Senior Commercial Manager, Rail

Job Description

What if you could do the kind of work the world needs?

At WSP, you can access our global scale, contribute to landmark projects and connect with the brightest minds in your field to do the best work of your life. You can embrace your curiosity in a culture that celebrates new ideas and diverse perspectives. You can experience a world of opportunity and the chance to shape a career as unique as you.

Our Rail business is seeking a Senior Commercial Manager to work across our portfolio of projects and provide commercial leadership to our multi-disciplinary project teams delivering a huge range of complex infrastructure for clients including Network Rail, TfL, LUL, HS2 and Crossrail.

Your role will be to embed a strong project culture around commercial excellence, balanced with the need to satisfy client, staff and commercial expectations along with business operational performance. You'll be highly collaborative, a natural problem solver and well used to tackling the myriad challenges that complex infrastructure projects can present.

The behaviours we will see from this role will include a passion and enthusiasm for our work, a constructively challenging mindset and an open, honest and accountable approach. You'll be tenacious in solving issues, seeking improvement and demonstrating inclusive and respectful behaviours in all your interactions.

Whilst the role is commercially focussed, it requires an individual with proven skills and experience across aspects of business operations including understanding technical issues; people management; application of corporate systems; work winning; recruitment and staff development.

A little more about your role

As an experienced commercial professional, you'll be used to facing a wide range of commercial and project challenges across complex railway and infrastructure projects from initial feasibility through to delivery and operation.

You will be in a leadership role providing a key senior interface to our clients, demonstrating our commitment to deliver their requirements, building strong relationships and acting as a trusted advisor.

You'll work with the Rail and wider WSP leadership teams to ensure that your projects are planned and equipped to deliver. You'll understand future resource demands for your projects and be supporting the recruitment of the skills we need for our digital future. You'll be as passionate about people development and you'll ensure that we have excellent commercial leaders coming through the business.

Using your proven leadership and communication skills, you'll be proficient at developing relationships internally and externally to the business and leveraging these to build trust, gather intelligence and, ultimately, secure future work.

You'll be passionate, engaging, energetic and articulate when bringing diverse, multi-disciplinary teams together to address the range of commercial challenges our projects face. Providing strategic commercial direction of the key elements of projects and their interrelationship to the teams. You'll also understand the importance of implementing robust systems and processes to ensure that projects deliver value for money in achieving client goals and requirements as well as and cost and programme targets.

In parallel with project work you'll support major bids, liaise with clients on their upcoming projects and contribute to and potentially lead wider business initiatives.

What we would be looking for you to demonstrate

• Relevant professional qualifications.
• A proven track record of providing commercial and project leadership across a wide range of rail and transport infrastructure projects for government and private sector clients through the entire design and construction cycle.
• Detailed experience of the commercial management of multi-disciplinary engineering projects and programmes in the UK and potentially overseas. This will include sound stakeholder management and related relationship and team management skills.
• An ability to establish, build, sustain and share strong, professional relationships with relevant groups both inside and outside the organisation. You're naturally driven to exceed client expectations.
• An ability to reason logically and apply a systematic process to finding solutions, proactive in responding to problems, able to apply sound logic in situations of ambiguity and problem-solving methodologies across a range of circumstances.
• A deep understanding of what our major clients need, how we best tailor our services, and build trusting relationships.
• Excellent commercial and contract management skills.
• A sound understanding of H&S legislation, CDM requirements, Safe by Design principles and Railway safety and how they can affect our operations and approach.
• A desire to constantly improve, motivate and encourage others, potentially leading and implement change programmes within a project context, inspiring colleagues and driving an innovative and supportive culture.
• A forward-thinking mindset, capable of visualising and planning for the longer term. Designs, communicates, engages and drives the implementation of design and technical initiatives and strategies
• Actively champion sharing knowledge, ideas and intelligence. Strong presentation skills, able to lead and facilitate workshops, training sessions and one to one learning. Influential and persuasive internally and externally, encourages open dialogue and feedback.
• A desire to develop and secure opportunities through active business development, KAM and work winning activities.
• A passion for developing the next generation of engineers and project leaders.
• A commitment to driving the sustainability of projects toward a target of net zero.

Imagine a better future for you and a better future for us all.

Join our close-knit community of talented individuals who share your passion for making a positive impact. Our global team includes more than 69,000 employees, working together to make a difference in communities both close to home and around the world.

With us, you can. Apply today.

About Us

We are one of the world's leading engineering and professional services firms. Our 69,300 passionate people are united by the common purpose of creating positive, long-lasting impacts on the communities we serve through a culture of innovation, integrity, and inclusion. With over 9,000 professionals across the UK and Ireland, we are dedicated to our local communities and propelled by international brainpower.

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?

Work-life balance

At WSP, we understand that work is just one aspect of your life. It's important to make time for you, your family, friends, interests and your community.

Our hybrid working policy offers the flexibility to work from home two days a week, while also providing opportunities to collaborate in our modern offices across the UK.

Inclusivity & Diversity

We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We enable rewarding careers by encouraging people to bring their whole and authentic selves to work so that our work represents the fullest spectrum of society. We celebrate integrity and treat people with respect, supporting each other and embracing diversity to create a culture of inclusion and belonging at WSP. We have our employee resource groups bring together employees and allies with different backgrounds to promote a culture of inclusivity.

Health & Wellbeing

We are committed to supporting our people, giving you the tools to make improvements to your health and wellbeing through our Thrive programme.

Med24 offers you and your family unlimited telephone access to an NHS doctor, available 24/7, with options for face-to-face video consultations. We also provide reasonable workplace adjustments for those in need. Additionally, you can benefit from the Gymflex scheme, which offers up to 40% off annual gym memberships through our WSP flexible benefits program, as well as a comprehensive menopause support package.

Flex your time

To enhance work-life balance, WSP offers the "WSP My Hour," allowing you to take one hour each day for personal activities, with the flexibility to make up the time earlier or later that day.

We also provide part-time and flexible working arrangements, the option to purchase additional leave, and the ability to use your bank holiday entitlement to suit you.

Your development

We understand the importance of development and training to you. That's why we foster a supportive environment that invests in your growth, whether through training, mentoring, or Chartership.



Here at WSP we positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, pregnancy or maternity/paternity. As a Disability Confident leader, we will interview all disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria, please let us know if you require any workplace adjustments in support of your application.