Head of Commercial Water Alliance - #148726

What you’ll be responsible for

This role will report to the Director of the Water Network Alliance and will be responsible for all the commercial and financial activities within the business unit delivering up to £120m per annum of network maintenance activities.

As part of the Water Network Alliance leadership team the role holder will be responsible for:

• Working with the Director of Network Alliance and multiple suppliers to deliver the water network alliance business plan covering the delivery of repair and maintenance, new connections, metering and pipeline activities to financial and programme targets.
• Lead the commercial team for the network alliance undertaking but not limited to the setting of annual target costs where appropriate, weekly cost value reporting, change controls, estimating of construction activity schedules and production of final accounts.
• Have financial responsibility for the network alliance managing to a budget of up to £120m per annum and develop and report management information around key commercial and financial information.
• Drive value through efficient commercial controls and application of incentive and disincentive key performance indicators.
• Develop a fully flexible field and office based team of commercial accountants, quantity surveyors and estimators providing the commercial controls on low value high volume based activities through to small to medium sized construction contracts ranging from between £1m and £20m.
• Provide expert commercial knowledge and experience to the Water Network Alliance, negotiate and agree contracts, target costs and undertake dispute resolution.
• Oversight of the commercial systems and cost value information provided by multiple contractors delivering services activities through alliance arrangements.
• Working with the procurement teams in the negotiation and placement of contracts and frameworks covering services for plant labour and materials.
• Provide mentoring and continued professional development for commercial team as part of our commercial academy.

Who you’ll work with

Internal

• Dwr Cymru Executive Team
• Leadership teams across the business
• Legal & Compliance team
• Data Protection Officer

External

• Alliance partners
• Industry regulator

About you

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Degree level or equivalent appropriate professional body qualification in a commercial or engineering discipline
• Operated at a Senior level within a Construction or Engineering discipline, ideally within the utilities sector
• Proven experience of working with the suite of NEC conditions of contract, experience of alliance contracts and contractor relationship management
• Strong commercial experience leading major contracts within a multi-stakeholder and regulated environment. Equipped with a commercial understanding of civils works associated with utility or pipework design and maintenance techniques
• Demonstrable track record of leading a commercial team of quantity surveyors or estimators
• Contract administration and dispute management and experience of chairing senior management meetings and delivery of presentations to executive level meetings
• Excellent people management and motivational leadership with a track record of delivering outcomes and achievement of key targets
• Ability to manage effective relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders including non-executive Boards and Executive teams to achieve business results
• Experienced manager of various NEC contract forms including Target Cost arrangements
• Skilled negotiator with successful track record of managing works of similar value and scale
• Ability to produce clear, well-structured commercial and financial reports to allow effective decision making

Benefits

We know that if our employees are happy, our customers are happy. That’s why we offer a great benefits package. As one of the biggest companies in Wales, our reward and benefits package includes:

• Market competitive salary

• Annual incentive scheme (bonus) – maximum opportunity 15% of base salary

• Employer pension scheme up to 11%

• Flexible working considered

• Relocation considered

• Onsite carpark

• 28 days annual leave plus public holidays

• Private healthcare

• Generous range of employee benefits and discounts

• And many, many more.

Whilst also working for a not-for profit company that truly cares about earning the trust of customers everyday, and about looking after our beautiful environment

Please note, we may close this role sooner if required. We may also extend the original closing date depending on interest.

Due to the nature of the industry, we require satisfactory references, post offer medical clearance, and a criminal records Basic Disclosure check on all new employees joining the business. For some roles there may be additional checks and security clearance required, and this offer is subject all checks being satisfied. You will receive further information on how to complete these checks via email once you have accepted this offer.

Who we are

Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water keep 3 million people healthy each day with safe, reliable water, and take away wastewater to clean, before returning it safely to our beautiful rivers and seas.

To be able to deliver high quality, essential services which help to protect the health of our customers, colleagues and our environment, we need the right people to deliver on our vision. This is achieved by living our core values and demonstrating the core behaviours that underpin them. The security of our people, assets and information is key to us, so we are looking for people who understand and comply with the company’s required security objectives.

We know that the most successful teams are the most diverse teams. Equality, diversity and inclusion provide the very foundation to our culture at Welsh Water. We want every individual to feel confident, proud and able to bring their whole selves to work.

To ensure an improved representation in our workforce, applications are particularly welcome from minority groups including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people, Females, LGBT+, Non-binary and people with disabilities. Together we continue to build a workplace that not only celebrates the diverse voices of our colleagues but also represents each customer we serve.

In essence, ours is a company based on trust, openness, respect, commitment and honesty. A company that our colleagues are proud to work for.