Title:  Senior Commercial Manager

About John Holland

At John Holland, our purpose is simple – we transform lives with everything we do.  We’ve always known that infrastructure is about people — our customers, our employees, and the communities in which we work every day. That’s our difference. Deep experience and capability with a genuine care about creating better lives for people along the way. Be part of the team that’s up for the challenge of transforming lives for good.

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Commercial Manager to join our Infrastructure business unit. You will provide commercial and contractual support to the team on pre contract and post contract matters and issues.  

Role responsibilities

• Champion company values through all aspects of the commercial function.
• Collaborate with the John Holland senior management and executives to drive sustainable and profitable growth.
• Offer strategic input on commercial and financial matters for the business unit.
• Provide commercial oversight across all stages of pre contract activities, including market soundings, ROIs, EOIs, RFTs, ECIs, teaming agreements and JV agreements.
• Review tender documentation and contractual provisions, prepare the contract risk assessment, and present findings to the bid team.
• Engage with clients, JV partners and executives to agree on commercial positions and project risk profiles.
• Lead negotiations on complex contract structures, including head contracts, MOUs, teaming agreements, JV agreements, subcontracts and consultancy agreements.
• Prepare contractual qualifications in consultation with bid teams and senior management, including RFIs aimed at minimising or removing qualification requirements in line with corporate guidelines.
• Assess terms, conditions and associated risks for proposed client novated consultants and subcontractors.
• Oversee and coordinate all commercial elements of bid documentation.
• Provide timely responses to client commercial or contractual queries post tender and negotiate amendments to head contract terms where required.
• Ensure the final head contract issued for execution is accurate, complete, and aligned with both commercial requirements and technical sign offs from pre contracts staff.
• Review proforma subcontract, consultancy and supply agreement terms prepared by the project for compliance with the head contract.
• Support project commercial managers in preparing and presenting head contract rights and obligations summaries at project launch.
• Provide daily advice to site teams on contractual issues and implementation of documents including subcontract conditions, SOPA, EOT, scope of works, contract interpretation, variations, claims and defects.
• Undertake monthly project reviews, guiding project teams on procurement, reporting, risk and financial forecasting to drive informed decision making.
• Ensure accurate and timely establishment of project budgets to enable reliable forecasting, reporting and performance tracking.
• Manage adjudication claims and responses.
• Mentor site contracts staff on contractual issues and strategies.
• Track commercial staff competency, training and development in collaboration with project and operations managers.
• Support, manage and review contractual and insurance claims where requested.
• Review and negotiate deeds of settlement and deeds of variation, ensuring alignment with corporate governance and risk appetite.
• Manage subcontractor insolvencies and liquidation.
• Provide commercial guidance to project directors and managers on contract and risk management, costings and programming methodology.
• Review project prepared contract and subcontract variations and delays where requested.
• Support the project commercial manager in the preparation, issue and presentation of rights and obligations summaries at project launch meetings.

What are we looking for?

• Bachelor degree or equivalent in quantity surveying, law, commerce or a related discipline.
• Post graduate qualifications in quantity surveying, law, commerce, business or construction.
• Fifteen years or more relevant experience in commercial and contract administration on construction or engineering projects.
• Five years’ experience managing pre contracts commercials.

As part of the team, you can help us transform lives

Your success is reflected in ours, so we’re committed to being an employer of choice. We pride ourselves on having a diverse and inclusive workplace, as we understand that different perspectives and ideas are critical to our long-term success.

We want you to be with us for the long term, so providing you with rich career experiences and ongoing development is our priority.

What's in it for you?

We’re about connecting your sense of purpose to ours. We understand that your career is one of the biggest ways to have an impact on the world. We also believe in supporting you as a whole person, not just an employee.

We reward and support our people in so many ways. This starts with being flexible about how different people like to work. From generous leave policies to wellbeing and relationship support, your needs sit at the heart of our employee benefits.

We offer:

Competitive remuneration with salary continuance, and salary sacrifice options.

Great leave benefits including 18 weeks paid parental leave with super and up to an extra 18 weeks of super paid on further periods of unpaid parental leave, multicultural leave exchange and two extra days to prioritise your wellbeing.

Career progression underpinned by our exciting pipeline of work means you’ll have the opportunity to work on iconic projects that are shaping cities and communities.

Learning and development opportunities where you’ll have access to emerging talent programs, building your career through clear career pathways, plus technical and leadership training and development opportunities.

Inclusion, diversity and equity is part of how we work. We want everyone at John Holland to feel that they belong – that’s why we’re working hard every day to foster a more inclusive culture, backed by a business-wide inclusion strategy to bring about meaningful change. We’ve also got active employee resource groups that support our commitments including those around gender equality and reconciliation.

Flexibility means different things to different people. Whether it’s flexi-hours, flexi-parenting, flexi-leave, flexi-shifts or flexi-work, we’re committed to helping our people work flexibly.