Principal Commercial Officer

Summary
You will play a leading role in the commercial management of complex defence programmes, supporting activities from early lifecycle through to contract delivery. This position combines business winning, contract management and stakeholder engagement, giving you influence across bidding strategy, negotiations and programme execution. You will help shape commercial decisions, protect contractual interests and ensure successful delivery against customer commitments.

Where you will work
Hertfordshire-based, hybrid working with 2 to 3 days on-site depending on workload classification

What you will be doing

• Supporting the full route to contract, including bid activity, proposal development and cross-functional coordination

• Acting as a key contributor to business winning activities, ensuring commercial strategies maximise organisational interests

• Managing contracts across their lifecycle, including change management, administration and issue resolution

• Supporting and leading negotiations to secure agreement on terms, conditions and contract amendments

• Building and maintaining strong relationships with customers and industry partners, promoting collaboration

• Acting as a commercial interface with internal teams and external stakeholders

• Reporting on portfolio progress to senior stakeholders and participating in reviews and customer meetings

• Applying commercial governance and best practice across programmes

• Managing commercial information systems and ensuring accurate contract records

• Working to tight deadlines in a fast-paced, high-value programme environment

Your profile

• Strong experience in commercial or contract management within complex environments

• Proven ability to manage high-value or complex contracts

• Skilled in negotiation, stakeholder engagement and influencing outcomes

• Sound understanding of contract law, terms and conditions, and risk management

• Knowledge of intellectual property considerations and commercial protection principles

• Experience with pricing, costing models and financial awareness

• Familiar with business systems such as SAP or equivalent tools

• Effective team player with strong communication and organisational skills

Essential requirements

• Experience across the full contract lifecycle from bid through delivery

• Strong understanding of commercial principles including risk, liabilities and compliance

• Ability to work across multidisciplinary teams and manage competing priorities

• Awareness of import and export regulations and licensing considerations

Salary and rewards

• Salary in excess of £50,000 depending on experience

• Company bonus depending on performance

• Pension with contributions up to 14 percent

• Flexible working arrangements and hybrid model

• Up to 15 additional flexi leave days

• Enhanced parental leave including maternity, paternity, adoption and fertility support

Due to the nature of the work, these opportunities are open only to British citizens who can meet security clearance requirements. This is a permanent role.

Electus Recruitment Solutions provides specialist engineering and technical recruitment solutions to a number of high technology industries. We thank you for your interest in this vacancy. If you do not hear from us within seven working days, please presume your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. You are free to resubmit your CV or details in the future, and we shall assess your suitability then