and/or ACostE, CaSA (Controls & Skills Authority), RICS or CIOB membership

For procurement, training in or working experience of the Procurement Act 2023, the Public Contract Regulations and/or the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations (DSPCR). For quantity surveying and cost estimating, experience of working on publicly procured projects.

Additional Information

Working in teams/site attendance:

Turner & Townsend recognises the importance of helping its employees harmonise their work and home life by offering hybrid working, that enable them to balance their working life with other priorities. At the same time T&T recognises that employee office and site attendance must always remain in line with the demands of the business and clients. Currently, we anticipate you being on client sites or Turner & Townsend offices 60% of your time, but this may flex depending on client and business requirements. The office is not the onlyplace work gets done, but it is increasingly important for teams to be stronger togetherby learning, collaborating, and creating amazing work together.

Security Clearance

Important: Before applying, due to the sensitive nature of these projects, you must be a SOLE UK National who is able to achieve and maintain UK MoD Security Clearance (SC).
Many of the clients and projects we support are subject to MoD security clearance and Trade Control restrictions. This means that your eligibility for certain roles may be affected by your place of birth, nationality, time out of country, current or former citizenship, and any residency you hold or have held. Further details are available at United Kingdom Security Vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Our inspired people share our vision and mission. We provide a great place to work, where each person has the opportunity and voice to affect change.

We want our people to succeed both in work and life. To support this we promote a healthy, productive and flexible working environment that respects work-life balance.

Turner & Townsend is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and actively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.

SOX control responsibilities may be part of this role, which are to be adhered to where applicable.

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SOX control responsibilities may be part of this role, which are to be adhered to where applicable.

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