Commercial Manager

About the Role:

The Crowd is working with a prestigious, internationally recognised architecture and design practice to appoint a Commercial Manager to join its London team. This is a full-time, office-based position with a key role across commercial management, business development, and project delivery. The successful candidate will be responsible for developing robust fee proposals and supporting the commercial strategy behind both new and existing opportunities.

Working closely with Business Development, Legal, Project Controlling and project teams in the UK and international studios, you’ll play an important role throughout the bid process, from initial assessment and pricing through to negotiation and handover into project delivery, for projects across the EMEA region. This is an opportunity for someone who is commercially astute, adaptable, highly organised and curious about improving processes, tools and ways of working within a fast-paced international environment.

The successful candidate will bring strong experience across fee proposals, commercial bids, project budgets or similar commercial work. You’ll need to be comfortable interpreting complex project and tender information, assessing commercial and contractual risk and translating scope, programme and resourcing requirements into clear, accurate and commercially considered proposals.

The opportunity also allows contribution to your career growth by working within a top practice that will elevate your development. Our client offers a competitive benefits package, people-focused work culture and collective environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the preparation of commercial proposals and fee submissions for new opportunities and additional project services
• Assess project and tender information, getting to grips with scope, programme, deliverables and commercial expectations
• Work with project and business development teams to shape appropriate fee structures and resourcing assumptions
• Help build consultant teams and coordinate with potential sub-consultants to ensure accurate scopes and information are received in time for proposal submissions
• Identify potential commercial and contractual issues early and help develop practical approaches to managing them
• Review and refine pricing, fee models and supporting information before proposals are submitted
• Keep commercial information and agreed fees accurately recorded across internal project management systems
• Work alongside Business Development, Studio Leads, Legal and Project Controlling to resolve queries and ensure proposals are commercially robust
• Support negotiations with clients and assist with contractual documentation, clarifications and amendments where required
• Take part in the transition from successful bid to project delivery, ensuring the agreed commercial strategy is understood
• Support the development of detailed project proposal methodology statements and plans
• Develop and improve internal commercial resources, including benchmarking information, templates and pricing tools

Key Skills/Requirements:

• Proven experience (3+ years) in a commercial, fee management, or bidding/new business role within architecture, design, construction or relevant professional services practice
• Good understanding of the commercial side of design and construction projects
• Able to interpret project briefs and tender information and translate them into clear fee and resource requirements
• Comfortable working with budgets, pricing models and financial spreadsheets, with strong attention to accuracy
• Experience assessing commercial and contractual risk and understanding the impact of scope, programme and resourcing changes
• Familiarity with construction processes, procurement methods and the different stages of a design project
• Strong written skills, with the ability to produce clear and well-structured proposals and commercial documentation
• Highly organised, with the ability to manage several proposals and deadlines at once
• Commercially astute and able to make considered decisions while balancing project opportunity, risk and profitability
• Proactive and comfortable taking ownership of tasks, following up with others and keeping work moving
• Strong Excel skills, with good working knowledge of Word, InDesign and Acrobat
• Comfortable working across international projects and adapting to different markets, contractual requirements and ways of working
• Naturally curious, adaptable and interested in finding more efficient ways to approach commercial processes and tools

To apply for this position please click on the apply button to attach your CV (and portfolio for design positions).

By applying for this role, you are confirming that you agree to our Privacy Policy (full details are shown at the bottom of our website), and that all details submitted by you are correct and to the best of your knowledge.

The Crowd is an equal opportunities employer and agency.