Commercial Director in Cheshire, Warrington

As an Arcadian, you help deliver world leading sustainable design, engineering, and consultancy solutions for natural and built assets. You are part of our global business comprising 36,000 people, in over 70 countries, dedicated to improving quality of life. Everyone has an important role to play. With the power of many curious minds, together we can continue to solve the world’s most complex challenges and deliver more impact together.

Arcadis is excited to be expanding its Nuclear team, specifically focusing on Civil and Defence Nuclear across the country. We are seeking a collaborative and detail‑oriented Commercial Director who will play a pivotal role in the successful delivery of multiple projects. You will provide executive leadership of high‑profile, complex and strategic contracts, setting commercial strategy, overseeing portfolio governance, and assuring compliance with organisational and statutory frameworks. You will shape supply chain strategies, lead major procurements for consultancy, construction and engineering services, and embed robust performance management regimes to realise benefits and secure value for money.

Operating with a high degree of autonomy, you will ensure effective stakeholder engagement while directing risk management, issue resolution, financial oversight, change control, and continuous improvement. You will lead technically complex programmes/projects typically ranging between £10m and £100m+, with accountability for commercial outcomes and team resourcing, offering you the opportunity to contribute to the successful delivery of a national infrastructure project. While this is a fast‑paced and exciting challenge, you should be comfortable with uncertainty, ambiguity, and change.

Role accountabilities:

• Provide vision, leadership and direction to multi-disciplinary commercial teams; set objectives, review performance, and develop capability.
• Own the financial performance of the programme’s commercial portfolio – cost, schedule, efficiency, margins – and meet profit and budgetary targets.
• Lead commercial strategy and assure contract compliance across the organisation; support project directors to deliver within budget and to contract.
• Establish and govern performance management frameworks (KPIs, incentives, risk/reward) and drive benefits realisation.
• Oversee contract mobilisation, innovation and improvement initiatives, variations, amendments, transition and exit strategies.
• Manage strategic supplier relationships; hold suppliers to account for contractual commitments and resolve disputes effectively.
• Analyse complex information from multiple sources; make recommendations that improve long‑term service performance and value outcomes.
• Sponsor continuous improvement and digital/reporting enhancements to drive transparency, informed decision‑making and governance compliance.
• Build trusted relationships with senior clients and stakeholders; act as a strategic adviser on cost & commercial matters and create new business opportunities.
• Ensure alignment with organisational strategies and public sector policies, including the Procurement Act 2023 and best practice from IPA/GCF/NAO.

Qualifications & Experience:

• Degree in a related field preferred or demonstrable professional experience.
• Chartered Member (or working towards) or Fellow of a relevant professional body (i.e. RICS, ICE, IACM, CIARB).
• Ideally you bring experience working within the Nuclear sector, however a background within any regulated environment will also be considered (i.e. Road, Rail, Water, Energy etc.)
• Experience delivering large, complex programmes across the full commercial lifecycle.
• Extensive experience in procuring complex consultancy, construction, and engineering contracts for major projects, with an understanding of public sector procurement legislation (i.e. Procurement Act 2023) and national strategies.
• Strong commercial knowledge with the ability to apply commercial principles within the boundaries of contract law.
• Demonstrates the capability to secure "value for money" by achieving a good return on investment in commercial projects.
• Skilled in analysing risks, understanding margins of error, and developing well‑reasoned recommendations to support effective decision‑making.
• Ability to communicate and enforce ethical standards to prevent corruption, fraud, and unethical practices in supply chains, and take appropriate actions when breaches occur.
• Demonstrates the ability to lead and inspire a confident, high‑performing large team, fostering a positive and inclusive environment, and implementing change by collaborating with affected stakeholders to overcome challenges.
• Proven ability to operate at executive level, acting as a trusted adviser.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills at a senior level, with the ability to present technical advice persuasively to influence internal and external decision‑making.
• Clearly articulates commercial motivations and expected behaviours of stakeholders, suppliers, and networks.
• Skilled in managing trade‑offs and contradictions within complex contracts, understanding their broader impact and consequences.
• Challenges conventional approaches within established frameworks to achieve better outcomes.
• You should be eligible to complete Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) working at OFFICIAL level.
• Ideally would hold UKSV Security Clearance (or have the eligibility to gain).

Continue your career journey as an Arcadian. We can only achieve our goals when everyone is empowered to be their best. We believe everyone's contribution matters. It’s why we are pioneering a skills based approach, where you can harness your unique experience and expertise to carve your career path and maximize the impact we can make together. You do meaningful work, and no matter where your next role in Arcadis takes you, you’ll be helping to deliver sustainable solutions for a more prosperous planet. Make your mark; on your career, your colleagues, your clients, your life and the world around you. Together, we can create a lasting legacy.

Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging:

We want you to be able to bring your best self to work every day which is why we take equality and inclusion seriously and hold ourselves to account for our actions. Our ambition is to be an employer of choice and provide a great place to work for all our people. We believe that by working together diverse people with different experiences develop the most innovative ideas. Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the heart of how we improve quality of life and we work closely with our people across six ED&I Workstreams: Age, Disability, Faith, Gender, LGBT+ and Race. A diverse and skilled workforce is essential to our success.