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Senior Commercial Manager
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As Cornerstone continues to evolve and grow its portfolio of strategic customer relationships, the Senior Commercial Manager plays a pivotal role in maximising commercial value, driving account growth, and ensuring commercial excellence across key customer accounts.
The Role
The Senior Commercial Manager is a senior commercial leadership position responsible for supporting Key Account teams across a portfolio of major customers and contracts.
The role sits at the forefront of customer engagement and commercial decision-making, providing strategic commercial leadership while helping account teams optimise contract performance, identify growth opportunities and deliver strong commercial outcomes.
This role requires close partnership with:
- Sales
- Delivery
- Legal
- Finance
- Commercial Marketing
- Senior Leadership Teams
The successful candidate will act as a trusted advisor to both customers and internal stakeholders, leading negotiations, governance activities and business improvement initiatives while driving profitability and long-term customer value.
Why This Role Matters
This role is critical to ensuring Cornerstone maximises value from its most significant customer relationships by:
- Driving commercial performance and profitability.
- Supporting strategic account growth.
- Managing commercial risks and contractual obligations.
- Optimising margins and identifying cost-out opportunities.
- Supporting transformational change across the business.
- Enhancing commercial capability within Key Account teams.
The Senior Commercial Manager also serves as a change agent, helping shape the future of the Commercial Management function and supporting Cornerstone's ambition to be recognised as a market-leading commercial organisation.
Key Responsibilities
Commercial Leadership
- Lead all commercial management activities across a portfolio of major accounts.
- Drive commercial strategies that maximise account value and profitability.
- Support business development and customer growth opportunities.
- Ensure commercial requirements of strategic customers are successfully delivered.
Account Performance & P&L Management
- Own commercial accountability for:
- Revenue growth
- Margin optimisation
- Cost reduction initiatives
- Contract performance
- Change management activity
- Identify opportunities to improve commercial outcomes across customer portfolios.
Contract & Commercial Governance
- Maintain oversight of contractual obligations and commercial risks.
- Ensure key contractual clauses are understood and applied appropriately.
- Lead commercial discussions within governance and review forums.
- Deliver high-quality business reviews with clear risk and opportunity management.
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Negotiation & Customer Engagement
- Lead or support complex customer negotiations.
- Participate in senior customer meetings alongside multifunctional teams.
- Manage difficult commercial discussions while protecting business interests.
- Develop creative commercial solutions that meet customer and company objectives.
Leadership & Capability Building
- Coach and develop Key Account Management teams.
- Support teams in developing strong commercial proposals.
- Share commercial best practice across the business.
- Support succession planning and people development.
- Deputise for the Head of Contract & Commercial Performance when required.
Business Change & Transformation
- Lead commercial improvement initiatives.
- Drive process enhancements across the Commercial function.
- Challenge existing ways of working and identify innovation opportunities.
- Support the continued evolution of Commercial Management within Cornerstone.
Market & Commercial Insight
- Monitor market trends and competitor activity.
- Provide insight into commercial structures, contracts and deal strategies.
- Partner with Commercial Marketing teams to strengthen market positioning.
- Identify opportunities to improve competitive advantage.
What They're Looking For
Core Technical Requirements
- Extensive Commercial Management experience.
- Experience managing large and complex customer contracts.
- Strong commercial and financial acumen.
- P&L ownership and improvement experience.
- Contract management expertise.
- Commercial risk management capability.
- Growth strategy and account expansion experience.
- Strong understanding of change management within commercial environments.
Leadership Requirements
- Proven leadership experience within Commercial Management.
- Experience developing high-performing teams.
- Ability to coach and mentor commercial professionals.
- Strong capability in leading cross-functional teams.
- Experience driving organisational change.
Customer & Stakeholder Expertise
- Significant customer-facing experience.
- Ability to operate effectively in both pre-sales and in-life contract environments.
- Strong relationship-management skills.
- Experience engaging with senior stakeholders and executives.
Key Competencies
Commercial Acumen
- Deep understanding of commercial models and contractual frameworks.
- Ability to identify opportunities that enhance revenue, profitability and customer value.
- Strong commercial decision-making capability.
Strategic Thinking
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- Able to balance short-term commercial priorities with long-term business goals.
- Identifies future growth opportunities and develops actionable strategies.
- Anticipates risks and develops mitigation plans.
Negotiation & Influence
- Exceptional negotiation skills.
- Able to navigate complex commercial discussions.
- Influences senior internal and external stakeholders effectively.
- Comfortable challenging perspectives and driving consensus.
Leadership & Coaching
- Inspires high-performing teams.
- Develops commercial capability in others.
- Promotes accountability and continuous improvement.
- Leads through influence and credibility.
Change & Innovation
- Challenges the status quo.
- Leads transformation initiatives.
- Creates innovative commercial solutions.
- Drives efficiency and business improvement.
Executive Presence
- Comfortable presenting at C-suite level.
- Communicates complex ideas with clarity and confidence.
- Demonstrates gravitas and credibility in high-profile situations.
Likely Interview Focus Areas
Commercial & Contract Management
- Tell us about a complex commercial contract you've managed.
- How have you improved profitability across a customer portfolio?
- Describe your approach to contract governance.
- How do you manage commercial risk in large-scale agreements?
Leadership
- How have you developed a high-performing commercial team?
- Tell us about a time you led significant business change.
- Describe your leadership style when managing senior stakeholders.
Customer & Negotiation
- Tell us about a challenging commercial negotiation.
- How do you maintain customer relationships while protecting commercial interests?
- Describe a situation where you influenced a difficult stakeholder.
Strategic Thinking
- How have you identified and delivered growth opportunities within an existing account?
- What methods do you use to improve margin performance?
- How do you balance customer requirements with business objectives?
Ideal Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate will have:
✅ Extensive Commercial Management leadership experience
✅ Significant experience managing large, complex contracts and customer accounts
✅ Strong negotiation and influencing skills
✅ Track record of improving commercial performance and profitability
✅ Experience leading multifunctional stakeholder groups
✅ Proven success driving business change and process improvement
✅ Ability to operate confidently at Executive and C-suite level
✅ Strong people leadership and coaching capability
✅ Strategic commercial mindset with strong business acumen
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