The Group Commercial Director’s primary function is to lead the Group Commercial function in supporting the successful management and control of all aspects of divisional commercial activities. This allows the business to maximise profitability, protect the company’s contractual obligations, and proactively manage commercial issues. They must be willing to innovate and drive change and performance through system efficiency, commercial best practice and construction techniques.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide a Focal Point for Sharing Best Practices:
• Chair the existing Commercial Forum and Commercial Directors’ meetings.
• Ensure these forums provide the opportunity to:
• Identify best practice examples.
• Explore new ideas for cost savings and ensure these are evaluated and implemented where appropriate.
• Maintain existing systems and procedures across the whole organisation.
  
  
• Promote an Improved and Focused Outlook Across the Commercial Function:
• Be the custodian of costs and cost reporting.
• Ensure costs are reported on a consistent and comparable basis across the Group to ensure:
• Challenge cost inconsistencies across divisions and regions.
  
  
• Build Relationships:
• Form strong working relationships with all RMDs, Managing Directors, Commercial Directors and other Heads of Functions to assist them in identifying opportunities for controlling or saving costs.
• Influence decision-makers across the business to save costs, instigate, and embed key change initiatives.
• Work closely with other Heads of Department and the Housebuild Operational Support team
• Work closely with Internal Audit and Group Finance, sharing knowledge and resources to help identify areas requiring support and providing assistance where necessary.
• Collaborate with other house builders and HBF on waste management and other industry challenges.
  
  
• Lead and Develop a Strong Team:
• Manage and develop the existing Group Commercial team by delivering:
• Training and support across the Group.
• Systems development.
• Standard cost reporting across all divisions.
• Management of the Central Take-off / Scheduling team.
  
  
• Initiate Change and Development of the Commercial Function Across the Group:
• Review and refine job responsibilities for the Commercial function.
• Develop a strategic plan for the Commercial function to deliver the business needs over a 3-5-year time horizon.
• Work with other stakeholders, particularly HR and Finance (using external assistance if required), and review existing functional structures to identify opportunities to:
• Simplify existing processes.
• Improve existing systems and procedures.
• Potentially transfer areas of work from Commercial to functions better suited to complete it.
• Identify main barriers to Surveyor recruitment and retention and identify opportunities to resolve this.
• Harness the use of technology to automate and improve efficiency of the function
• Work with teams to fully embed new processes, systems, and ways of working.
• Work with teams to identify their own improvements to their functions and the way they work and ensure those improvements are fully optimised.
• Develop succession within the function to ensure we have the leaders of tomorrow and are developing our own talent.