Commercial Manager

Due to continued growth, Next Generation are currently recruiting for a Commercial Manager for a well-established manufacturing business who have ambitious plans to increase their current market share.

The main responsibility of the Commercial Manager is to lead the commercial function, owning the quote-to-order process, pricing and contract review from enquiry through to order placement. With three direct reports, the Commercial Manager will also be responsible for nurturing the team to ensure product margins are protected and clients are dealt with professionally.

Duties of the Commercial Manager:

• Lead, coach and develop the commercial team; set objectives and KPIs, hold regular one-to-ones, complete appraisals and manage day-to-day workload allocation.
• Personally own a defined portfolio of key accounts, acting as the primary commercial point of contact, building relationships at buyer and engineering level and delivering agreed growth targets.
• Own the RFQ and quotation process end to end; ensure all enquiries are loaded onto the RFQ tracker within 4 hours, priorities are agreed with the Engineering Manager, and quote turnaround targets are met.
• Review and approve quotations and pricing within delegated authority, ensuring cost build-ups are accurate and target margins are achieved; escalate quotations outside authority to the Commercial Director.
• Own the contract review process; ensure POs are loaded within 4 hours, contract review paperwork is completed, and customer terms, specifications and flow-down requirements are formally accepted or challenged before order acceptance.
• Monitor realised versus quoted margin across the orderbook; identify and act on loss-making work, and lead price negotiations, annual reviews and material or energy surcharge recovery.
• Report weekly and monthly on enquiry levels, quote conversion, order intake, orderbook and sales forecast; provide commentary and corrective actions to the Commercial Director.
• Act as the senior escalation point for customer commercial issues, working with Quality, Engineering and Production to resolve delivery, cost or specification problems, and communicating recovery plans to the customer.
• Work with Engineering, Production and Purchasing to ensure quoted lead times, capacity and manufacturing routes are realistic and deliverable before commitment to the customer.
• Support new business development, including customer visits, capability presentations, onboarding of new accounts and completion of customer approval and supplier assessment documentation.
• Identify and manage commercial risk within customer agreements, including payment terms, liability, tooling ownership, consignment stock, long-term agreements and obsolescence.
• Ensure customer-facing processes comply with AS9100, NADCAP and export control requirements, and that all commercial records are maintained for audit.
• Deputise for the Commercial Director as required, including attendance at senior management and customer review meetings.

The successful candidate for the Commercial Manager's position will have the following experience:

• 3 - 5 years experience working as a Commercial Manager, managing contracts within engineering or manufacturing (Essential)
• Ability to quote and cost build for low-volume, high mix components (Essential)
• Working within a precision engineering environment (Desirable)
• Managing high level commercial relationships (Essential)