Third Parties

Location - Birmingham or London

Base salary: £54,878pa to c.£64,562pa depending on skills and experience. In addition, we offer flexible benefits fund of 20% which is paid on top base salary and is fully pensionable, as well as a range of competitive benefits - check them out in the Benefits section on our website.

HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives and achieves their full potential. In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish and providing personal and professional development opportunities.

The Third Parties - Senior Commercial Manager is responsible for leading the negotiation and delivery of complex third-party agreements with utilities, local authorities, and major stakeholders such as TfL, TfGM, and Network Rail. Champion robust governance and strategic alignment while forging strong partnerships at every level to drive critical infrastructure programmes – ultimately enabling the HS2 operational railway. This is a role for a proactive leader who combines commercial acumen with exceptional stakeholder engagement, influencing decisions and delivering solutions that achieve both operational success and long-term strategic goals.

About the role:

General:

• Manage a portfolio of complex and bespoke Commercial Agreements with Third Parties, ensuring alignment with the HS2 Commercial Strategy and overall HS2 objectives, including the delivery of wider benefits.

• Engage with other HS2 Directorates to identify requirements for third party agreements and to devise programmes for delivery and implementation.

• Provide subject matter expertise into other Directorates within HS2.

• Undertake assurance activity across a portfolio of awarded agreements throughout the agreement life cycle.

• Establish collaborative ways of working with Third Party stakeholders assisting in brokering, negotiating and delivering schemes that interact with the HS2 programme.

Pre-Agreement:

• Lead the development and assessment of commercial models and strategies for/with third parties to ensure effective risk management, value for money and compliance with governmental guidelines.

• Secure 'buy-in' and support from Internal teams in responding to challenge and scrutiny.

• Manage interfaces with Delivery (and other) procurements and with broader CCO directorate, to influence delivery strategies and to ensure requirements of Commercial Agreements are appropriately shared with contractors.

• Develop agreement principles and provide instruction to legal for drafting.

• Evaluating and negotiating Commercial Agreements with Third Parties Post Agreement.

• Embed agreements within relevant business teams, ensuring contract management plans are in place and are being effectively managed.

• To be responsible for leading the negotiation of strategies for additional commercial agreements and variations to existing agreements.

• To be accountable for delivering on input into contract level performance information into monthly MBR reports;

• To be accountable for supporting the settlement of supply chain disputes; 

Leadership:

• To be responsible for providing second key corporate governance approval on cost, variations and risk in accordance with corporate governance requirements.

• To be responsible for providing domain knowledge in the development and maintenance of efficient and effective contract and commercial management policies, processes and procedures.

• To be accountable for managing and supporting agreed external relationships with strategic stakeholders by agreeing joint ways of working that maximise opportunity for both HS2 and Third Parties.

• Represent HS2 at forums conducted by external Third Parties where decision making is required on maximising HS2 as a catalyst for growth.

• Work with Third Parties to enhance HS2 scope for regional benefit, where feasible to do so.

• To be responsible for leading team members, agreeing objectives, managing performance and development to ensure staff have the necessary skills and support to deliver in their roles.

• Actively promote and embed Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work, and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures on EDI.

About you:

Skills:

• Ability to develop, manage and administer high value and delivery critical contracts to support the delivery of complex infrastructure or similar projects and programmes.

• Strong analytical, commercial and negotiating skills and the ability to settle disputes whilst maintaining business critical commercial relationships.

• Ability to deliver value driven management of commercial relationships with Third Parties.

• Skilled in developing stakeholder engagement programmes.

• Ability to network, influence and build collaborative working relationships with internal and external stakeholders – in particular with large public and private sector organisations.

• Demonstrate leadership, promoting collaboration across teams, with all internal and external stakeholders. 

• Be proactive at promoting core behaviours including innovation, agile management techniques, lean, flexibility collaboration and commercial awareness.

• Skilled in managing the complex dynamic that exists in matrix organisations by demonstrating the ability to influence others to emulate the right behaviours.

• Prioritisation – Able to work to tight deadlines in a calm manner even in a fast moving organisation.

• Able to manage political ambiguity within the project engagement workstreams.

Type of Experience:

• Experience of managing commercial management teams in major complex infrastructure projects and programmes to deliver value for money for the Client/Employer.

• Experience of working with or for publicly funded bodies and/or a major publicly funded programme.

• Experience of building strong working relationships with key internal and external stakeholders.

• Either experience of procurement of services or the management of large value complex contracts or providing client relationship management during the planning stage of infrastructure projects. 

• Experience of implementing innovative solutions in complex partnerships to broker agreements.

• Experience of high-profile stakeholder management with public and/or private sector organisations.

• Experience of providing counsel at a senior leadership level across an organisation.

The post-holder is expected to behave at all times in a manner consistent with the HS2 values of Safety, Leadership, Integrity and Respect. It is expected that you will actively promote and embed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies and procedures on EDI.

As HS2 Ltd do not hold a sponsorship license from the Home Office, we are not able to provide sponsorship to any applicant. Applicants must already have the Right to Work in the UK at the time of application and our process involves a Right to Work validation prior to the interview stage. Note, there are certain types of time-bound visas that we cannot accept. Any offers made to applicants will be subject to satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks which include Nationality & Immigration Status, employment references, DBS, Financial and Education checks.

We ask for a variety of detail in your online application, however we perform the first assessment of suitability for a role based solely on the information in your CV. In a further development of our efforts to create a more diverse workforce, your CV will be anonymised and personal information will be removed during the first stage of the application review. This removes bias from the process and makes it even more important that you attach an updated word version of your CV for each new application ensuring you include evidence directly related to the criteria in the job advert. Watch this video on how we remove bias in the recruitment process: Removing bias in the recruitment process - YouTube

Any applications received after the closing date will not be considered.