Cost and Commercial Manager

This is a new role with significant responsibilities. We are seeking an experienced Cost and Commercial Manager to take commercial responsibility for infrastructure and civil engineering projects involving multiple subcontractors and specialist work packages. Working closely with the Project/Programme Director's, the Cost and Commercial Manager will provide strong commercial oversight across multiple subcontractors, ensuring each project remains within budget, and that contractual and commercial exposure is effectively controlled.

The role is particularly suited to someone who is commercially astute, confident in negotiation and comfortable challenging subcontractors on cost, scope, entitlement and performance. You should be able to operate at both a strategic project and detailed work package level. The role of Cost and Commercial Manager role is based from our Bristol office with flexibility for Hybrid working.

• Take overall commercial and performance responsibility for multiple subcontract packages across infrastructure and civils projects, from procurement and contract award through to final account.
• Maintain accurate cost reports and provide consolidated commercial reporting for the project.
• Establish clear commercial strategies for each subcontract package, aligned with the overall project budget and delivery strategy. Including scopes, pricing, exclusions, assumptions and contractual obligations to identify commercial gaps and risks.

• Identify emerging cost pressures early and work with the delivery team to implement mitigation measures.
• Monitor subcontractor spend against the approved work package budget and report exceptions.
• Provide senior management with a clear view of the project's current and forecast commercial position.

• Lead and support subcontract negotiations to achieve best value and appropriate risk allocation.
• Ensure scope, programme, deliverables, payment mechanisms and commercial assumptions are clearly defined before contract award and establish robust subcontract budgets and ensure awarded values are correctly incorporated into the project cost plan.
• Work with procurement and delivery teams to ensure packages are awarded in line with project requirements.
• Review and commercially evaluate subcontractor tenders and quotations, undertake tender comparisons and identify anomalies, exclusions and commercial qualifications.

• Manage the commercial process for subcontractor variations, compensation events, claims and additional works, ensuring subcontractors provide timely notification and supporting evidence for changes.
• Challenge unsupported or inflated subcontractor claims and negotiate commercially appropriate settlements and assess entitlement, valuation and impact of subcontractor claims.
• Identify opportunities to recover additional costs from the client where subcontractor changes arise from client or third-party events by maintaining a clear audit trail of all subcontractor changes and commercial agreements, ensuring alignment between upstream client entitlement and downstream subcontractor liability.

• Administer subcontract agreements in accordance with the applicable contract conditions.
• Monitor compliance with contractual notice periods, payment provisions, programme requirements and change mechanisms.
• Manage subcontractor non-performance, delays, defects, disruption and other commercial issues in conjunction with the project team.

• Monitor subcontractor performance against cost, programme, scope and contractual obligations and establish regular commercial reviews with key subcontractors.
• Identify early warning indicators of commercial deterioration or potential claims and work closely with project delivery and planning teams to understand the commercial impact of programme changes and delays.
• Challenge subcontractor performance where costs or outputs are not aligned with contractual requirements and develop recovery and mitigation strategies where subcontract packages are underperforming.

• Lead the preparation, negotiation and settlement of subcontractor final accounts, ensuring all variations, claims, omissions, contra-charges and outstanding commercial issues are resolved.
• Reconcile subcontractor final accounts against the project cost plan and approved…